DEVOTSD TO AGRIOULTURIC AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1857. 



NO. 6. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor. 

 Office.. .13 Commercial St. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBKOOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



JUNE— THE GRASSES AND CEREAL 

 GRAINS. 



fe^ ^ me^.^xrs'S h th©' month 



3 i\^ 



when that tribe of 

 plants, whose beau- 

 ty has been over- 

 looked in consider- 

 ation of their utility, 

 the grasses — are in 

 their most flourish- 

 ing condition, and 

 by far the most con- 

 ■spicuous of all ob- 



ijects in the fields and mea- 

 dows. To this tribe of 

 plants the landscape owes 

 almost the whole of that delight- 

 ful verdure which renders the 

 temperate zone the garden of the 

 world, notwithstanding all that 

 has been said of the flowery magnificence 

 of a tropical landscape. Nothing in any 

 latitude will compare with the verdure 

 that clothes the hills and plains and val- 

 leys of a northern land. The birds and flocks de- 

 rive their chief sustenance from the plants that 

 form this green carpet of beauty, and millions of 

 birds that spend their winters in the tropics, make 

 their real home in the north, where they feed upon 

 the seeds of the gramineous herbs, and on the in- 

 sects that swarm amongst their flowers and foliage. 

 It is remarkable that the greater part of the food 

 of man is derived directly or indirectly from the 

 gramineous tribe of plants, and their seeds are 

 the basis of bread of every description. They con- 

 stitute the principal food of all the animals whose 

 flesh is consumed by man : some feeding upon the 

 stalk or leaf, like the grazing animals, others upon 

 the seeds and herbs ; all the species, with one or 

 two exceptions, are wholesome ; one is knovra to 

 be somewhat of a narcotic, a few others possess an 

 aromatic quality. 



The bran of most of the seeds contains an active 

 resin which is removed by husking or pearling the 

 seeds, or by grinding them and bolting the meal. 

 The stems of every species contain a saccharine 

 juice ; and the common and Chinese sugar canes 

 are but large species of grass. There are nearly 

 twenty genera of this tribe, from which man de- 

 rives food, either from their seeds, or from their 

 sap when it is converted into sugar, and each of 

 these genera contains several species. Of wheat 

 there are about a dozen species, and a still greater 

 number of varieties ; of oats there are three or four 

 species ; of barley ten or twelve ; of rye two or 

 three; of maize eight or ten; one of rice, one of 

 Canada rice ; of millet about fifteen or twenty. 



It is a singular fact that the only plants that 

 yield a seed which can be ground into meal, besides 

 the grasses, are the different species of buckwheat. 

 Almost all other seeds which are nutritive contain 

 oil in such quantities, as to render the manufacture 

 of meal or flour from them impracticable. This is 

 the cose with flax seed ; with the seeds of hemp 

 and of the sunflower, all of which are highly nutri- 

 tive. It is perhaps no less remarkable that no 

 species of grass produces an edible or farinaceous 

 root. The whole of the nutriment which man de- 

 rives directly from this tribe of vegetables comes 

 from their seeds and the sweet juices of their stalk. 

 There is not one that can be used as a pot herb. 

 Notwithstanding the very limited uses to which 

 they can be applied, they constitute one-half of 

 the aliment of the human race in civilized countries, 

 and indirectly a considerable portion of the other 

 half, by supplying food to the animals whose flesh 

 and milk we consume. 



Of the grasses only a very limited number of spe- 

 cies are medicinal, because medicines are chiefly 

 derived from herbs which are bitter, acid or nar- 

 cotic. No such qualities are found in the grasses, 

 with the exception of one or two species. Thes'- 

 are the May Grass (Anlhoranthum odorahim) 

 which is slightly narcotic, and pleasantly aromatic. 

 and the dried herb has oeen used as a substitute 



