546 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



bushels of corn, each 60 pounds, which he says " is considered a good [he might 

 have said great] average return even in favorable districts, supposing them to 

 yield I5 per cent, of ash, which is about what is left by the grain, would carry 

 off the land 54 pounds of inorganic matter, consisting of: 



Potash and soda 16'6 



Lime 0-7 



Magnesia 9 2 



Phosphoric acid 27-1 



Silica 0-4 



Total 54 



According to the analysis made by Letellier, it would seem that the ash of In- 

 dian Com consists almost entirely of the phosphates of potash, soda, and magne- 

 sia. Should not the corn-grower take heed of such things ? But Professor Johns- 

 ton notes — what we have repeatedly referred to and urged upon those whose 

 business it is to take measures to get the information — " We have no accurate 

 returns," says he, " of the proportio7i ivhich the loeight of the straio and leaves 

 bears to that of the corn of the same plant." 



The New-York State Agricultural Society, with becoming attention to what 

 Agriculture really needs for its enlightenment and progress, has, we believe, taken 

 steps to obtain this information. 



In our so-called National Census, no notice Avhatever is taken of any part of 

 this great staple of the country, except of the grain. 



In the last number of this Journal we have given, moreover, the average com- 

 position — that is, the proportion of water, woody fibre or husk, starch, gum, 

 sugar, gluten, albumen, fatty matter, saline matter, &c., in more than twenty of 

 the common grains, roots and grasses — as nearly as the present state of knowl- 

 edge has enabled the most scientific men to represent it — Indian Corn among the 

 rest. The same number of this Journal gives the average produce of nutritive 

 matter per acre from a given quantity of each — including Indian Corn. If, in 

 England or France, the subject possessed half the interest that it does for 

 America, it would have been yet far more thoroughly investigated. What is 

 needed for the information and government of American agriculturists, in respect 

 of a grain cultivated throughout the length and breadth of the whole country, is, 

 as we have repeatedly urged, to have a careful analysis of each part of the plant, 

 as well in its green as its dry state — its stalk, blade, top, shuck, and cob, as well 

 as the grain — and it is highly desirable to know the proportion of each of these 

 parts to a given amount of grain. We mean not the exact, but the general, or- 

 dinary proportion in different parts of the country, where very different kinds of 

 corn are suited to the climate, and where, therefore, very different proportions 

 will prevail. The practical benefit would be of great and almost universal value. 

 It would enable every corn-planter, on measuring his ^ram, which most of them 

 do, to approximate, at least, the quantity of nutritive matter besides, which his 

 fields had yielded him per acre, in return for his outlay. This is, as we have 

 before stated, the sort of real, solid, noiseless service that the American Insti- 

 tute ought to be rendering, instead of hoarding up its money in stocks, to lay by 

 for a chance at a speculation in farms and colleges, if the State can be persuaded 

 to establish one and put it under its "auspices." For one, we will willingly con- 

 tribute a set of The Farmers' Library, containing 6 vols, of about 3,500 pages, 

 and three of which contain works that could not be imported for less than $35, 

 Avith several hundred engravings — many of them costly steel engravings and 

 lithographic prints ; we will gladly throw in these six volumes toward getting 

 these investigations carefully made. 



Mr. Colt, of Paterson, long since offered $100 toward getting it done, if the 

 American Institute, with its thousands in " 5 per cent, stocks," would undertake it. 



(1026) 



