! b 
WHEAT. 
diate in this respect. 
in many instances corresponds with that of the 
straw. Thus in specimens 1,.2, 3, 4, 6, ll, we 
have a very low per centage of ash both in the 
straw and chaff; and this might be expected, as the 
chaff is only a prolongation of the straw. The 40 
specimens of chaff give a mean ash of 1225 per 
cent.; so that one-eighth part of the chaff of wheat 
is mineral matter. We have already shown that 
chaff contains on an average 12 25 per cent. of wa- 
ter. No less than one-fourth, then, of its whole 
weight consists of matter incapable of affording nou- 
rishment to animals; this should be taken into ac- 
count in estimating the feeding properties of wheat- 
chaff—every ton of it being equivalent to 15 cwt. 
only of solid vegetable food. According to the cal- 
culation just given, a ton of chaff would contain 
274 lbs. (about 24 cwt.) of mineral matter. The 
largest amount removed from an acre by the chaff 
in any of the crops described, is seen in specimens 
32 and 33, where it reaches 85 lbs. 
‘© Of the ash in the grain:—From the last table it 
will be seen that the quantity of ash for a given 
weight of grain is not by any means constant, though 
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 af- 
forded from 15 to 17 per cent. of mineral matter. 
The analysis of 62 specimens of the grain has af- 
forded 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 composition, 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 five 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 would 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. Mor- 
ton’s specimens of red-straw white and Hopeton 
wheat, although grown on different soils, possess 
very little latitude in the quantity of ash. 
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 from 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, 161 
‘ ' - clay, A 1:63 
» 40, ‘sp sand, 171 
» 441, x clay, 1:69 
It is clear that in these instances no alteration in 
the quantity of mineral matter of the grain is pro- 
duced by the very opposite description of soil on 
The ash in the chaff, indeed, | which the crops were grown. 
In speci- | 
mens 38 and 39, 40 and 41, we have very strong | : ‘ : Bish! 
very nearly the amount which our results. indicate. 
The quantity of ash then would appear to be inverse- 
ly as the crop—that is, the quantity of mineral mat- 
| ter does not increase with the amount of crop, but is © 
701 
Again, does climate 
exercise any influence on the quantity of ash of 
wheat? So far as the differences of locality afforded 
by Sir John Johnstone’s specimens in Yorkshire, 
Mr. Huxtable’s in Dorsetshire, Mr. Morton’s in the 
vale of Gloucester, and our own on the Cotswolds, 
can afford an answer to this question, it is already 
given. Climate does not exert any marked influ- 
ence on the quantity of ash in the grain. We have, 
however, better instances than these, in the result 
of the estimation of ash in several specimens of fo- 
reign grain :— 
French wheat, 4 1:55 |} Rostock wheat, . 3 161 
Egyptian wheat, - 1:97 | Spanish wheat, . 1.65 
Odessa wheat, 1:50 } Dantzic wheat, é 171 
Marianople wheat, . - 1:70 Ditto, . 146 
Rostock wheat, . 1:46 Ditto, 147 
Here we observe differences which are as great, 
| though not greater than in specimens from the soils 
of our own country. Warm climates cannot be said 
to favour the abstraction (by the grain) of mineral 
matter from the soil, for in Spanish wheat we have 
a low per centage of ash; and although the Egyptian 
grain gives more ash than any other specimen we 
have examined, the excess is hardly worth notice. 
Spec. —. Egyptian wheat gives 1:97 
y» 21. From Yorkshire ; 1-94 
», 03. April wheat from Worcester 1:92 
47. From Mr. Morton 1:90 
We cannot then give to the climate credit for creat- 
ing differences in respect to the quantity of ash in 
the grain. If climate create no difference, aspect 
and locality are equally insufficient to account for 
the observed discrepancies. But though the charac- 
ter of the soil (that is, whether it be light or heavy, 
silicious or calcareous), though the variety of the 
crop, the climate, aspect, and locality, do not seem 
materially or uniformly to influence the quantity of 
ash, there is still another circumstance which may 
in part affect the question ;—this is, the mineral con- 
stitution of the soil, irrespective of texture—-the 
quantity and condition of mineral food at the com- 
mand of the crop; and although we cannot speak 
positively on the point, there is evidence in favour 
of the view, which does not exist for any of the 
others. * * * It is curious that the larger the 
crop in any instance, the smaller in general is the 
per centage of ash in the grain. ‘Twenty-eight 
bushels has been shown to be the mean crop per acre 
of the specimens we have examined, and 1°67 per 
cent. the amount of ash. If we collect, on the one 
hand, all those specimens which exceed, and, on the 
other, those which fall short of this per centage, tak- 
ing the mean of their quantities and of the per cent- 
age of ash, we shall obtain the following result :— 
T'he mean of specimens affording less than 1°67 per 
cent. of ash, is 
30 bushels of grain to the acre, 
And 1:56 per cent. of ash. 
Of those affording more than 1°67 per cent. of ash, 
the mean is 
And 
27 bushels of grain to the acre, 
1°76 per cent. of ash. 
Now 
Ash. 
1:76 Bg 27 
Ash, 
Bushels. 
: 1:58; 
Bushels. 
As 30 5 
less in proportion to the vegetable. matter in the 
large than in the smaller produce. This would seem 
to lead to the inference that the quantity of mineral 
matter present in plants is to a certain extent regu- 
lated by the abundance of the supply. 
- © Of the chemical composition of the ash of wheat 
grain:—The following table shows the amount of 
each of the mineral ingredients in 26 specimens of 
the ash of wheat :— 
