SMITHSONIAN FUND. 



425 



TABLE III Showing the Composition of Oats and the effects of Manures. 



These analyses of Hermbstadt may be more or 

 less incorrect, hut coming from a chemist of ac- 

 knowledged skill, they may be considered suf- 

 ficiently correct lor our present purpose. We 

 wish to accompany these tables with some ex- 

 planatory remarks : 



1st. If we except the soluble phosphates, all 

 the other substances in the tables are composed 

 of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, the 

 first four elements, mentioned iu^able I. 



2d. The soil in which the wheat and oats 

 were sown had the same composition. 



3d. The seed sown were of the same kind. 



4th. They were alike subject to the same at- 

 mospheric air, the same water and the same 

 climate. 



5th. The composition of the ten specimens of 

 wheat in Table II. and of the ten specimens 

 of oats in Table III. varies in a remarkable de- 

 gree. The amount of gluten in some speci- 

 mens of wheat is more than three times as large 

 as in others, and the starch of some exceeds that 

 of others by more than one-half. It may be ob- 

 served, also, that as the starch increases, the 

 gluten diminishes. 



6th. The only agency calculated to produce 

 these discordant results is that of the different 

 manures. How these manures act, it is diffi- 

 cult, perhaps in the present state of chemical 

 science impossible, to explain. We cannot a.«- 

 cribe their cfTects, with certaintj', to any pe- 

 culiar principle contained in the manures; in 

 other words, we cannot assign in each case an 

 adequate cause for the special result. But the 

 effect is sure, and the cause must exist. It can 

 be found only in the peculiar composition and 

 agency of the manures applied to the wheat and 

 oats ; and rigid chemical analysis alone must as- 

 sign with precision the efficient cause in each 

 instance. 



7th. By the aid of chemistry we are infoiTned 

 in these tables that a relaiion before unknown 

 exists between the grain of wheat and oats and 

 tbo manures applied to the soil. The chemical 

 constitution of the grain, and, therefore, the quul- 

 (885) 



ity of the flour, depend on the nature of the ."la- 

 nure. If this principle be susceptible of gene- 

 ral application, it opens to the chemist and the 

 scientific agriculturist a field of great interest 

 and future profit. 



I will now briefly consider the ash left after 

 burning the straw of wheat and oats. Spren- 

 gel gives the following table :* 



TABLE IV... Showing the Composition of 

 THE Ash from Wheat and Oat Straw. 



These results show that the ashes of wheat 

 and oat straw difl'cr remarkably respecting po- 

 tassa and pho.sphoric arid — there being in 

 oat straw more than twenty-five times the quan- 

 tity of potassa in wheat straw, and twenty-four 

 times as much phosphoric acid in wheat straw 

 as in oat straw — so that the.se bodies would 

 seem to vary in an inverse ratio with each other. 

 It may be inferred, therefore, that oats will 

 thrive well in a soil exhausted by Wheat. 



In Table IV. the constituents of the straw are 

 given without any reference to the manner m 

 which they are combined with each other. The 

 acids and alkalies, or oxides, may form salts, 

 and according to M. Berthier, the following ta- 

 ble exhibits the relative proportions of these 

 salts in wheat straw ; 



* For Tables If. III. and IV. I am indebted to that 

 e.tcellent work. " Jolintton's Agrioultural Chemistry." 



