On Agricultural Chemistry. 



235 



customers, know nothing about gluten and starch; they judge 

 by the eye alone, and give the highest price for that which will 

 yield the greatest proportion of flour. The following table de- 

 monstrates that the value of different samples of wheat does not 

 depend upon the per centage of nitrogen which they contain.* 









Per 



Price per Qr. 



Nos. 



Season. 



Gt?nt*ral Renicirlvs upon tliG History of the 



Centage of 

 Nitrogen 



according to 



Specimens. 



in Dry 

 Matter. 



adjudged 

 by Milier and 









Corn Factor. 



1 



1844 



Grown by Superphosphate of Lime . 



3-03 



s. 



84 



2 



1846 



As No. 1, with Ammonia Salts .... 



2*65 



86 



3 





1-81 



96 



4 





As No. 3, with Ammoniacal Salts . 



1-69 



92 



5 





As No. 3, with Rape Cake 



1-89 



88 



6 





As No. 3, with Rape Cake and Ammoniacal) 



1-88 





7 







1-95 



92 



8 





, , , , with Ammoniacal Salts 



2-01 



92 



9 





with Rape-cake. . . 



1-85 



92 



10 





, , , , with Rape-cake and Am-1 



1-93 



92 







11 









112 



12 





No. 2 



1-94 



112 



13 







2-38 



112 ' 



From this table it is evident that the samples of wheat most 

 approved by the miller are by no means those which are richest 

 in nitrogen. His choice is directed to those samples which have 

 the character of a perfectly developed grain, small, plump, and 

 thin-skinned. But laying aside the evidence of experiment or 

 common usage, would it not be more consonant with general 

 principles to suppose that a class of plants proverbially character- 

 ized as yielding starchy seeds, and whose predominant peculiarity 

 it is to produce carbonaceous substances, should, in their most 

 perfect state of development, be rich in starch rather than in 

 gluten and other nitrogenous compounds ? We might, indeed, 

 expect to find the proportion of gluten and starch vary in dif- 

 ferent species of wheat, and in the same species under the effect 

 of different climates and seasons ; but the more perfectly the 

 grain has been developed the richer in starch and the poorer in 

 nitrogen it would become, and millers who prefer a perfectly 

 developed grain probably pay the highest price for that which 

 contains the most starch. 



* The wheat employed as seed in these experiments was the Old Red 

 Lammas : nearl)^2 bushels were drilled per acre. The crops of 1844 and 

 1846 were sown in September, and that of 1845 in March. 



