ON THE CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 279 



It -will be observed on consulting the analyses of Indian corn, in the second volume, that 

 different varieties require different amounts of certain elements. While all •\'arieties, and they 

 are very numerous, require potash, soda, silica and the phosphates, they do not contain them 

 in equal quantities or proportions. Sweet corn, which is an anomalous variety, contains an 

 excess of dextrine and albumen, while white or yellow corn contains them only sparingly. 

 The earthy and alkaline elements of corn are potash, soda, lime and magnesia, which are mostly 

 in combination with phosphoric acid. The organic salts, as the crenates and allied compounds, 

 are also only feebly represented ; this is certainly the case with the kernels of all the cereals ; 

 the herbage gives an effervescing ash, indicating the existence of carbonates, which originally 

 may have been in the condition of organic salts. Other elements also exist which are essential 

 to the composition of the plant, viz. iron, chlorine, sulphuric acid and silica. Magnesia is also 

 easily detected in the foliage, and seems, from its frequency, to be constant. There are at 

 least ten mineral elements in the corn plant. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, form 

 also several combinations ; oxygen is united to silica, to iron, phosphorus, sulphur, lime, mag- 

 nesia, potash, soda, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen : some of these, however, as they occur 

 naturally, are always in combination with oxygen, as potash, soda, lime, magnesia and silica. 

 The substances which exist in the largest proportions in the kernels are the earthy and alkaline 

 phosphates. Of the organic bodies starch is largest ; sugar and extractive matter, and constitu- 

 tional water, stand next ; oil, gluten, albumen, casein and dextrine, from one half to 24 per cent. 

 The dextrine being in very large proportions in sweet corn, is indicated in all those varieties 

 which shrink, or are indented. To produce seed — to develop the grain, requires a large amount 

 of herbage, a great extent of expanded tissues, whose functions are entirely subservient to this 

 end. Scarcely any starch can be detected in this part of the plant ; it is sometimes found in 

 the stem : a substance closely allied to it, in composition, forms the tissue ; this is called 

 cellulose. 



The value of the maize is not confined to the ears or grain ; the entire plant is valuable, and 

 it is highly probable that a greater amount of seed can be obtained from this than any plant 

 we now cultivate. For nutriment it compares well with the grasses, and for the amount of 

 crop it exceeds them all, when sown broad cast, or in drills, for fodder. The poor man may 

 support his cow upon corn fodder, with little expense, by soiling with maize ; and the rich 

 farmer can also soil for his flock of cows, and derive as much if not more profit than if pastured 

 at a distance. The leaves and stalks furnish sugar, chlorophyl and wax, casein and albumen. 

 Fibre forms the bulk of the vegetable, as if to show that there must be a substance to make 

 bulk and create a moderate tension of the alimentary iissues. 



Maize is attacked by a peculiar kind of smut ; it fixes itself upon all parts of the plant ; the 

 kernel is transformed into a black smutty sac ; the cells of the leaves and stalks are swollen 

 out and form tumors, which are filled with this substance, and which finally burst, attended 

 with an escape of a black powdery juice. This smut is a real plant, developed only in and 

 upon the maize. The question, how its productive germs find their way into the tissues, has 

 not been satisfactorily answered ; but the indications are that these spores find their way into 



