Vol. X.-No. 49. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



389 



NUTRIMENT OF WATER, &c. 



The following ailicle was wiitteii by the Eilitor of the 

 New England Fanner, and is quotoii fioin " Moubray's 

 Trealise on Poultry," &o, lately published by Lilly & 

 Wait, and Carter & Hendee, with additions, &c, by said 

 Editor. 



The importance of cooking food for animals is 

 not generally so well appreciated as it ought to he ; 

 nor is the' principal cause or soiuoe of improve- 

 ment, as well in quantity as in quality of cooked 

 food over its raw materials, known to every econ- 

 omist. The researches and deductions of philoso- 

 phers and chemists, assure us that water supplies 

 food for animals as well as plants. But in order 

 that water may yield its best and greatest effect 

 as nutriment, either for man or beast, it is neces- 

 sary to cook it, or increase its nutritive powers by 

 the agency of heat ; by which water, when com- 

 bined with certain substances of vegetable origin, 

 is converted into wholesome, palatable, and often 

 solid food. 



It is a fact, which will be acknowledged as soon 

 as stated, that a pound of Indian meal, of rice, or 

 any other farinaceous substance, when boiled, con- 

 tains more nourishment than several pounds in a 

 raw state. Count Kumford has stated, that " from 

 the results of actual experiment it appears, that 

 for each pound of Indian meal employed in makin 

 a pudding, we may reckon three pounds nine ounces 

 of the pudding. * And again, three pounds of In- 

 dian meal, three quarters of a pound of molasses 

 and one ounce of salt, (in all, three pounds thir 

 teen ounces of solid food,) having been mixed 

 with five pints of boiling water, and boiled six 

 hours, produced a pudding which weighed ten 

 pounds and one ounce. \ Thus we gain from the 

 raw material about 300 per cent in weight, and, 

 no doubt, the gain as respects the quantity of nu- 

 triment contained in the pudding, over and above 

 the component parts as they existed before boiling, 

 was still greater. The gain of weight in rice, in 

 consequence of boiling, is still more considerable 

 than that of Indian meal, and everyone knows that 

 a small quantity of oat-meal will produce a very 

 great relative proportion of gruel. 



I will give other examples, proving that water 

 is not only capable of being converted by heat into 

 solid nutriment, but may ,be made to compose a 

 constituent part of sugar, one of the most nutri- 

 tious of substances. It is remarked by De Saus- 

 sure, that, " As starch boiled in water with sul- 

 phuric acid, and thereby changed into sugar, in- 

 creases in weight, without uniting with any sul- 

 phuric acid, or gas, or without forming any gas, 

 we are under the necessity of ascribing the change 

 wholly to the fixation oi- solidification of water. 

 Hence we must conclude, that starch sugar is noth- 

 ing else than a combination of starch viith water in 

 a solid state. The sulphuric acid is not decom- 

 posed nor imited with the starch as a constituent." 



It appears, likewise, that Capt. I'alter, of Sack- 

 ett's Harlmr, at the instance of Samuel Guthrie, of 

 the same place, had succeeded iji the manufacture 

 of sugar from the potato ; and a detail of the pro- 

 cess by which this is effected, is given in Professor 

 Silliman's Journal of January, 1832. It is there 

 said, that 



" A bushel of potatoes weighs about sixty 

 pounds, and gives eight pounds of pure, tine, dry 

 starch. This amount of starch will make five 



* Rumford's Essays, vol. i. page 258, Boston ed. 

 I Rumford's Essays, vol. i. page 264, Boston cd. 



pints of sugar, of the weight of nearly twelve 

 pounds to the gallon, equal to seven pounds and a 

 half to the bushel of potatoes, or a little less than 

 a pound of sugar to a pound of starch. The su- 

 gar is not so sweet as the Muscovado sugar, nor is 

 it actually so sweet as its taste would indicate. 



"This sugar may be used for all domestic pur- 

 poses. It ferments with great liveliness and spirit 

 when made into beer, yielding a healthful and de- 

 licious beverage, and on distillation, a fine cider- 

 brandy flavored spirit. It would, however, be 

 most useful in making sweatmeats, and may be 

 used upon the table instead of honey, for which 

 it is a good substitute. It has already be- 

 come a favorite with most people who have be- 

 come acquainted with it. Its taste is that of a de- 

 licious sweet, and as an article of diet is unques- 

 tionably more healthful and less oppressive to the 

 stomach, than any other sweet ever used." 



The elements or chenncal constituents of starch 

 and of sugar, are nearly the same. According to 

 Mr Gay Lussac and Thenard, one hundred parts 

 of starch are composed of 



Carbon, and a small quantity of saline and 

 earthy matter, 43.55. 



Oxygen, 49.68. 



Hydrogen, ' 6.77. 



100.00. 



Or, Carbon, 43.55. 



Oxygen and hydrogen, in the proportions 

 necessary to form water. 50.45. 



Lavoisier concluded from his experimeuts, that 

 sugar is composed of the following elementary 

 proportions, in a hundred parts: — 



Twentyeight, carbon. 



Eight, hydrogen. 



Sixtyfour, oxygen. 



Then to turn starch to sugar, it is merely neces- 

 sary to subtract from the carbon of the starch, to 

 wit, 43.55, 15.55, and it will stand 28 carbon. 



To add to the oxygen of the starch, 

 to wit, 49.08, 14.32, and it is 04 oxygen. 



To add to the hy'drogen of the 

 gtarch, to wit, 6.77, 1.23, and it is 8 hydrogen. 



Thus, by adding oxygen and hydrogen to starch, 

 in certain proportions, and by subtracting or driv- 

 ing off as much carbon as will be equivalent to the 

 additions, starch is changed to sugar. Water is 

 composed of oxygen and hydrogen, and, together 

 with the sulphuric acid, furnishes the elements 

 necessary for the change, by the agency of the 

 same heat which expels a part of the carbon. 



Should any person still doubt whether water can 

 exist in a solid state, combined with other sub- 

 stances, but not frozen, let him take the trouble to 

 weigh a small quantity of quick lime, then slack 

 it with water, and mark its increase of weight. 



Braconnet, a celebrated chemist, raised vegeta- 

 bles in pure river sand, in litharge, in flowers of 

 sidphur, and even among metal, or common leaden 

 shot ; and in every instance, nothing was employ- 

 ed for that nourishment but dislilled toaler. The 

 plants throve, and passed through all the usual 

 gradations of growth to perfect maturity. The 

 author then proceeded to gather the entire pro- 

 duce, the roots, stems, leaves, pods, &c. These 

 were accurately weighed, then submitted to distil- 

 lation, incineration, lixiviation, and other ordinary 

 means used in careful analysis. Thus he obtained 

 from the vegetables all the materials peculiar to 

 each individual species, precisely as if it had been 

 cultivated in its own natural soil ; viz. the various 



earths, the alkalies, acids, metals, carbon, sulphur, 

 phosphorus, niiiogcn, hydrogen, &'c. He con- 

 cludes this inijiortant paper with the.-^e remarkable 

 words : " Oxygen and hydrogen, with the assis- 

 tance of solar light, appear to be the only elemen- 

 tary substances employed in the constitution of the 

 whole Universe ; and nature in her simple pro- 

 gress, works the most infinitely diversified effects 

 by the slightest modification of the means she em- 

 ploys." 



This chemist entertained an ojiinion founded ort 

 experiment, that the elements of water composed 

 plants, the decay of j)lanls formed the materials 

 which constitute the earth ; and of course the 

 " Great globe and all which it inherit," so far as 

 natural causes are concerned, are products of the 

 modification and fixation of water. Other ]>hilog- 

 ophers assure us, that the remains of marine ani- 

 mals, &c, are found on the highest mountains ; 

 and that there are many and incontrovertible 

 proofs that the solid parts of the globe have gait>- 

 ed on its waters, not only within the limits of au- 

 thentic history, but in some cases within the mem- 

 ory of man. 



From the London Horticultural Register. 



HYDRANGEA HORTENSIS. 



I hope you will not consider me as trespassing 

 on the pages of your magazine, or intrusive on the 

 patience of your readers, if I make a few obser- 

 vations on what has come under my notice, rela- 

 tive to the treatnient of the Hydrangea Hortensis, 

 with a view to change; the color of the flowers. — 

 Some years ago, I turned my attention to the cul- 

 tivation of this plant, and looking over the pagCB 

 of the Encyclopoedia of gardening, I read th» 

 opinions of some eminent i)ractical men, who sta- 

 ted that a com])Ost of turf ashes or ashes of Nor- 

 way spruce, &c, &c, would effectually change the 

 color ; this I made use of, but without the desired 

 effect; for I found that the plants neither grew so 

 healthy, nor were the trusses of the flowers so 

 large as when free from it, and the color was by 

 no means a good blue. I next had recourse to a 

 kind of peat-earth, which ap|)eared to contain a 

 small portion of oxide of iron ; the plant in this 

 grew very healthy and bore large trusses of flow- 

 ers, but these too were far from being a good blue. 

 Nevertheless, I am satisfied that when the soil can 

 be obtained with a good portion of the oxide of 

 iron, the flowers will be blue; but as I found this 

 to he a method on which a practical gardener 

 could by no means depend, I was very anxious to 

 discover something that would answer the desired 

 end. All the means I made use of proved inef- 

 fectual, I was forced, though reluctantly, to give 

 up the experiment ; but coming into the neighbor- 

 hood in which I now reside, I was struck with 

 the vigorous and healthy state of the Hydrangers 

 kept by the cottagers here ; the flowers are of an 

 exquisitely fine blue, and in size the trusses are 

 surpassed by none I ever saw ; and a particular 

 friend of mine, who had lived some years in the 

 neighborhood, assured methat every ycarthey blew 

 the same beautiful color. The compost they are 

 potted in is common sandy loam, mixed with about 

 one third of fresh sheep's dung. A portion of the 

 same dung is mixed with the water that is given 

 to the ])lant ; and I am informed that the young 

 l>lants, which have been grown in all parts of the 

 village, that have received this treatnjciit, the same 

 effects have been produced. I beg leave to sub- 

 mit the experiment to your readers. 



