100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



CHEMISTRY AND VEGETABLE FOOD. 



It is the object of chemical research not merely to 

 explain known facts, but to remove misapprehen- 

 sions and correct erroneous opinions. The recent 

 determinations of the proportion of nitrogen con- 

 tained in ■wheat have served both these purposes. 

 Thus it was long asserted and believed, that the 

 •wheat of warm climates always contained more 

 nitrogen, and was consequently more nutritive and 

 of higher money value, than the wheat of our tem- 

 perate countries. But later researches have cor- 

 rected this hasty deduction ; and have placed our 

 home wheat in its proper position, economical and 

 nutritive, as compared with the wheat of India, of 

 Southern Australia, or of the Black Sea. Again, the 

 British miller usually requires a portion of foreign 

 wheat to mingle with our native grain, both to make 

 it grind more easily, and to satisfy the baker with a 

 flour that wiU stand much water. The pastry cook 

 and the macaroni maker also demand of him a flour 

 •which will make a peculiarly adhesive dough. These 

 several qualities were supposed to be inherent only 

 in wheat which abounded, in an -unusual degree, in 

 gluten, and which was produced under specially 

 favorable conditions of soil and climate. Modern 

 chemistry has the merit of gradually removing these 

 misapprehensions, and of directing us to the true 

 causes of all such differences. So in regard to the 

 superior amount of muscle-forming matter supposed 

 to exist in wheat in comparison with other kinds of 

 native grain, such as the oat. Experience had long 

 taught the Scotch that oats, such as they grow in 

 their climate, are a most nutritious food ; but the 

 habits of the more influential English, and the rid- 

 icule of a prejudiced lexicographer, were beginning 

 to make them ashamed of their national diet. Chem- 

 istry has here stepped in, and by her analysis of 

 both, has proved not only that the oat is richer in 

 muscle-forming matter than the grain of wheat, but 

 that the oatmeal is, in all respects, a better form of 

 nourishment than the finest wheat flour. But, what 

 is more, chemistry has brought us acquainted with 

 the value of parts of the grain formerly considered 

 almost as waste. The husk or bran of wheat, for 

 example, though given at times to pigs, to millers' 

 horses, and other cattle, was usually thought to pos- 

 sess but little nutritive virtue in itself. Analysis, 

 however, has shown it to be actually richer in mus- 

 cular matter than the white interior of the grain. 

 Thus the cause of its answering so well as food for 

 cattle is explained ; and it' is shown that its use in 

 bread (whole meal bread) must be no less nutritive 

 than economical. The true value of other kinds of 

 food is also established by these inquiries. Cabbage 

 is a crop which, up to the present time, has not been 

 a general favorite in this country, cither in the stall, 

 or for the table, except during early spring and sum- 

 mer. In North Gennany and Scandinavia, however, 

 it appears to have been long esteemed ; and various 

 m.odes for storing it for winter use have been very 

 generally practised. But the cabbage is one of the 

 plants which has been chemically examined, in con- 

 sequence of the failure of the potato, with the view 

 of introducing it into general use ; and the result of 

 the examination is both interesting and unexpected. 

 "WTien dried so as to bring it into a state in which it 

 can be compared with our other kinds of food, (-wheat, 

 oats, beans, &c.,) it is found to be richer in muscular 

 matter than any other crop we grow. Wheat con- 

 tains only about twelve per cent., and beans twenty- 

 five per cent. ; but dried cabbage contains from 

 thirty to forty per cent, of the (so called) protein 

 compounds. According to our present views, there- 

 fore, it is prefiminently nourishing. Hence, if it can 

 but be made generally agreeable to the palate, and 

 easy of digestion, it is likely to prove the best and 



easiest cultivated substitute for the potato. And no 

 doubt the Irish kolcannon (cabbage and potatoes beat 

 together) derives part of its reputation from the great 

 muscle-sustaining power of the cabbage — a property 

 in which the potato is most deficient. Further, it is of 

 interest — of national importance, we may say — that 

 an acre of ordinary land will, according to the above 

 result, produce a greater weight of this special kind 

 of nourishment in the form of cabbage than in the 

 form of any other crop. Thus twenty tons of cab- 

 bage, and good land, will produce, in good hands, 

 forty tons of drum-head cabbage on an imperial 

 acre — contain fifteen hundred pounds of muscular 

 matter ; while twenty-five bushels of beans contain 

 only four hundred pounds ; as many of ■wheat only 

 two hundred, twelve tons of potatoes only five hun- 

 dred and fifty, and even thirty tons of turnips only a 

 thousand pounds. The preference which some farm- 

 ers have long given to this crop, as food for their 

 stock and their milk cows, is accounted for by these 

 facts ; while, of course, they powerfully recommend 

 its more general cultivation as food for man. We 

 may add, Avhile speaking of cabbage, that it is kno-wn 

 to be so exhausting to many soils, that wheat will 

 scarcely grow after an abundant crop of it. It 

 springs up, indeed, but yields little straw, and early 

 runs to a puny ear containing little grain. But the 

 same analysis, which shows the value of the cabbage 

 crop, shows also what it takes from the soil ; and 

 explains therefore the kind of exhaustion produced 

 by it, by what special applications this exhaustion is 

 to be repaired, and how repaired at the least cost. 

 Again : In many parts of our island furze or gorse 

 grows up an unheeded weed, and luxuriates in favor- 

 able spots, without being applied to any useful pur- 

 pose. In other districts, however, it is already an 

 object of valuable though easj' culture, and large 

 breadths of it are grown for the feeding of stock, 

 and yield profitable returns. Chemical researches 

 show its nutritive property to be very great. Of 

 muscle-building materials, it contains, when dry, as 

 much as thirty per cent., and is therefore, in this 

 respect, superior to beans, and inferior only to the 

 cabbage. Under these circumstances, we can no 

 longer doubt the conclusions at which some exper- 

 imental feeders had previously arrived, nor the ad- 

 vantage which might be obtained from the more 

 extensive cultivation of gorse on many poor and 

 hitherto almost neglected soils. The history of the 

 tussac grass is familiar to most persons. A native 

 of the Falkland Islands, where it grows in the large 

 tufts or tussacs from which it derives its name, it is 

 described as fattening in an extraordinary manner 

 the stock, and especially the horses, which graze 

 upon it. Some of the seeds -which have been lately 

 imported into this country having vegetated, the 

 grown-up plants have been analyzed ; and it was 

 found, " that the proportion of muscle-forming ingre- 

 dients in the dried grass is as great as in the best 

 samples of wheat, oats, or barley ; and therefore the 

 grass is of a very nutritious character." Thus its 

 alleged feeding qualities are confirmed ; and we may 

 look forward to seeing it, on further trial, domesticat- 

 ed in Great Britain. The money value of the above 

 investigations is obvious enough, and we do not 

 dwell upon them. But the same branch of chemical 

 inquiry deals -with questions of a larger and higher 

 kind. — Edinburgh Review. 



The world is but one great family. \Vhat then is 

 this narrow selfishness in us, but relationship forgot ? 



The making of turpentine has coraracnced on some 

 of the pine forests of Elorida, and has proved very 

 profitable. 



