ON THE CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 
279 
It will be observed on consulting the analyses of Indian corn, in the second volume, that 
different varieties require different amounts of certain elements. While all varieties, and they 
are very numerous, require potash, soda, silica and the phosphates, they do not contain them 
in equal quantities or proportions. Sweet corn, which is an anomalous variety, contains an 
excess of dextrine and albumen, while white or yellow corn contains them only sparingly. 
Thq earthy and alkaline elements of corn are potash, soda, lime and magnesia, which are mostly 
in combination with phosphoric acid. The organic salts, as the crenates and allied compounds, 
are also only feebly represented ; this is certainly the case with the kernels of all the cereals; 
the herbage gives an effervescing ash, indicating the existence of carbonates, which originally 
may have been in the condition of organic salts. Other elements also exist which are essential 
to the composition of the plant, viz. iron, chlorine, sulphuric acid and silica. Magnesia is also 
easily detected in the foliage, and seems, from its frequency, to be constant. There are at 
least ten mineral elements in the corn plant. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, form 
also several combinations ; oxygen is united to silica, to iron, phosphorus, sulphur, lime, mag¬ 
nesia, potash, soda, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen : some of these, however, as they occur 
naturally, are always in combination with oxygen, as potash, soda, lime, magnesia and silica. 
The substances which exist in the largest proportions in the kernels are the eartliy and alkaline 
phosphates. Of the organic bodies starch is largest; sugar and extractive matter, and constitu¬ 
tional water, stand next; oil, gluten, albumen, casein and dextrine, from one half to 24 pej: cent. 
The dextrine being in very large proportions in sweet corn, is indicated in all those varieties 
which shrink, or are indented. To produce seed—to develop the grain, requires a large amount 
of herbage, a great extent of expanded tissues, whose functions are entirely subservient to this 
end. Scarcely any starch can be detected in this part of the plant; it is sometimes found in 
the stem : a substance closely allied to it, in composition, forms the tissue; this is called 
cellulose. 
The value of the maize is not confined to the ears or graip ; the entire plant is valuable, and 
it is highly probable that a greater amount of seed can be obtained from this than any plant 
we now cultivate. For nutriment it compares well with the grasses, and for the amount of 
crop it exceeds them all, when sown broad cast, or in drills, for fodder. The poor man may 
support his cow upon corn fodder, with little expense, by soiling with maize; and the rich 
farmer can also soil for his flock of cows, and derive as much if not more profit than if pastured 
at a distance. The leaves and stalks furnish sugar, chlorophyl and wax, casein and albumen. 
Fibre forms the bulk of the vegetable, as if to show that there must be a substance to make 
bulk and create a moderate tension of the alimentary tissues. 
Maize is attacked by a peculiar kind of smut; it fixes itself upon all parts of the plant; the 
kernel is transformed into a black smutty sac; the cells of the leaves and stalks are swollen 
out and form tumors, which are filled with this substance, and which finally burst, attended 
with an escape of a black powdery juice. This smut is a real plant, developed only in and 
upon the maize. The question, how its productive germs find their way into the tissues, has 
not been satisfactorily answered ; but the indications are that these spores find their way into 
