1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



493 



the consumer to use freely, without the idea of a 

 high-priced luxury. Now a bushel of prime ap- 

 ples costs two-thirds of a bushel of wheat, and 

 more in our market than the wheat ia a western 

 one. 



We may learn a lesson from the use of apples 

 now. They cost too much to eat, yet custom has 

 made it requisite in all families to have pies made 

 of apples. These are called a necessai-y article, 

 and most families will use more or less apples in 

 this way, let the price be what it may. This cus- 

 tom arose when apples which would answer for 

 pies were plenty and cheap, and it continues when 

 they are scarce and dear. So let good sweet ap- 

 ples, not those tough as white oak, astringent as 

 a gall nut, bitter as a pig walnut, or dry as a 

 piece of cork, be furnished freely, and they will 

 soon become an essential article of good living, 

 and a steady demand, conducive to the profit of 

 the producers, and to the happiness and advan- 

 tage of the consumer, will be created. 



NUTRITION IN VARIOUS GRAINS. 



Wheat is one of the most important of all crops. 

 The grain contains from fifty to seventy per cent. 

 of starch, from ten to twenty per cent, of gluten, 

 and from three to five per cent, of fatty matter. 

 The proportion of gluten is said to be the largest 

 in the grain of quite warm countries. 



It is a singular fact that, in all the seed of 

 wheat and other grains, the principal part of the 

 oil lies near or in the skin, as also does a large 

 portion of the gluten. The bran owes to this 

 much of its nutritive and fottening qualities. 

 Thus, in refining our flour to the utmost possible 

 extent, we diminish somewhat its value for food. 

 The phosphates of the ash also lie, to a great de- 

 gree, in the skin. The best fine flour contains 

 above seventy pounds of starch to each hundred. 

 The residue of the hundred pounds consists of 

 ten or twelve pounds of gluten, six to eight pounds 

 of sugar and gum, .and ten to fourteen pounds of 

 water, with a little oil. 



Rye flour more nearly resembles wheaten flour 

 in its composition, than any other ; it has, how- 

 ever, more of certain gummy and sugary substan- 

 ces, which make it tenacious, and also impart a 

 sweetish taste. In baking all grains and roots 

 which have much starch in them, a certain change 

 takes place in their chemical composition. By 

 baking, flour becomes more nutritious, and more 

 easily digested, because more soluble. 



Barley contains rather less starch than wheat, 

 also less sugar and gum. There is little gluten, 

 but a substance somewhat like it, and containing 

 about the same amount of nitrogen. 



Oat meal is little used as food in this country, 

 but it is equal, if not superior, in its nutritious 

 qualities, to flour from any of the other grains ; 

 superior, 1 have no doubt, to most of the fing 

 wheaten flour of the northern latitudes. It con- 

 tains from ten to eighteen per cent, of a body 

 having about the same amount of nitrogen or glu- 

 ten. Besides this there is a considerable quantity 

 of sugar and gum, and from five to six per cent, 

 of oil or fatty matter, which may be obtained in 

 the form of a clear, fragrant liquid. Oat meal 

 cakes owe their peculiar agreeable taste and smell 

 to this oil. Oat meal, then, has not only an 

 abundance of substance containing nitrogen, but' 



is also quite fattening. It is, in fact, an excel- 

 lent food for working animals, and, as has been 

 abundantly proved in Scotland, for working men 

 also. 



Buckwheat is less nutritious than the other 

 grains which we have noticed. Its flour has from 

 six to ten per cent, of nitrogenous compounds, 

 about fifty per cent, of starch, and from five to 

 eight per cent, of sugar and gum. In speaking 

 of buckwheat or of oats, we of course mean with- 

 out husks. 



Bice was formerly supposed to contain little ni- 

 trogen ; but recent examinations have shown that 

 there is a considerable portion, some six or eight 

 per cent., of a substance like gluten. The per 

 centage of fatty matter and of sugar is quite 

 small, but that of starch much larger than any 

 grain yet mentioned, being between eighty and 

 ninety per cent. ; usually about eighty-two per 

 cent. 



Indian corn is the last of the grains that we 

 shall notice. This contains about sixty per cent, 

 of starch, nearl}' the same as in oats. The pro- 

 portion of oil and gum is largo — about ten per 

 cent. ; this explains the ftittening properties of 

 Indian meal, so well known to practical men. 

 There is, besides, a good portion of sugar. The 

 nitrogenous substances are also considerable in 

 quantity — some twelve or sixteen per cent. All 

 these statements are from the prize essay of Mr. 

 J. H. Salisbury, published by the New York State 

 Agricultural Society. They show that the re- 

 sults of European chemists have probably been 

 obtained by the examination of varieties inferior 

 to ours ; they have not placed Indian corn much 

 above the level of buckwheat or rice, whereas, 

 from the above, it is seen to be " in most respects 

 superior to any other grain."' 



Sweet corn diflfers from all other varieties, con- 

 taining only about eighteen per cent, of starch. 

 Amount of sugar is of course very large ; the ni- 

 trogenous substances amount to the very large 

 proportion of twenty per cent. ; of gum, to thir- 

 teen or fourteen ; and of oil, to about eleven. 

 This, from the above results, is one of the must 

 nourishing crops grown. If it can be made to 

 yield as much per acre as the hardier varieties, it 

 is well worth a trial on a large scale. — Professor 

 Norton. 



For tkc .Y((C Ensland Fannir. 



STATE FARM AT TEWKSBURY AGAIN. 



Messrs. Editors : — I like to relieve the minds 

 of those under fear. Your correspondent *^*, of 

 the 14th inst., says, — " hope he has made no 

 charge of it in his books." I hero tell him no ; 

 were [ disposed to make a charge for my advice 

 to tlic *»* that have no name in Astronomy, I 

 should lie troubled to collect it by any code yf 

 laws in mundane Massachusetts, and therefore I 

 had better " bless the stars " than foe a lawjvr 

 for such an aerial pursuit. As to the mature of 

 the soil on the State Farm at Tcwskbury, I con- 

 tinue of the same mind as when I wrote before, 

 and believe that under a system of judicious cul- 

 tivation, that all 1 stated then will be found cor- 

 rect. If the stars have been so obscured by clouds 

 and fog that they have had no opportunity to 

 shine down uponthe wells and land belonging tD 

 the State Farm at Tewksbury, 1 should candidly 



