1S46. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
241 
g5SggTO7 ^'.m ’ 'jM-;^gaa^i^^ ^ 
much more simple. The marble block I, is compara¬ 
tively an expensive part of the apparatus, and by the ad¬ 
vice of my tenant’s wife, has been laid aside, and a thick 
board of hard wood has been substituted. She objects 
that the marble extracts the color from the butter, 
which has much influence upon the taste of all but the 
blind. 
Several years’ use of this butter worker has furnished 
satisfactory evidence that by it much of the labor of 
making butter may be saved, and the butter made of a 
better quality. Under no circumstances should the 
hands ever be allowed to come in contact with the but¬ 
ter, either in its manufacture or packing. 
Johnt W. Lincoln. 
Worcester , June 9, 1845. 
NITROGENOUS MATTER IN OATS. 
is but little more than 10 per cent.; the advantage is 
therefore clearly with the oat. 
Prof. Johnston is also perfectly correct as to the 
quantity of fat yielded by the oat, many trials having 
been made in his laboratory during the two past years. 
My own trials have all given from 5 to 7 per cent of 
oil. 
As to the comparative value of oatmeal and wheaten 
flour, I shall perhaps at a future time write more at 
length; at present I will only say, that experience in 
Scotland fully bears out Prof. Johnston’s analyses. 
John P. Norton. 
Farmington, Ct ., June, 1846. 
WOOL-GROWING- IN THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTH 
CAROLINA—WILL IT SUCCEED ? 
Mr. Tucker. — I notice in the April number of the 
Genesee Farmer for 1846, mention of some apparent 
mistakes in Prof. Johnston’s comparison of flour from 
and wheat. The table 
given 
is as 
follows: 
Wheat. 
Oats. 
Muscular matter,.... 
. 10 lbs. 
18 lbs. 
Fat,. 
. 3 
6C 
6 “ 
Starch, . 
cc 
65 “ 
63 
89 
The editor of the Farmer says—“ if 100 lbs. of fine 
wheaten flour contain but 63 lbs. of starch, gluten, j 
(muscular matter,) and fat, all told, what shall we call j 
the other 37 lbs. of something, in 100 lbs. of dry 
flour?” 
I think there is undoubtedly a misprint in the quan- | 
tity of starch given above. The average quantity ob- j 
tained by Vauquelin, Zenneck, Payen, and others, is 
between 60 and 70 per cent. To this is to be added 
the gum, the ash, and a small quantity of woody fibre, ; 
beside from 8 to 14 per cent, ol water, which is always j 
to be obtained from what is considered the dryest 
wheaten flour or oatmeal. 
The editor of the Farmer then proceeds to quote the j 
following table from Prof. Johnston; 
The grain of wheat contains f’m 8 to 35 per ct. of gluten, j 
“ rye “ 9 to 13 “ 
“ barley “ 3 to 6 « 
“ oats « 2 to 5 “ 
He then says:—“How wheat, as is well known, can | 
yield from 8 to 35 lbs. of gluten in 100, and oats only I 
from 2 to 5 lbs., and yet oatmeal contain 80 per cent. | 
more gluten than wheat flour, passes our comprehen¬ 
sion. Indeed the statement is an absurdity.” 
This paragraph seems entirely founded on a misap- j 
prehension of Prof. Johnston’s meaning. The above j 
table is intended to show only the proportion of gluten \ 
alone, not of nitrogenous compounds. It is true that 
the oat has very little gluten; but it has a body analo- j 
gous in many respects to the casein of milk, which has 
been called avenine. 
The editor of the Farmer must be aware that the ! 
proteine of Mulder, forms, as it were, the type of a ; 
class of bodies precisely similar in composition, with 
the exception of certain proportions of sulphur and 
phosphorus; among these, are fibrin, vegetable albu- j 
men, the serum of the blood, &c. To this class also 11 
belong the gluten of wheat, and the casein or avenine j 
of oats. Gluten is composed of proteine 10, sulphur 2; j 
casein of oats, proteine 10, sulphur 1. The casein of i 
oats is therefore fully equal to the gluten of wheat, and ! 
the mistake in the above paragraph arises from the sup- j 
position that gluten is the only body in the oat which I 
goes to the formation of muscle. 
As to the quantity of this substance in comparison I 
with that of the gluten in wheat. Prof. Johnston is no I 
doubt nearly correct. I have found it as high as 22 per j 
cent., though I should be inclined to place the average i 
at 16 per pent. Now though some wheat has been 
found to yield more than 30 per cent, of gluten, the 
average of the trials of Vauquelin, and other authorities, 
Mr. Tucker —In reading Morrell’s “ A merican Shep¬ 
herd ” I find the following in relation to sheep hus¬ 
bandry in the mountains of North Carolina, p. 146-7: 
He says :—?“ In large districts of the mountainous por¬ 
tions of North Carolina, sheep can be reared at perhaps 
as little expense as any section of the United States.” 
Then follows an extract from a letter addressed to Mr. 
Skinner, by the Hon. T. L. Clingman, of North Caroli¬ 
na, designating some of the districts in that state best 
adapted to wool growing, embraced in the counties 
of Yancy, Haywood, &c. Mr. C. says, the elevation of 
Burnsville, the county seat of Yancy, is about 2,900 
feet above the level of the ocean, and that the general 
level of the country is much higher. The climate is 
represented as being delightfully cool in summer, the 
mercury seldom rising higher than 70 or 80 degrees. 
Very little of the country is said to be too rough for 
cultivation. A large portion, it is said, is a sort of ele¬ 
vated table land, undulating, but not too much broken. 
“Even,” says Mr. C., “as one ascends the higher 
mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats 
of level land containing several hundred acres in a body. 
The top of the Roan, the highest mountain in the 
country except the Black, is covered by a prairie for 
ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during the 
greater part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual 
that persons ride to the top on horse back from almost 
any direction. The same may be said of many of the 
other mountains. The soil of the country generally is 
uncommonly fertile, producing with tolerable cultiva¬ 
tion, abundant crops. What seems extraordinary to a 
stranger, is the fact that the soil becomes richer as he 
ascends the mountains. The sides of the Roan, the 
Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation even of 
five or six thousand feet above the sea, are covered with 
a deep rich vegetable mould, so soft that a horse in dry 
weather sinks up to the fetlock. The fact that the soil 
is frequently more fertile as one ascends, is, I presume, 
attributable to the circumstance that the higher por¬ 
tions are more commonly covered with clouds, and the 
vegetable matter being thus kept in a cool moist state 
while decaying, is incorporated to a greater degree with 
the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the 
north side of a hill is richer than the portion most ex¬ 
posed to the action of the sun’s rays.” 
Now, Mr. Editor, I think that time and experience 
will teach that the mountains of North Carolina are un¬ 
suitable for sheep, especially those portions alluded to 
by Mr. C., in the preceding extract. I formerly thought 
with Mr. C., that in time it would become a fine sheep 
country; but since I have turned farmer, and kept 
sheep, I think those who embark in the sheep business 
in that section will be disappointed. 
In another part of Mr. Morrell’s work, p. 193, he says: 
“ The soil most suitable for sheep is a dry one. It is 
emphatically an upland animal, and loves the short and 
varied herbage of hill and mountain slopes, provided 
the soil is not poachy from an excess of moisture. To 
no other domestic quadruped is water more repugnant, 
unless when necessary to lave its thirst, as will be seen 
in its aversion to crossing streams, and always selecting 
the driest points for feeding and rest. 
