242 STATISTICS OP WHEAT CULTURE. 



Specific gravity of grain T396 



Weight of grain per acre 2604 Ibs. 



straw 2,775 3-10ths. 



"chaff,, 4011-Sth. 



Mineral Matter in an Acre. 



Wheat 44ilbs. 



Straw H3 



Chaff 47 l-5th. 



Total ... ... ... 204 7-10ths. 



Analysis of the Ash of the Grain. 



Percentage. Removed from an acre. 



Ibs. ozs. 



Silica 5-63 2 8 



Phosphoric acid 43'98 19 8 



Sulphuric acid '21 1 l-5th. 



Jime 1-80 12 8-10ths. 



Magnesia 11-69 5 3 2-10ths. 



Peroxide of iron '29 2 



Potash 34-51 15 5 6-lOtlin. 



Soda . , 1-87 13 3-10ths. 



Total ... 99-98 44 6 l-10ths. 



Analysis of Straw with its proportion of Chaff. 



Per centage. Removed per acre. 



Ibs. ozs. 



Silica 69-36 Ill 1 7-10ths. 



Phosphoric acid 5-24 8 6 7-10ths. 



Sulphuric acid 4-45 7 2 2-10ths. 



Lime 6-96 11 2 2-20ths. 



Magnesia 1-45 2 5 



Peroxide of iron -29 1 2 



Potash 11-79 18 14 



Soda none none. 



Chloride of sodium 



Total ... 99.54 160 1 l-10ths. 



If we subtract the 111 pounds of silica from 160 pounds of minerals in the straw 

 and chaff, the difference between what are left and those in wheat, is not great. 

 As the stems and leaves of wheat plants grow before their seeds, if all the 

 phosphoric acid, potash, and lime available in the soil is consumed before the 

 organization of the seeds begin, from what source is nature to draw her supply 

 of these ingredients to form a good crop of wheat ? If the farmer could reverse 

 the order of nature, and grow a good supply of seeds first, and make straw after- 

 wards, then many a one would harvest more wheat and less straw. But the 

 cultivator must grow the stems, roots, and leaves of wheat, corn, and cotton, 

 before nature will begin to form the seeds of these several plants : and every 

 one should know that the atoms in the soil, which are consumed in organizing 

 the bodies of cultivated plants, are, in the main, identical in kind with those 

 required to make their seeds. The proportions, however, differ very consider- 

 ably. Thus, while 100 parts of the ash of wheat contain an average of 45 parts 

 of phosphoric acid, 100 of the ash of the wheat straw contain an average of only 

 6 parts. The difference is as 9 to 1. In magnesia the disparity is only a little 

 less striking. 



In what are called the organic elements of wheat (the combustible part) there 

 are seven times more nitrogen in 100 pounds than in a like weight of straw. 

 Hence, if the fanner converts straw into manure or compost, with the view 

 ultimately of transforming it into wheat, it will take 7 pounds of straw to yield 

 nitrogen enough to form one pound of wheat. Few are aware how much labor 

 and money is annually lost by the feeding of plants on food not strictly adapted 

 to the peculiar wants of nature in organizing the same. It is true, that most 



