THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
ing horses and men for large machines. There is a ge¬ 
neral exemplification throughout of the old rule, “A 
place for every thing, and every thing in its place.” The 
proprietor does nearly all the work on this farm with 
his own hands; and after what has been said, he takes 
and reads an agricultural paper—the Cultivator. 
MR. NORTON’S ANALYSIS OF OATS. 
Mr. Editor —Having read with some attention the 
very excellent paper on the analysis of the oat, by which 
Mr. J. P. Norton, (recently appointed to fill the new 
professorship of Agriculture, in Yale College,) won the 
prize of fifty sovereigns offered by the Highland Agri¬ 
cultural Society of Scotland, I was much struck with the 
confirmation which the various tables of constituents of 
the straw, the husk, and the grain of this plant gives to 
the well known fact that oats grown on stony ground 
are much superior to those grown on any other kind of 
soil. This analysis also confirms in some degree an 
opinion expressed in a former number of this volume, 
that food containing much oil was necessary for a good 
development of muscle, or that men and animals were 
able to do the most work when fed on aliment con¬ 
taining oily or fatty principles. In proof of this, Mr. 
Norton has found in the grain of the several varieties 
of the oat which he experimented on, from 5.44 to 
7.38 per cent, of oil, nearly equalling in this respect, the 
quantity contained in the most oleaginous of farinaceous 
grains, Indian corn, which, according to Boussingault, 
contains 7 per cent., and according to Liebig, (whom I 
do not repose confidence in relative to this grain,) only 
5 per cent. 
It is well known also that potatoes owe their value as 
food, whether for man or cattle, to the starch which 
they contain. Oats appear also to derive much of their 
value from the same source, the grain containing a little 
over three-fifths or 65 per cent, of starch. But it is the 
analysis of the inorganic part of the oat which is of the 
most consequence to the farmer should he wish to make 
use of science as an aiu to agriculture. There are many 
sections of the country, where it has been as yet 
impossible for the farmer to grow as heavy a crop 
of oats on his good rich ground as he could on that 
which was poorer, owing chiefly to want of stamina in 
the straw to support the head when fairly loaded; heavy 
oats, when not grown on stony ground, generally 
lodging long before coming to maturity, thus rendering 
the crop light and of little value. This analysis shows 
how the defects arising from these causes may be par¬ 
tially remedied. For instance, the full grown plant is 
divided by Mr. N. into seven parts, viz., the grain, the 
husk, the chaff, the leaf, the top-straw, middle straw, and 
bottom straw, all yielding a different amount of ash, and 
the same kinds of oats growing on different soils vary¬ 
ing from each other in this respect, thus proving that 
the soil exerts a most powerful influence on the whole 
body of the plant. The following table will show how 
well in this instance science agrees with popular opin¬ 
ion :—• 
ttj 
e. £ 
o CS 
- £ 
Jg 
’5 
O 
Hus 
2 
o 
<D 
Sulphuric acid,. 
Phosphoric acid. 
49.19 
9 61 
1.04 
5.32 
O 
GO 
16.33 
18.45 
13.29 
Chloride of sodium,. 
Phosphates of lime, mag¬ 
0 35 
0.24 
5.11 
2 29 
3.13 
| 
3 03 
15.36 
nesia, and iron,. 
Potash,.1 
5.84 
6.13 
2.84 
1 ' 
3.03 
0.78 
Soda,.J 
31.56 
10 26 
7.96 
14 89 
19-09 
21.80 
43 17 
Lime,. 
5 32 
1.95 
4.53 
6 99 
2 55 
7.02 
7 23 
6.06 
Magnesia,. 
Peroxide of iron. 
Peroxide of manganese,. 
8.69 
0.38 
1 84 
| 2.84 
2-91 
2.07 
0.88 
1.58 
0.92 
0 24 
0.30 
1.40 
0.61 
Soluble silica,. 
6! 89 
4.46 
11 99 
5.90 
5.13 
7.34 
5 03 
Insoluble silica,. 
0.98 
68.39 56 05 
45.75 43.31 
33.14 
12 25 
97.86 
98.83[98.90 
99.30 99.99 
98.33 
98.35 
In this, the silica, the element which enters largely 
into the formation of all kinds of stone, is shown to pre_ 
dominate in every case, with the exception of the 
grain and the bottom straw, in the former of which, the 
phosphoric acid and potash are predominant, in the lat¬ 
ter the potash. 
A curious lact is also noticed in the following table, 
and which is well worthy of attention, to wit: 
July 2. 
July 9. 
July 16. 
Potash and Soda,. 
32.92 
31.31 
3i.37 
Chloride of Sodium,. 
10.37 
8.10 
0.61 
Lime,. 
2.79 
5.40 
6 76 
3.44 
4.52 
2.94 
Oxide of Iron.. 
0 39 
0.21 
0.35 
Sulphuric Acid... 
10.35 
12.78 
16.42 
Phosphoric Acid,. 
14.02 
20 09 . 
15.19 
Silica,. 
24.40 
17.05 
26 05 
98.59 
99.46 
99 69 
that in the early period of the growth of the plants, 
chloride of sodium or common salt enters into its 
composition as one of its constituents in so large a propor¬ 
tion as one-tenth, while it nearly disappears at the time 
when the grain is about to form. From these facts put 
before us in relation to this plant in such plain and indis¬ 
putable figures, it might be concluded that on those soft 
loamy soils, which contain little gritty matter, a heavy 
top-dressing.of,a compost made of the scrapings of streets 
of towns, a few bushels of lime and leached ashes to¬ 
gether with a small proportion of salt, spread on and 
harrowed in at the time the oats are sown, would am¬ 
ply repay the expense and trouble of its application, 
and might perhaps enable some of the incredulous them¬ 
selves to grow a few of those 80 or 120 bushel crops, 
that bear off the prizes from the State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety every season. Do you not think so? J. 
P. S. The prize offered by the Highland Society of 
Scotland, having drawn out such an able paper on the 
staple grain of that country, would it not be proper for 
the society of this state, which undoubtedly now has 
ample means, to offer at least as valuable a prize for the 
best paper on the analysis of Indian corn, inviting 
foreign as well as our own chemists to compete for it? 
There can be little doubt but an analysis of com 
conducted in the same manner as that of Mr. Norton’s 
on the oat, would develope some highly useful facts, 
which would have an economical bearing on the culture 
of one of our favorite crops, especially when it is con¬ 
sidered that statements have been made, that more of 
that necessary of life, sugar , may be procured from an 
acre of corn, properly grown for that purpose, than 
from an acre of sugar cane! 
The following beautiful ode was composed for the 
annual celebration of the Berkshire (Mass.) Agricultu¬ 
ral Society, in 1823, by William C. Bryant, Esq. It 
may be new to some of our readers. 
Far back in the ages 
The plow with wreaths was crown’d, 
The hands of kings and sages 
Entwin’d the chaplet round ; 
’Till men of spoil 
Disdain’d the toil 
By which the world was nourish’d, 
And blood and pillage were the soil 
In which their laurels flourish’d. 
—Now the world her fault repairs, 
The guilt that stains her story ; 
And weeeps her crimes amid the cares 
That form’d her earliest glory. 
The proud throne shall crumble, 
The diadem shall wane. 
The tribes of earth shall humble 
The pride of those who reign; 
And war shall lay 
His pomp away; 
The fame that heroes cherish, 
The glory earn’d in deadly fray, 
Shall fade, decay, and perish. 
—Honor waits, o’er all the earth, 
Through endless generations, 
The art that calls the harvests forth, 
And feeds the expectant nations. 
