1846. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



201- 



many stems, on wiiich we counted 57 heads, 

 many of which had ripe seeds, and others were 

 just out of blossom. To the physiologist, noth- 

 ing about these romantic Falls is so interesting 

 as the luxuriance of the grass and other plants, 

 growing on the nearly perpendicular walls of 

 solid rock, and bountifully moistened by the spray 

 of the cataracts. The tunnel through a spur of 

 the mountain for the passage of the canal, is an 

 object of interest; while the surrounding scenery 

 is hardly to be surpassed for grandeur and beauty. 



Our next excursion will be throug'i Odeans 

 and Niagara counties to the mouth of the Niaga- 

 ra river, up that noble stream to Lake Erie, thence 

 south across all the strata to the Coal measures 

 in Pennsylvania. 



No pupil ever reads and studies the volume of 

 Nature, as God has written it on the face of the 

 earth, without becoming a belter as well as a 

 loiser person. There is too much reading of an 

 idle and vicious character, spav.'ned from the 

 steam pressesof the day. and placed in the hands 

 of the young of both sexes. If we can aid a lit- 

 tle in exciting a taste for the study of natural 

 scienco, by leading the young men committed to 

 our charge into such paths rs display, most stri- 

 kingly, the works of the Creator, it is hoped 

 some good will accrue to them. 



BJitrogenous Matter in Oats. 



The August numl)er of the Cultivator contains 

 the following : 



Mr. Tucker : — I notice in the April number of the Gen- 

 esee Farmer for 1846, mention of some apparent mistakes in 

 Prof. Johnston's comparison of flour from oats and wheat. 

 The table given is as follows : 



Wheat. Oals. 



Muscular matter, 10 lbs. 18 Ib.s. 



Fat, 3 " 6 " 



Starch, 50 " 05 ' • 



63 89 



The editor of the Farmer buys — '"if 100 lbs. of fine '.vlient- 

 en flour contain but 63 lbs. of starch, gluten, (muscular mat- 

 ter, ) and fat, all told, what shall we call the other 37 lbs. 

 Qf^Eiething, in 100 lbs. of dry flour?" 

 j|jHnnk there is undoubtedly a misprint in the quantity of 

 fl^lPI given above. The average quantity obtained by 

 ^^Siquelin, Zenneck, Payen, and others, is between 60 and 

 70 per cent. To this is. to be added the gum, the ash, and 

 a small quantity of wood fibre, beside from 8 to 14 per cent, 

 of water, whicli is always to be obtained from what is con- 

 sidered tlie drycsl vvheaten flour or oatmeal. 



The editor of tlso Farmer then proceeds to quote the fol- 

 lowing table from Prof. Johnston : 



The grain of wheat contains from 8 to 35 per cent, of gluten. 

 " rye " 9 to 13 " 



" barley " 3 to 6 " 



" oats " 2 to 5 " 



He then says: — '-TIovv wheat, as is well known, can 

 yield from 8 to 35 lbs. of gluten in 100, and oats only from 

 2 to 5 lbs., and yet oatmeal contain SO per cent, more givten 

 than whrat ficur, passes oi'.r comrrcliension. Indeed the 

 statement, is an absurdity." 



This paragraph seems entirely founded on a mi.'Kpprehcn- 

 sion of Prol". Johnston's meaning. The above Uible is in- 

 tended to show only the proportion of gbiteii. alone, not of 

 nitrogenous coinpounds. It is true that the oat has very lit- 

 tle gluten ; but it has a body analagous in many respects to 

 the casein of milk, which has been called avenine. 



The editor of the Farmer must be aware that the proteino 

 of Mulder, forms^ a<i it were, the type of a class of bodies 

 precisely similar in composition, with the exception of cer- 



tain proportions of sulphur and phosphorous ; among these, 

 are fibrin, vegetable albumen, the serum of the blood, (fee. 

 To this class also belong the gluten of whe.it, and the casein 

 or avenine of o:its. Gluten is compo.ied of proteiue 10, sul- 

 phur 2 : casein of oats, proteino It), sulphur 1. The casein 

 of oats is therefore fully equal to th? gluten of wheat, and 

 the misrjtke in the above paragraph arises from the supposi- 

 t on that gluten is the only body in the oat which goes to 

 the formation of muscle. 



As to the quantity of this substance in comparison with 

 that of the gluten in wheat. Prof. Johnston is no doubt near- 

 ly cjrrect. I have foun I it as high as 22 per csni., t'longh 

 I should be inclined to p!a o the average at 10 per cent. — 

 Now though some wheat has been found to yisld more than 

 30 per cent, of gluten, the average of the triiils of Vauquo- 

 lin, and other authorities, is but little more than 10 percent.; 

 the advantage is therefore clearly wilii tlio ool. 



Prof. Johnston is abo perfectly correct as io tho quantity 

 of f-tt yielded by the oat, many tri;tls having been made in 

 liis laboratory during the two past years. My own triab 

 have all given from 5 to 7 per cent, of oil. 



As 1 1 the comparative value of oatmeal and wheaten flour, 

 I sh:ill perhaps at a f iture time write more at length: at 

 present 1 will only suy, that experience in Scotland fully 

 bears out Prof. Johnston's analyses. 



John P. Norton. 



Farmtnglon, Ct., Jime, 1846. 



REMARKS. 

 If "experience in Scotland fully bears out 

 Prof. Johnston's analyses," then 100 lbs. of bolt- 

 ed oattneal is worth as much to nourish a labor- 

 ipg man as 180 lb. of wheat flour. Or, to make 

 the case still plainer, 18 nten can live as well, 

 so far as muscular effort is concerned, on a given 

 weight of oatmeal, as 10 men can live on a like 

 weight of the crushed seeds of wheat. 



Thisstatetnent is so contrary to the common un- 

 derstanding of the relative nutritive properties of 

 oats and wheat, and withal so itnprobable, that 

 we shall need the evidence of a fair trial in feed- 

 ing m.en on both kinds of food, before we credit 

 it. When Western New York was first settled, 

 and before the construction of the Erie Canal, 

 wheat, being only froiti 25 to 35 cents a bushel, 

 was much fed to road horses in lieu of oats. A 

 pound of wheat, instead of being regarded as lesa 

 valuable to make good the wear and tear of horse 

 flesh than a pound of oats, was considered more 

 useful for that purpose. 



Since the muscle-forming elements in wheat 

 varies from 7 to 35 per cent., and similar ele- 

 ments in oats nearly or quite as much, it is ob- 

 vious that nothing but a rigid analysis to test the 

 quality of each grain consumed, could ensure 

 satisfactory results. We have no doubt that a 

 pound of oatmeal, rich in nitrogenous matter, is 

 more valuable to feed any granivorous animal 

 than a like weight of wheat flour that is poor 

 in gluten. And it is possible that the so-1 and 

 climate of Scotland are better adapted to the full 

 developernent of the seed of the oat than of the 

 icheai flant. Un.ier such c;rc-ji7istarces, Scotch 

 oats may, as Mr. Norton say.s, yi^id 60 per 

 cent, more nitrogenous matter than Scotch wheat. 

 The result however, is different in France, and 

 we believe in this country — esj>ecially in this 

 portion of it M. Boussingaui.t, (p. 353,) says 

 there is 2.3 per cent, of azote in wheat and 2.2 

 in oats. This makes wheat .^ little richer graii>- 



