Feb. 1, 1902.J 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." 
577 
with a large proportion of water. It will there- 
fore strike you that there would be ati excess of 
water taken into the plant which will have to be 
drained off, or removed, after it has performed 
the function of conveying food from tlie soil into 
the plant. And this is so, for the excess of water 
over and above what is required by the plant passes 
out of the plant through the stomata as water 
vapour. This process is called transpiration. 
A plant in a healthy state has its cells full 
of moisture, this condition keeping the plant 
" turgid," while a plant which lacks moisture, 
owing to transpiration going on more rapidly 
than absorption (as is the case in very dry hot 
weather) is said to become " flaccid." Hence it 
is that we see the foliage of plants and trees 
drooping and having a withered appearance 
during dry seasons but freshening up again after 
a fall of rnin. For the same reason herbaceous 
garden plants which are shallow rooted and 
cannot secure the necessary supply of water from 
the soil require to be watered in dry weather, to 
prevent them withering off. 
OBITUAEY. 
Sir Henry Gilbert, F.R.S.— Sir H. Gilbert, 
the distinguished agricultural chemist and life- 
long colleague of the late Sir John Bennet Lawes 
in the Rothamsted agricultural experiments, died 
on Monday, December 'iSrd, at his residence at Har- 
penden, St. Albans. Joseph Henry Gilbert, son of 
the Rev. Joseph Gilbert, and his wife Ann Taylor, 
of Ongar, was born at Hull in 1817. He studied 
in the laboratory of Professor Thomas Thomson 
at Glasgow University, and then proceeded to 
University College, London, where he attended 
the lectures of Professor Thomas Graham, and 
•worked in the laboratory of Dr. Antony Todd 
Thomson, where J. B. Lawes, three years' Gilbert's 
senior, was also a pupil. He next went to the 
University of Giessen to study chemistry under 
Liebig, and there he took the degree of Ph, D. 
In 184.3, Gilbert, at the age of twenty-six, became 
associated with Lawes, and assumed control of 
the chemical laboratory at the Rothamsted experi- 
mental station, Harpenden. The collaboration of 
these two pioneers in the field of scientific agri- 
cultural research lasted for fifty-seven years, and 
was only terminated by the death of Sir John 
Lawes on August 31st, 1900. 
Sir Henry Gilbert was elected a member of the 
Society of Arts in 1855 ; and in 1893 the Albert 
gold medal was awarded to Sir John Lawes, and 
a like medal to Dr. Gilbert, "for their joint 
services to scientific agriculture, and notably for 
the researches which, throughout a period of fifty 
years, have been carried on by them at the 
Experimental Farm, Rothamsted." These medals 
were presented to the two recipients on February 
23rd, 1894, by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales 
(President of the Society) at Marlborough House. In 
1893 Dr. Gilbert received the honour of kinghood. 
FOOD GRAINS AND FODDERS. 
The Agricultural Ledger, No. 10 of 1901 consists 
of a report by Dr. Leather, Assistant Agricultural 
Chemist to the Government of India on the 
chemical composition of Indian Food Grains and 
Fodders. Among the food grains treated of are 
some of those cultivated in this Island, and it will 
therefore be of interest to our readers to know 
something about the chemical composition and 
food value of these products. We are a little dis- 
appointed to find that though wheit and barley 
are included in the repor^, paddy or rice are 
omitted. We have little doubt, however, that 
the missing crop will find a place in the second 
edition which it is intended to publish shortly. 
The following introductory remarks by Dr. 
Leather are important to a correct utiderstanding 
of the results of analyses that follow : — 
An accurate knowledge of the chemictil compo- 
sition of the Food crops of any country is of im- 
portance. In the case of India, the information 
of this natm'e, which has been available in the 
past, is very limited. On the other hand the num- 
ber of crops of different natural orders is larger 
than in most countries, and that of varieties of 
the same crop is correspondingly greater. Conse- 
quently, the chemical analysis cf only a few 
specimens of each of these varieties would entail 
a work of very considerable magnitude. Such, 
for the present, is not being attempted. If, how- 
ever, the chief characteristics of the composition 
of the principal crops is determined, a want which 
is experienced by those who are studying Indian 
agriculture will be in part supplied. 
Regarding the methods of analysis a few words 
may be usefully added. These are not quite uni- 
formly the same in all countries, and consequently 
the published analyses of food stuffs are not 
always comparable in details. The following 
notes are therefore made. 
Moisture. — This has been determined in all cases 
by drying in an air-oven at about 100 ' c. 
The oil has been extracted from the air-dry 
sample with rectified, but not desiccated, ether. 
The ether extract has usually only been deter- 
mined in the grain, in which case it may be 
assumed to be almost entirely oil. 
In the green fodders and straw or bhusa of 
crops, the matter soluble in ether includes largely 
other substances than oil, such as wax, chloropliyl 
or even alkaloids in some cases. It ha«, therefore, 
been generally omitted from the analysis of these 
materials. 
Albuminoids. — In some of the older samples, 
the proportion of albuminoid nitrogen was not 
separately determined, and for these the amount 
of total nitrogen has been multiplied by the usual 
factor 6*2o and the product entered as Albuminoids. 
All such have been marked with an *. In 
most of the samples the albuminoid nitrogen 
was separated by Retthousen's method (precipi- 
tation with Capric hydrate). In a few other cases 
Church's method was employed. As will be seen, 
nearly the whole of the nitrogen in grain exists as 
albuminoids ; it is only in fodders that any very 
marked divergence exists between the amount of 
total and albuminofd nitrogen. 
Soluble Carbohydrates. — This term is applied in 
England to those component parts of food stuffs 
which are not separately determined. 
