92 NITRATE OF SODA. 



and corn of all kinds, and wheat especially, 

 are benefited to a great extent by the nitrate 

 of soda, and that its use materially increases 

 the weight of the wheat itself, and by a neces- 

 sary consequence its nutritive properties. 



It has been demonstrated (page 58,) that the 

 gluten of wheat is that part of the grain which 

 contains the greatest nourishment, and that 

 which gives to wheat its great specific gravity. 

 Now if we can establish the fact, that the use 

 of this manure not only increases the quantity, 

 but at the same time improves the quality of 

 the corn; we think we shall have said all that 

 need be necessary to urge its continued use, 

 and if millers and bakers especially, the parties 

 to whom, in a commercial point of view, these 

 attributes are indispensable, were fully cogni- 

 zant of the individual benefit they, as well as 

 the public, would derive from the application 

 of this substance to the corn, they would pur- 

 chase no other wheat, but such as had been so 

 manured. 



To prove this position we must go into some 

 detail, and illustrate this subject with the re- 

 sults of some experiments introduced by Pro- 

 fessor Daubeny in his third lecture delivered 

 at Oxford. 



In an analysis of 100 parts of two different 

 specimens of wheat, which were grown in the 

 same field, one of which had been dressed with 

 the nitrate of soda, and the other not, the re- 

 sult was — 



