12 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



The Culture of Incian Coin. 

 The long evenings in winter are quite ap- 

 propriate for young farmers, (and old ones too, 

 if they are willing) to learn how to grow corn to 

 the best possil)le advantage. There arc but few 

 cultivated plants, — we know of none grown in 

 this state — which draw more largely fro)ii the 

 atmosphere and water for their nourishment. 

 Corn plants, howe\e;*, have some earthy substan- 

 ces, which must be drawn exclusively from the 

 soil. 



In 100 !bs. of corn (maize) Dr. Dana, who is 

 one of the l)cst analytical chemists in the Union, 

 finds 1.31 — 100 lbs. of ash, or incumbustible 

 mineral matter, which is made up as follows : 



I'olash, 0.200 



^Ofia. -- 0.250 



LiniP, o.(«o 



Miiviiesi^, 0. 128 



Oxide of Tron. _ a tr.ice 



Silici, (uint s-md,) 0.4:J4 



Sulphuric acid. . o!0i7 



J'hosphoric acid, _ 0.224 



Chlorine, 1.000 



1.31.2 



In Southern corn, Professor Shepard of Charles- 

 ton, S. C, finds only nine-tenths of a pound of 

 ash in 100 lbs. of the grain. 



Organically considered as an aiticle of food. 

 Dr. Dana thus divides this superior fat-forming 

 seed : 



Starch, Oil, Su<rar and Zcine, 77.09 



.Nitroj^enoiis matter. (Albumen,).. 1" (i'o 



}}>'«■!•-- ---- 1-! Vm 



y'^"^--- - 1.31 



100.00 



The starch, oil, sugar ajid zeine, form fat alone; 

 and are burnt to keep all gramineous animals 

 warm. These orgmized substances are made up 

 of water— o.xygen and hydrogen— and carbon 

 exclusively. The flesh-forming organized matter 

 in corn has all the simple elements found in starch. 

 oil, and sugar, with the addition of nitrogen, for- 

 ming an elastic gluey substance called gluten, 

 all u men, ca.siene, &c. 



^ The following diagram and extract fi-om the 

 Editor's Report, to the Legi.'^lature at its last ses- 

 sion, will serve to explain this subject more fully: 

 The organized arrangement of the phosph.ate 

 of lime and magnesia, in an embryo corn plant, 

 and the locality of the salts of iron, zeine and 

 starch, are worth knowing. The following dia- 

 gram illustrates the section of a grain of corn : 



a. Tho eoiylodon or cni')ryo. 



'/. t^tarch. 



r. f. Oil — zeine — iiugar. 



(/. Salts of iron. 



In tiic cotyledon or germ, is deposited the phos- 

 phates which ftrmthe bones of animals, and also 

 most of the glutinous substance which is indis- 

 pensable in the formation of lean meat, tendon, 



tissue, and the jelly found in bones. Hennc, 

 when the mouse eats out the chit or kernel of 

 corn, he gets the raw material to make muscle, 

 bone, and brain ; and by tricing into it.-; stomach 

 the iron in the dotted line d. this little animal, as 

 well as the ox and man, obtain the substance 

 which gives color to the blood, and with oxygen, 

 the vital heat of the system. 



The iron in venous blood, is in a state of pro- 

 to.xide.* This fluid is loaded with carbon, if not 

 carLonic acid. From these causes venous blood 

 is much darker colored than arterial blood. In 

 the latter the iron is aproxide,* imparting to the 

 blood a light Vermillion hue. The iiict has been 

 demonstraicd,that the air expelled from the \w^gs 

 of a wai-m blooded animal contains 100 tiir.es 

 more carbonic acid than the air taken into these 

 organs. As the arteries leading from the heart 

 penetrate every part of the living frame, they 

 convey vital gas — oxygen, condensed in the per- 

 oxide of iron — to every portion of the system. 

 This oxygen, while the blood is passing through 

 tb.e tis.sues from the arteries into the veins, com- 

 bines with that portion of carbon which has per- 

 formed its ofFice in noui-ishing the body, and car- 

 ries it. in the form of carbonic acid, through the 

 veins, heart and Inngs, into the ever moving at- 

 mosphere. 



In thus burning the was^e carbon in the sy.stem, 

 oxygen gives out jusfas much heat to the sur- 

 rounding matter as it would, provided an equal 

 quantity of vital gas had burnt an equal amount 

 of fuel ia a stove. 



Eveiy body knows that active exercise will 

 warm hiin in cold weather — that a horse driven 

 forty miles a day will hi'eathe oftener, evolve 

 more heat and consume more food, or fuel, tnan 

 he will when standing quietly in a warm sta' le. 

 The waste oxygen and hydrogen will escape t:om 

 the lungs of the animal, if quiet, in the forp.i of 

 vapor; in perspiration also, if driven hard. T'ais 

 sweat will carry with it some nitrogen and saline 

 matter, wliich soi'nefimes crystalizes on a horse 

 by the evaporation to dryness of the liquid tliat 

 escapes through his skin. But most of the valu- 

 able salts taken from the earth in the food of ani- 

 mals, escapes by the kidneys and bowels. 



As the demand for carbon to form fat, mus de, 

 cellular tissue, bone, brain, hair and woil, as 

 well as to keep up a continuous iieat of 98 ^ 

 night and day, is very great, it will be seen why 

 stnrck is so ;ibundant, not only in corn, as a!)ove 

 indicated, but in all plants used as food for man 

 or beast. Starch contains a large amount of 

 carbon. 



* " /*/Y'/-oxido" means Iho first o\i le of Iron, i. e., one 

 part of o\VL;;-n fras united to ono of metallic iron, ;is is 

 wi'n\ssed in the so rle thatHi?s oil" from a heated bar, ^x hen 

 hammf^r-d on in nnvil in a blaek-shith s shop. The " Per- 

 oxi le " ijj the red rust of ''r m, having a larger jiorlion of 

 oxygen com!inod with tic metil. 



> oiiperas, — rreen vi'iiol — sn'phate of iron — is a com- 

 pound formed by Iho i:nio!i of sulphuric acid (oil of viiriol) 

 and the oxide of iron. 



