442 
Experiments on the Feeding of Stock. 
wheats at the same price, and that he eats 20 lbs. of bread per 
week, or 12^ lbs. of dry food, (since bread contains 30 per cent, of 
water) then his allowance in bread made from English corn would 
contain 108 grammes (3"8 ozs.) of nitrogen, and, in French, 168 
grammes (5*9 ozs.), and this difference of 60 grammes represents 
the nitrogen in 60 ounces of meat. The inference is, that biscuits 
made from dry, hard wheat would give a sort of meaty bread, 
which would have a special value in preparing supplies for the 
military service ; and that tail wheat affords a more nutritious diet, 
though not so white a loaf as head corn, for farm labourers. 
Now all these conclusions hinge on the law, here assumed 
absolutely, that the nutritive value of food varies with the amount 
of nitrogen contained in it ; yet we have been taught by Dr. 
Voelcker that a superabundance of nitrogen is often but a sign 
of immaturity. Indeed, M. Reiset recognises the truth of this 
view, when, enlarging on the fact that in 1852 the tail corn of 
the Victoria wheat contained 15 per cent, of gluten, and the head 
corn only 13, he writes : — " These facts go to prove that at a 
certain phase in their growth the grains of wheat contain an equal 
proportion of nitrogenous matter ; but it would seem that in the 
last period of their development the starchy matter is gradually 
associated with the nitrogenous element : the greater proportion 
.of nitrogen in the tail corn may be thus accounted for." But 
it will be strange if that which is a sign of immaturity be at the 
same time indicative of superior nutritive power. Within cer- 
tain limits, indeed, wheat cut before it is dead ripe is prefeiTed 
as giving a stronger flour, but within these limits M. Reiset did 
not find that the nitrogen varied to any extent. Some experi- 
ments which he made in 1852, with some Spalding wheat and a 
foreign variety, gave these results : — 
I^^te of cutting. P« ^o7^ru^e^ 
July 24. Grains soft 16-7 13-81 
July 29. Grains beginning to form flour .. .. 16*4 14'43» 
Aug. 11. Grain quite hard 16-2 13-93 
Second experiment. Another wheat grown on sandy soil : — 
July 15. Grains soft ' 17-41 13-34 
July 20. Grains firm enough 16-94 12-74 
When dead-ripe 16-54 14-50 
Within these limits, therefore, for the same sorts similarly 
circumstanced, the small variation of the gluten appears to follow, 
no distinct rule. 
That such considerations as these are to our purpose, is indi- 
cated by the fact that of the wheats analysed, that which stood 
next to the Horisson in respect of gluten, was a spring wheat, tha 
" 131(3 Victoria dc Mars ;" whilst the name of Herisson, or " Hedge- 
