54G 
On tho Food of Plants. 
Flour ..... 356 grains. 
Bran ..... 144 „ 
500 „ 
A portion of the finest flour dried at 212° for some hours, and 
examined for nitrogen : — 
Per Cent. 
10 '43 grains gave a quantity of nitrogen corresponding to 1 '64 
10-34 „ „ „ 1-67 
The mean is 1"655, which, reckoned to dry gluten containing 15*5 
per cent, of nitrogen, gives, for tlie per-centage of gUiten in the flour, 
10-7. 
2. Wheat from Berkshire, not nitred ; 500 grains contained : — 
Flour ..... 325 grains. 
Bran ..... 175 „ 
500 „ 
Flour dried at 212":— 
10 "55 grains gave a quantity of nitrogen corresponding to 1*39 
per cent., or 8*97 per cent, of dry gluten. 
10''26 grains gave a quantity of nitrogen corresponding to 1'41 
percent., or 9'1 per cent, of gluten. 
3. Same wheat manured with nitrate of soda. It contained — 
Flour ..... 323 grains. 
Bran 177 „ 
Flour dried at 212" :— 
10' 39 grains of flour gave nitrogen corresponding to 1*48 per 
cent., or 9 "55 per cent, of gluten. 
10 • 3 grains of flour gave nitrogen corresponding to 1 • 56 per cent., 
or 10 "06 per cent, of gluten. 
So that the extreme pair of these experiments only makes the 
increase of o:luten 1 per cent., a quantity probably not much 
above the limit of error of the experiment. This point cannot yet 
be considered settled. 
In terminating these remarks on the subject of manures, I beg 
once more to call attention to the salts of ammonia. Should 
these really be found to produce the beneficial effects anticipated, 
we shall possess at home, within tho limits of our own island, re- 
sources for the improvement of agriculture, compared with which 
guano, and nitrate of soda, and all such things, are quite insigni- 
ficant — resources which only require to be judiciously used to pro- 
duce the most extraordinary results. 
