322 , TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



finely filled and well matured grain, however well fitted for grind- 

 ing or malting, has a degree of inertness about it unfavorable to 

 propagation ! Wheat in its native countries, Sicily for instance? 

 grows year after year when self-sown, as well as at first, but in 

 Britain wheat is exotic, &c. 



Potato — We think has been so forced by high culture as to have 

 become a degenerate plant. 



BREAD FROM WHEAT. 



Millers and bakers prefer the foreign soft wheat to British — 

 not because it is cheaper, for it is dearer — but because it makes a 

 larger quantity and better quality of bread ! Therefore are the 

 fine foreign wheats worth from five to ten shillings sterling a quar- 

 ter more than the best home wheat ! 



SALTPETRE IN AGRICULTURE. 



From a memoir by M. Boussingault, read before the French 

 Academy of Science. 



Was known to the ancients as valuable in agriculture ; but its 

 high price precluded its use to any extent. Since the recent dis- 

 covery of very rich beds of it in Peru, it is being introduced into 

 agriculture. The discovery was not known to Europe until 1821. 

 The Peruvians derived no advantage from it in agriculture, but 

 the Incas long before them were advanced in agricultural know- 

 ledge. They counteracted the lowering of temperature in their 

 fields from nocturnal radiation of heat, by disturbing the trans- 

 parency of the air by means of smoke. They used guano — they 

 made an active manure out of dried fish ! They made poudrette 

 from night soil, and applied small doses of it to the roots of their 

 maize. Nitrate of potash is now used freely. 



WHEAT. 



Before the flood, of Adam's two sons one tilled the ground, the 

 other kept sheep. During the period of creation, 1655 years, to 

 the flood, it is probable that the cereals were cultivated, being 

 tl\e best food for man. Tlie flood subsided, Noah, according to 

 the promise that seed time and harvest should not cease, began to 

 be a husbandman. At 450 years after the flood and 100 after the 

 dsath of Noah, Abraham directed his wife to " prepare three 

 measures of fine meal to make cakes upon the hearth for the 



