RYE. 171 



contains more gluten than the soft and more friable wheat of the 

 north ; and the inquiries of M. Payen appear to bear out the conclu- 

 sion of the illustrious English chemist. M. Payen, in fact, found in 

 the hard wheat of Africa 3.00 of azote, equivalent to 18.7 ; and in 

 that of Venezuela 3.50 of azote, equivalent to 21.9 of gluten and 

 albumen. The experiments quoted above, however, prove that we 

 may have wheat grown in Europe fully as rich in azotized elements 

 as any that is grown between the tropics ; the influence of the soil 

 in this direction is probably more than the influence of climate. 



In all the analyses of wheaten and other flour published up to the 

 present time, we find no mention made of the fatty matters which 

 they contain ; and late views in regard to the special part which 

 ihese matters play in nutrition make it very necessary to supply the 

 omission. A ong with MM. Dumas and Payen, I therefore deter- 

 mined the quantity of fatty matter contained in a considerable num- 

 ber of the vegetables and vegetable substances used as food, from 

 which it appears that grain of diflferent kinds contains from 2 to 10 

 per cent, of oil. One hundred parts of winter wheat gathered at 

 Bechelbronn lost 14.5 of water by drying at 110' C, (230° F.,) and 

 therefore contained 85.5 of dry matter. 100 of this dry wheat gave 

 13.7 of bran and 86.3 of flour. 



Various analyses showed the composition of this wheat and its 

 parts to be as follows : 



Dry matter. Gluten and Starch. 



Albumen. 



Bran 20.0 



Flour 13.4 73.2 5.6 4.2 2.1 1.5 



Wheat 14.3 63.2 



Rye, {Secale cereale.) Rye is an important article ot food, par- 

 ticularly in the north of Europe, where the people live upon it almost 

 entirely. It is a very hardy plant, and will thrive in soils which are 

 altogether unfit to grow wheat. In the husbandry of the north this 

 grain occupies the place of wheat in the south : it requires much 

 the same treatment, and stands upon the ground for nearly the same 

 length of time. The bushel of rye weighs on an average about 60 lbs. 

 avoird. The usual quantity of seed sown is from 10 to 11 pecks 

 per acre, and the produce per acre, the seed being deducted, has 

 been stated as follows : 



Bushels. 



Brabant 23.0 



Flanders 32.4 



Austria 206 



England 22.0 



France 19.0 



The German agriculturists say, that the weight of the straw to 

 the weight of the rye produced is in general as 100 is to 47 ; others 

 say as 100 is to 50, and some have taken it even as high as 100 to 

 33. The relation seems to differ extremely in different years. At 

 Bechelbronn, for example, in 1840-41 we had 63 of grain to 100 of 

 straw; in 1841-42 we had but 25 of grain to 100 of straw. 



Rye yields flour that is not so white nor so fine as that of wheat, 



