662 
Analyses of Ashes of Plants. 
confined within more narrow limits than that of the straw and chaff. 
The extreme points, high and low, are found to be 1-36 (Spec. 
7) and 1-97 (Spec. 35) ; but the greater number of specimens 
have afforded from l"5 to 17 per cent, of mineral matter. 
The analysis of 62 specimens of the grain has afforded us a 
mean of 1"67 per cent. This quantity of ash appears of very 
trifling importance, but will be seen, when we speak of its compo- 
sition, to be by no means so insignificant as it would at first sight 
appear. Neither is it small when taken on a large amount of 
crop. A bushel (of 61 lbs.) of grain will upon the average 
contain exactly 1 lb. of mineral matter. The crop of an acre 
(28 bushels) will carry off \ cwt., and therefore from a farm of 
400 acres, on our former calculation, no less than one ton and a 
quarter of mineral matter will be removed by the grain alone. 
We naturally ask, what circumstances influence the quantity of 
ash in the grain of wheat ? We have given the lists of soils and 
varieties in the table, in order to answer this question as far as the 
data before us will allow. 
The influence of variety on the quantity of ash is not very 
evident, for we have 5 specimens of Hopeton, and 7 of red- 
straw white wheat, which, with one exception, give nearly the same 
per centage of ash. " Piper's Thickset" and red Britannia wheat 
(Specimens 8, 22, 32), although very peculiar in some respects, 
do not exhibit any marked deviation with regard to the quantity 
of ash in the grain. 
On the other hand, the character of the soil woidd seem to have 
but little to do with the matter; in the list of specimens grown on 
clay, the same differences are observed as in those from silicious 
or calcareous soils, whilst the mean of the three affords very little 
deviation. 
Again, Mr. Morton's specimens of red-straw white and 
Hopeton wheat, although grown on different soils, possess very 
little latitude in the quantity of ash. In Specimens 38 and 39, 
40 and 41, we have very strong evidence against the belief that 
the soil alone affects the quantity of the ash in the grain of wheat. 
The two former of these are fi om the same field, half of which 
is sand, the other half clay ; the two latter, from another field 
half sand, half clay. 
Per cent, of ash. 
Spec. 38. Hopeton wheat — silicious sand . 1*61 
„ 39. „ clay . . . 1-63 
„ 40. „ sand . . . r71 
„ 41. „ clay . . .1-69 
It is clear that in these instances no alteration in the quantity 
of mineral matter of the grain is produced by the very opposite 
description of soil on which the crojis were grow u. 
