40 PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF CORN. 



QUINOA is the name of a Mexican grain-plant, recently introduced 

 and exciting attention in Europe. In Mexico it ranks with the best 

 grains. The leaves are used as a spinnage or as greens, and the seeds 

 in soups, broths, or like rice. The seeds ripened first in England in 

 1834 : it is considered a great acquisition as a field plant; and as is 

 thought, it may be cultivated like barley. It will thrive best in the 

 United State? and should be introduced. 



Having finished the grains, the following is the sum total of exports. 

 The amount of the grains, flour and meal exported from the United 

 States in 1840 was $15.049.013, besides ship bread, $428.988. Of 

 this was wheat $1.635.483 ; flour $10.143.615; maize $338.333 ; do. 

 meal $705.183; rye meal $170.931 ; rye, oats, etc. $113.393 ; rice 

 $1.942.076. 



Proximate Principles of the grains, their uses, 6,-c. 



We have before alluded to many of the uses and qualities of the cereal 

 grains under their respective names ; but the importance of these in 

 life would seem to demand further a few general and practical remarks. 

 The nutritive principles of the grains, as well as of most vegetable 

 substances, are seen to be few, however different their form or flavor. 

 These principles are termed the proximate principles, in contra-distinc- 

 tion to the ultimate principles, the elements of which the proximate 

 principles are composed. They are chiefly gluten, fecula or starch, 

 sugar, gum or mucilage, oil, &c., in the quantities of which, the rela- 

 tive merits of vegetable food consist. 



Starch constitutes the bulk and the chief nourishing principle of most 

 of the grains and the most important roots, as the potato, cassava, &c., 

 and of the kernels of the leguminous plants, as the pea, bean, &c. It 

 is insipid, inodorous, of a white color, and insoluble in alcohol, 

 ether or cold water. But hot water, between 160 and 212>, readily 

 dissolves it, and converts it into a tenacious jelly. Treated with wa- 

 ter and a small quantity of sulphuric acid, half its bulk may be con- 

 verted into sugar. Thus the nutritive principles of the potato, not 

 less than the arrow root, salep, &c., depend on the starch they contain. 

 Starch is also found in the roots and other parts of many shrubs and 

 trees ; and these have been used for food in times of scarcity. Thus 

 the inner bark of the pine and larch trees is ground with rye meal and 

 made into bread in parts of Sweden and Norway. In some trees it is 

 so abundant as to be as easily extracted by trituation with water, as 

 from potatoes. 



The process of obtaining starch, from its importance as food and in the 

 arts, may not be without interest. It is obtained chiefly from wheat 

 flour and the flour of potatoes, seeds, &c. This flour is slowly and 

 repeatedly washed through a cloth or seive into a vessel of water, 

 when the starch is precipitated in a fine white powder, and the gluten 



