136 



Extracts from the Journals. 



[July, 



was ascertained ; the wheat was threshed by a machine, and then, 

 after the grain had been measured, the difference between the 

 weight of the straw and chaff was estimated. There was per 

 hectare, not deducting the seed, 



Wheat, 3717 lbs. 



Straw and chaff, 5914 



Roots, (estimated) 661 



Weight of whole crop per hectare, 10,292 lbs. 



The relation of the grain to the straw and chaff is nearly the 

 same as that given by the 450 plants. We have a right then to 

 presume that the weight of the plants taken before harvest, on 

 the 19th of May and the 9th of June, represents, within the same 

 limits of error, the state of cultivation of the fields at these two 

 periods. 



Applying, then, to the whole crop the results of the prelimina- 

 ry analysis, we have as the successive increa.se of organic matter, 

 on a hectare of land, the facts registered in the subjoined table. 



We see from this table, that if, before flowering, from the 19th 

 of May to the 9th of June, there were assimilated per hectare 

 1656 lbs. of carbon, and 25 lbs. of azote; the same principles 

 fixed in the plants, from the appearance of the flowers to harvest, 

 were 1606 lbs. of carbon, and 40 lbs. azote. Doubtless, and as 

 might have been supposed, a 'priori, the development of organic 

 matter, at first very rapid, became less so as the crop approached 

 maturity; but it was still suflficiently active to double nearly the 

 weight of the crop between flowering and harvest. 



The analysis shows besides what was the progress of the as- 

 similation of the constituent elements of the corn during the time 

 of cultivation. Thus, supposing vegetation to have been uninter- 

 rupted from the 1st of March to the 15th of August, we have the 

 following numbers: 



