THE GENESEE FAP.MEK. 



probably maize and all other cereals, destroyed large quantities of ammonia during 

 their growth ; that on soils where cereals were principally cultivated, ammonia, of all 

 the elements of plants, would be tirst deficient. Another fact mentioned was, that while 

 wheat and barley destroyed ammonia, and consequently required great quantities for 

 the production of large crops, clover, peas, beans, tares, and turnips, did not destroy 

 ammonia, but on the contrary retained that brought to them, during the growing season, 

 b.y rain water. 



Bearing these two most important facts in mind, we will proceed to examine the 

 efi'ects of cultivation on the inorganic or mineral matter of the soil. 



All our works on agricultural chemistry abound in tables showing the amount of the 

 various elements removed from the soil in a crop of wheat, maize, barley, oats, clover, 

 potatoes, (fee, so that there is no necessity for repeating them here, although we have at 

 command many original analyses of all ' the principle crops of a rotation with the 

 exception of maize. It is not the effect on the soil of the entire removal of the whole 

 crops of a rotation tha-t we are required to study, for no intelligent agriculturist, and we 

 are writing for none other, would for a moment think of removing all his produce from 

 a farm ; so that such tables, if accurate, which man}- of them are far from being, are 

 of but little direct benefit. To derive much practical information from agricultural 

 chemistry, we must study the changes of matter as it passes from the earth and air into 

 plants, and from these into plants and animals capable of supplying food for man, and 

 otherwise administering to his use and comfort; we must trace the atoms as they are 

 again returned in their original state to the earth and air, to begin anew the endless 

 round of the mineral, vegetable, and amimal kingdoms ; we must examine, not only wdiat 

 a crop contains, but also Avhat portion of it is necessarily removed from the farm, and 

 what returned to the soil. 



In the Natural History of New York, part V., it is stated that a crop of wheat in 

 Western New York of thirty bushels per acre, including straw, chaff, &c., removes from 

 the soil 144 lbs. of mineral matter. According to the same authority, a ton of dry 

 clover hay removes 198 lbs. of mineral matter. Any deductions from such data showing 

 the exhaustive nature of cultivation on the mineral matter of the soil, are wholly 

 inapplicable to agriculture as practiced by intelligent farnters. 



We are under great obligations to John Bradfield, Esq., for a statement of the 

 flour, bran, &c., obtained from Genesee wheat ground at the Clinton Mills in this city 

 during the last nine years. The total number of bushels ground was 726,551 ; the 

 total number of barrels of flour obtained was 173,803. Having reduced the results of 

 each year to a percentage, and finding a remarkable uniformity in the respective years, 

 and considering the great quantity of wheat ground, we believe the mean rcsult.s alibrd 

 the most reliable data yet published on tlie subject. 



Taking the mean results of nine years, 100 lbs. of Genesee wheat yielded 75.50 of 

 superfine flour, 3.47 of fine flour, 5.09 of fine middlings, 4.37 of shorts, and 0.G9 of bran 

 Total 97.37 — showing a loss in grinding of 2.63 lbs., doubtless water. Judging from 

 upwards of one hundred analyses made in the Rothamstcd laboratory, the superfine and 

 fine flour mixed would contain 0.70 per cent, of ash ; fine middlings, 4 per cent. ; coarse 

 middlings, 5.50 ; shorts, 8 ; bran, 8.50. 



From these data it is evident that of the 144 lbs. of mineral matter in a crop of wheat 

 of 30 bu. per acre, somewhat less than 1>0 lbs. only is contained in the superfine flour; 

 the remaining 134 lbs. is found in the straw, dialF, bran, shorts, &c. Tlie 30 bu. of 

 wheat, even if iwne of the bran or shorts were returned to the farm, remove but 26 lbs. 

 of mineral matter; but many farmers purchase from the millers large quantities of bran 

 and shorts for feeding purposes, the mineral matter of which would be retained on the 

 farm. It is- impossible to estimate satisfactorily, but we believe that on many farms near 

 ILochester not more than half a pound of inorganic matter is removed from the soil, 





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