STATISTICS OP WHEAT CULTURE. 241 



All alkaline minerals, such as potash, soda, lime, ammonia, and magnesia, 

 hasten the solution of the several insoluble compounds of silica in the soil. 

 This fact should be remembered by every farmer. To undertake an explanation 

 of the various ways in which alkalies, oxides, and acids act and re- act upon 

 each other in the surface of the earth, when subject to tillage, would be out 

 of place in this outline view of wheat-growing in the United States. I may 

 state the fact, however, as ascertained by many analyses, that a cubic foot of 

 good wheat soil in the valley of the Genesee, contains twenty times more lime 

 than do the poorest soils in South Carolina and Georgia. The quantity of gyp- 

 sum, bone-earth, and magnesia, available as food for plants, varies in an equal 

 degree. Not only lime, but phosphoric acid, potash, and magnesia are lacking in 

 most soils, if one desires to raise a large crop of wheat, and have the seeds of the 

 grain weigh as much as the straw. In a number of the specimens of wheat 

 analyzed by Prof. "Way, when cut close to the roots, the dry wheat outweighed 

 the dry straw. 



Having secured the growth of a bright, hard, glassy stem, the next thing is 

 to develop a long, well-filled ear. To this end, available ammonia or nitrogen, 

 phosphorus, potash, and magnesia are indispensable. Ammonia (spirits of 

 hartshorn) is necessary to aid in forming the combustible part of the seed. 

 The other ingredients named are required to assist in making the incombustible 

 part of the grain. In 100 parts of the ash of wheat, there are the following 

 substances, viz. : 



Silica 



Phosphoric acid 



Sulphuric acid 



Lime 



Magnesia . 



Peroxide of iron 



Potash 



Soda 



Chloride of sodium 



2-28 



4573 



0-32 



2-C6 



10-94 



2-04 



32-24 



4-06 



0-27 



Total.... 99 -94 



The quantity of ash in wheat varies from Ijto 2^ per cent. ; the average is 

 about 1-69. The amount of phosphoric acid in any given quantity of the ash 

 of wheat varies from forty to fifty per cent, of the same. 



Seeds that have a thick cuticle or bran, and little gluten, contain a smaller 

 per centage of phosphoric acid, and more silica. About one-third of the ash is 

 potash; in nearly all cases magnesia varies from nine to fourteen per cent.; lime 

 from one and a half to six per cent. Peroxide of iron is seldom as abundant 

 as in the ash above given, and the same is true of soda. Chloride of sodium 

 is common salt, and exists in a small quantity. Salt is beginning to be much 

 used as a fertilizer on wheat lands in western New York. It operates indi- 

 rectly to increase the crop. 



The following may he taken as about the average composition of the ash of 

 wheat-straw. It is " Specimen No. 40," in the tables of Prof. Way, and I 

 copy verbatim all that is said upon the subject : [Soil, sandy ; subsoil, stone 

 and clay ; geological formation, silurian ; drained ; eight years in tillage ; crop, 

 after carrots, twenty tons per acre; tilled December, 1845; heavy crop; mown, 

 August 12th; carried, August 20th ; estimated yield, forty-two bushels per 

 acre ; straw long, grain good, weight sixty-two pounds to the bushel.] Length 

 of straw, forty-two inches. 



Relation of Grain, Straiv and Chaff, 



Actual quantities. Per centage. 



Grain 1633 Ibs ' 45-15 



Straw 1732 47'89 



Chaff 250 6-96 



Total . . . . 3615 Ibs. 



