456 
Food Value of the Wheat-Germ. 
Mr. Wynne then urges that it is the duty of landlords to assist 
tenants by beai-ing the whole, or some agreed portion, of the first 
cost of the trees and planting, taking care that only suitable land 
is planted and proper kinds of fruit selected. He suggests that 
landowners should establish " experimental orchards in connection 
with their garden establishments and under the charge of their head 
gardeners," where all kinds of hardy fruits should be grown for the 
information of tenants. 
Most clear and concise details are given of each " hardy fruit " 
recommended for cultivation, as to the sorts to be planted, the soil 
and situation to be chosen, the way of managing the trees, or bushes, 
or plants, as to pruning, cutting, manuring, picking and packing. 
Besides all this, nearly twenty pages of the work are devoted to 
descriptions of insects injurious to fruit crops, with means of preven- 
tion against their attacks, so that it seems to furnish all the infor- 
mation that fruit growers can possibly require. 
FOOD-VALUE OF THE WHEAT-GERM. 
Under the name of fromentine or embryo-farine (flour embryo) a 
new alimentary material is being subjected to trial in various hos- 
pitals in France, and is made the subject of a report by the Societe 
des Sciences, Agriculture et Arts de la Basse- Alsace. It consists of 
the embryo-plant which can be seen as a small oval structure at the 
base of the grain of wheat, and which, after germination, develops 
into the wheat-plant. This little structure is known to English 
millers as the " chit," and is discarded in the process of inilling. 
According to Kick, the germ is made up of a great number of very 
small thin-walled cells, and is less friable, on account of its oily 
nature, than the rest of the grain. It is found, however, to be very 
rich in nitrogenous matter, yielding on analysis 51 '30 per cent, of 
albuminoids, 29*08 of carbohydrates other than cellulose, 12 - 0-5 
of cellulose, and 6 - 98 of mineral matter or ash. Over *50 per 
cent, of nitrogenous matter is a great deal more than is to be 
found in meat, for the richest kind of meat — that of the sheep — 
contains only 21 per cent, of nitrogen ; the proportion of digestible 
matter in fromentine attains, moreover, 87 per cent, of the total 
weight. 
A desirable quality in any kind of aliment is that, besides being 
digestible, its digestion should be easy and not fatigue the stomach. 
This wheat-germ contains the ferment known as diastase in 
quantity sufficient not only to ensure easy digestion but to promote 
also the digestion of other foods. The quantity of diastase in the 
wheat- germ is, in fact, enough to effect the conversion of all the 
insoluble starch of the grain into soluble sugar, in the same way 
as the similar ferment in barley converts the starch of that grain 
