The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 33

4. The deterioration of many of the samples of wheat and wheat flour arises in most cases from the presence of a too large per centage of water. This is often the result of a want of proper care in the transport, and is the princ.i.p.al cause of the losses which are sustained by those who are engaged in this branch of business.

5. There seems to be little doubt that a considerable portion of the wheat and wheat flour, as well as of other breadstuffs, s.h.i.+pped from this country to England, is more or less injured before it reaches that market. It is also shown that this is mostly to be ascribed to the want of care above noticed, and to the fraudulent mixture of good and bad kinds. The remedy in the former case is the drying of the grain or flour before s.h.i.+pment, by some of the modes proposed, and the protection of it afterwards as completely as possible from the effect of moisture. The frauds which are occasionally practised should be promptly exposed, and those who are engaged in them held up to merited reproach.

6. It has been fully shown, by the results of many trials, that the flour obtained by the second grinding of wheat, or the whole meal, contains more gluten than the fine flour. Hence the general use of the latter, and the entire rejection of the bran, is wasteful, and ought in every way to be discouraged.

7. It cannot but be gratifying to us that the average nutritive value of the wheat and wheat flour of the United States is shown by these a.n.a.lyses to be fully equal to, if not greater than, that afforded by the samples produced in any other part of the world. And it will, in my opinion, be chiefly owing to a want of proper care and of commercial honesty, if the great advantages which should accrue to this country from the export of these articles are either endangered or entirely lost.

TABLE EXHIBITING THE PER CENTAGE COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS SAMPLES OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN WHEAT FLOUR, BY LEWIS C. BECK, M.D. (1849).

----------------------------------+-----+-------+------+-------------- | |Gluten | | Glucos | Kind of Wheat Flour, and from | | and | |dextrine,| whence obtained |Water|alb.u.men|Starch| &c. |Bran ----------------------------------+-----+-------+------+---------+---- Country Mills, New Jersey |12.75| 11.55 | 65.95| 8.10 | .65 West Jersey Wheat |12.80| 12.32 | 69.48| 5.90 | .50 White Wheat, New Jersey |11.55| 12.60 | 66.85| 8.50 | .50 Pennsylvania Wheat |11.90| 13.16 | 66.20| 7.25 | .75 ditto ditto |13.35| 12.73 | 66.90| 6.50 | .52 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |13.35| 14.72 | 71.28 | .65 Pelham Wheat, Ulster Co., N.Y. |10.79| 13.17 | 67.74| 7.60 | .70 "Pure Genesee" Wheat |13.20| 11.05 | 75.20 | .55 Ohio Wheat, "fine" |12.85| 12.25 | 73.90 |1.00 Ohio Wheat, "superfine" |13.00| 9.10 | 77.80 | .10 Winter Wheat, Ohio |13.10| 11.56 | 66.84| 7.90 | .60 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |13.05| 12.69 | 73.61 | .65 Michigan Wheat, "superfine" |13.25| 11.10 | 74.80 | .85 Michigan Wheat |12.25| 10.00 | 67.70| 8.75 | .75 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |12.75| 11.20 | 66.00| 8.50 |1.05 Illinois Wheat |12.73| 14.61 | 65.20| 6.45 | .80 Magnolia Mill, St. Louis, Mo. |13.13| 10.27 | 69.75| 6.15 | .35 Mound Mill, St. Louis |13.48| 10.53 | 67.35| 8.15 | .20 Walsh's Mill, St. Louis |12.70| 10.63 | 69.40| 6.65 | .40 Was.h.i.+ngton Mill, St. Louis |12.88| 11.00 | 68.65| 7.27 | .20 Missouri Mill, St. Louis |13.00| 10.46 | 67.79| 8.35 | .40 O'Fallan's Mill, St. Louis |12.85| 11.25 | 68.24| 7.00 | .66 Phoenix Mill, St. Louis |13.22| 10.10 | 68.70| 7.30 | .15 Nonantum Mill, St. Louis |12.10| 11.02 | 68.60| 7.93 | .35 Franklin Mill, St. Louis |12.25| 10.29 | 69.85| 7.26 | .35 Eagle Mill, St. Louis |11.00| 10.15 | 69.50| 8.65 | .20 Winter Wheat, Missouri |14.00| 9.30 | 70.05| 6.30 | .35 Wisconsin Wheat |12.80| 13.20 | 68.90| 6.50 | .70 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |12.80| 13.46 | 72.54 |1.20 Maryland Wheat |13.00| 12.30 | 66.65| 7.10 | .65 Richmond City Mill |11.70| 13.00 | 67.50| 6.90 | .50 Haxall and Co., Richmond, Va. |11.40| 12.80 | 68.50| 6.60 | .35 Virginia Wheat, "superfine" |12.05| 12.95 | 74.50 | .50 Haxall and Co., "best brand, '49" |11.40| 13.25 | 68.20| 6.25 | .60 Haxall and Co., "2nd brand, '49" |11.00| 13.20 | 75.60 | .20 Richmond City Mill, '49 |11.90| 10.50 | 70.00| 7.10 | .50 Oregon White Wheat, Va. |12.80| 14.80 | 71.30 |1.10 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |13.85| 14.50 | 65.15| 5.90 | .60 Gallego Mill, Richmond, Va. |11.50| 13.50 | 68.35| 6.00 | .65 s.h.i.+p Brandywine, Liverpool |13.38| 10.62 | 67.60| 7.75 | .65 s.h.i.+p Fanchon, Liverpool |13.83| 11.38 | 67.45| 6.34 |1.00 s.h.i.+p New World, Liverpool |13.65| 11.60 | 65.80| 7.70 | .65 s.h.i.+p Juniata, Liverpool |12.50| 14.14 | 64.20| 8.36 | .80 s.h.i.+p Stephen Lurman, Liverpool |11.65| 13.18 | 64.50| 9.55 | .68 s.h.i.+p Leila, Liverpool |13.22| 13.18 | 64.65| 8.00 | .95 s.h.i.+p Oxenbridge, Liverpool |13.90| 10.13 | 68.42| 7.30 | .25 | |& bran | | | s.h.i.+p Italy, Liverpool |12.94| 10.60 | 68.56| 7.90 | s.h.i.+p West Point, Liverpool |14.30| 12.30 | 63.00| 9.45 | .95 s.h.i.+p W.H. Harbeck, Liverpool |13.53| 10.18 | 66.95| 8.80 | .30 s.h.i.+p Princeton, Liverpool |13.40| 11.52 | 65.60| 7.90 | .85 s.h.i.+p Columbus, Liverpool |13.50| 10.45 | 66.45| 8.50 |1.03 s.h.i.+p Russell Glover, Liverpool |13.45| 10.47 | 66.20| 8.83 |1.05 s.h.i.+p South Carolina, Liverpool |13.80| 9.00 | 70.80| 5.95 | .38 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |13.30| 9.45 | 76.90 | .35 s.h.i.+p Cambridge, Liverpool |14.50| 8.52 | 70.60| 5.40 | .40 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |14.10| 9.10 | 70.55| 5.45 | .20 s.h.i.+p Columbus, Liverpool |14.85| 8.47 | 76.48 | .20 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |14.15| 9.00 | 76.60 | .25 s.h.i.+p Ashburton, Liverpool |13.55| 11.68 | 69.22| 5.30 | .25 Wheat grown in Canada West |12.80| 7.23 | 74.12| 5.10 | .75 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |12.60| 8.45 | 78.55 | .40 Chilian Wheat |12.44| 9.45 | 67.80| 8.37 |1.30 Chilian Wheat |12.85| 8.65 | 71.60| 6.10 | .60 | |& bran | | | Valparaiso Wheat |12.50| 14.55 | | | French Wheat |13.20| 9.85 | 69.00| 7.65 | .30 Spanish Wheat |13.50| 10.30 | 68.90| 7.00 | .30 Canivano Wheat |11.33| 16.35 | 63.10| 6.50 |2.30 Canivano Wheat |11.15| 15.40 | 67.25| 5.70 | .60 ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |12.60| 18.70 | 67.00 |1.70 Hard wheat, grown near Malaga |10.87| 12.15 | 64.38| 12.60 | | | | |& lactic acid ditto ditto (2nd grinding) |10.00| 14.50 | 60.20| 15.30 | ----------------------------------+-----+-------+------+---------+----

There is no crop, the skilful and successful cultivation of which on the same soil, from generation to generation, requires more art than is demanded to produce good wheat. To grow this grain on fresh land, adapted to the peculiar habits and wants of the plant is an easy task. But such fields, except in rare instances, fail sooner or later to produce sound and healthy plants, which are little liable to attacks from the malady called "rust," or which give lengthened ears or "heads," well filled with plump seeds.

Having long resided in the best wheat-growing district in the Union, the writer has devoted years of study and observation to all the influences of soil, climate, and const.i.tutional peculiarities, which affect this bread-bearing plant. It is far more liable to s.m.u.t, rust, and shrink in some soils than in others. This is true in western New York, and every other section where wheat has long been cultivated. As the alkalies and other fertilizing elements become exhausted in the virgin soils of America, its crops of wheat not only become smaller on an average, but the plants fail in const.i.tutional vigor, and are more liable to diseases and attacks from parasites and destructive insects. Defects in soil and improper nutrition lead to these disastrous results. Soils are defective in the following particulars:

1. They lack soluble silica, or flint in an available form, with which to produce a hard gla.s.sy stem that will be little subject to "rust." Soluble flint is never very abundant in cultivated soils; and after they have been tilled some years, the supply is deficient in quant.i.ty. It is not very difficult to learn with considerable accuracy the amount of silica which rain-water as it falls on the earth will dissolve out of 1,000 grains of soil in the course of eight or ten days. Hot water will dissolve more than cold; and water charged with carbonic acid more than pure water which has been boiled. The experiments of Prof. Rogers of the University of Virginia, as published in Silliman's Journal, have a direct bearing on this subject. The researches of Prof. Emmons of Albany, in his elaborate and valuable work on "Agriculture," as a part of the Natural History of New York, show that 10,000 parts of soil yield only from one to three parts of soluble silica. The a.n.a.lyses of Dr Jackson, as published in his Geological Survey of New Hamps.h.i.+re, give similar results. Earth taken from an old and badly exhausted field in Georgia, gave the writer only one part of soluble flint in 100,000.

What elements of crops rain water, at summer heat, will dissolve out of ten or twenty pounds of soil, in the course of three months, is a point in agricultural science which should be made the subject of numerous and rigid experiments. In this way, the capabilities of different soils and their adaptation to different crops may be tested, in connection with practical experiments in field culture, on the same kind of earth.

Few wheat-growers are aware how much dissolved flint an acre of good wheat demands to prevent its having coa.r.s.e, soft, and spongy stems, which are anything but a healthy organization of the plant. In the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. 7, there is an extended "Report on the a.n.a.lysis of the Ashes of Plants, by Thomas Way, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester," which gives the result of sixty-two a.n.a.lyses of the ash of wheat, from as many samples of that grain, mostly grown on different soils and under different circ.u.mstances.

In this report are given the quant.i.ty of wheat per acre, the weight of straw cut close to the ground to the acre, and also that of the chaff. These researches show, that from ninety-three to one hundred and fifty pounds of soluble flint are required to form an acre of wheat; and I will add from my own investigations, that three-fourths of this silica is demanded by nature during the last sixty days preceding the maturing of the crop. This is the period in which the stem acquires its solidity and strength, and most of its incombustible earthy matter. The quant.i.ty of this varies from three to fifteen per cent. of the weight of the straw. Prof. Johnston and Sir Humphry Davy give instances in which more than fifteen per cent.

of ash was found; and Prof. Way gives cases where less than three per cent. were obtained. The mean of forty samples was four and a half per cent. Dr. Sprengel gives three and a half as the mean of his a.n.a.lyses. M. Boussingault found an average of seven per cent. As flint is truly the _bone_ of all the gra.s.s family, imparting to them strength, as in cane, timothy, corn, oats, rye, rice, millet, and the proportion of this mineral varies as much in wheat-straw, as bone does in very lean and very fat hogs or cattle.

A young growing animal, whether a child or a colt, that is kept on food which lacks _bone-earth_, (phosphate of lime,) will have soft cartilaginous bones. Nature cannot subst.i.tute _iron_ or any other mineral in the animal system, out of which to form hard strong bones; nor can any other mineral in the soil perform the peculiar function a.s.signed to silica in the vital economy of cereal plants.

To protect the living germs in the seeds of wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, &c, the cuticle or bran of these seeds contains considerable flint. The same is true of chaff.

The question naturally arises,--How is the farmer to increase the quant.i.ty of soluble silica or flint in his soil? This is a question of the highest practical importance. There are three princ.i.p.al ways in which the object named may be attained. First, by keeping fewer acres under the plough. Land in pasture, if well managed, will gain its fertility, and in the process acc.u.mulate soluble silica in the surface soil. In this way more wheat and surer crops may be made by cultivating a field in wheat two years than four or six. If the field in the mean time be devoted to wool-growing, b.u.t.ter or cheese-making, or to stock-raising, particular care must be taken to make great crops of gra.s.s or clover to grow on the land, and have all the manure, both solid and liquid, applied to its surface.

There are many counties in England that yield an average of thirty-two bushels of wheat per acre for ten crops in succession.

There are but few of the old counties in the United States which average the half of that quant.i.ty: and yet America has greater agricultural capabilities than that of Great Britain.

Another way to increase soluble silica in the soil, is to grow such crops, in rotation with wheat culture, as will best prevent the loss of dissolved flint, at any time by leaching and was.h.i.+ng, through the agency of rain water. This remark is intended to apply more particularly to those large districts devoted to cotton and tobacco culture, plants that take up no considerable amount of silica, and which by the constant stirring of the earth, and the clean tillage which they demand, favor the leaching of the soil. To keep too much of a plantation of these crops, is to lessen its capabilities for producing good crops of corn, wheat, and barley, at a small expense.

Corn plants, well managed, will extract more pounds of silica in three or six months from the soil, than any other. As not an ounce of this mineral is needed in the animal economy of man or beast, it can all be composted in cornstalks, blades, and cobs, or in the dung and urine derived from corn, and be finally reorganized in the stems of wheat plants. Corn culture and wheat culture, if skilfully and scientifically conducted, go admirably together. Of the two, more bread, more meat, and more _money_ can be made from the corn than from the wheat plant in this country. But so soon as what is called "high farming" in England, shall be popular in the United States, the crops both of wheat and corn grown here will demonstrate how little we appreciate the vast superiority of our climate for the economical feeding and clothing of the human family, over that of our "mother country." In several counties in England, it takes from twelve to fourteen months to make a crop of wheat, after the seed is put into the ground. At or near the first of December, 1847, Mr.

M.B. Moore, of Augusta, Ga., sowed a bushel of seed wheat on an acre and a half of ground, which gave him over thirty bushels by the middle of May following. This ground was then ploughed, and a fine crop of hay made and cut in July. After this, a good crop of peas was raised, and harvested in October, before it was time to seed with wheat again, as was done. While the mean temperature of England is so low, that corn plants will not ripen, in Georgia one can grow a crop of wheat in the winter, and nearly two crops of corn in succession in the summer and autumn, before it is time to sow wheat again. No writer, to my knowledge, has done full justice to the vast agricultural resources of the southern portion of the American confederacy. But there is much of its soil which is not rich in the elements of bread. Nothing but the careful study of these elements, and of the natural laws by which they are governed, can remedy defects in wheat culture anywhere, but especially on very poor land.

All alkaline minerals, such as potash, soda, lime, ammonia, and magnesia, hasten the solution of the several insoluble compounds of silica in the soil. This fact should be remembered by every farmer.

To undertake an explanation of the various ways in which alkalies, oxides, and acids act and re-act upon each other in the surface of the earth, when subject to tillage, would be out of place in this outline view of wheat-growing in the United States. I may state the fact, however, as ascertained by many a.n.a.lyses, that a cubic foot of good wheat soil in the valley of the Genesee, contains twenty times more lime than do the poorest soils in South Carolina and Georgia.

The quant.i.ty of gypsum, bone-earth, and magnesia, available as food for plants, varies in an equal degree. Not only lime, but phosphoric acid, potash, and magnesia are lacking in most soils, if one desires to raise a large crop of wheat, and have the seeds of the grain weigh as much as the straw. In a number of the specimens of wheat a.n.a.lyzed by Prof. Way, when cut close to the roots, the dry wheat outweighed the dry straw.

Having secured the growth of a bright, hard, gla.s.sy stem, the next thing is to develop a long, well-filled ear. To this end, available ammonia or nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, and magnesia are indispensable. Ammonia (spirits of hartshorn) is necessary to aid in forming the combustible part of the seed. The other ingredients named are required to a.s.sist in making the incombustible part of the grain. In 100 parts of the ash of wheat, there are the following substances, viz.:--

Silica 2.28 Phosphoric acid 45.73 Sulphuric acid 0.32 Lime 2.06 Magnesia 10.94 Peroxide of iron 2.04 Potash 32.24 Soda 4.06 Chloride of sodium 0.27 ----- Total 99.94

The quant.i.ty of ash in wheat varies from 1 to 2 per cent.; the average is about 1.69. The amount of phosphoric acid in any given quant.i.ty of the ash of wheat varies from forty to fifty per cent. of the same.

Seeds that have a thick cuticle or bran, and little gluten, contain a smaller per centage of phosphoric acid, and more silica. About one-third of the ash is potash; in nearly all cases magnesia varies from nine to fourteen per cent.; lime from one and a half to six per cent. Peroxide of iron is seldom as abundant as in the ash above given, and the same is true of soda. Chloride of sodium is common salt, and exists in a small quant.i.ty. Salt is beginning to be much used as a fertilizer on wheat lands in western New York. It operates indirectly to increase the crop.

The following may be taken as about the average composition of the ash of wheat-straw. It is "Specimen No. 40," in the tables of Prof.

Way, and I copy verbatim all that is said upon the subject: [Soil, sandy; subsoil, stone and clay; geological formation, silurian; drained; eight years in tillage; crop, after carrots, twenty tons per acre; tilled December, 1845; heavy crop; mown, August 12th; carried, August 20th; estimated yield, forty-two bushels per acre; straw long, grain good, weight sixty-two pounds to the bushel.]

Length of straw, forty-two inches.

_Relation of Grain, Straw and Chaff_.

Actual quant.i.ties. Per centage.

Grain 1633 lbs. 45.15 Straw 1732 47.89 Chaff 250 6.96 ---- Total 3615 lbs.

Specific gravity of grain 1.396 Weight of grain per acre 2604 lbs.

" " straw " " 2,775 3/10ths.

" " chaff " " 401 1/6th.

_Mineral Matter in an Acre._ Wheat 44 lbs.

Straw 113 Chaff 47 1/6th.

----------- Total 204 7/10ths.

_a.n.a.lysis of the Ash of the Grain_.

Per centage. Removed from an acre.

lbs. ozs.

Silica 5.63 2 8 Phosphoric acid 43.98 19 8 Sulphuric acid .21 0 1 1/6th.

Lime 1.80 0 12 8/10ths.

Magnesia 11.69 5 3 2/10ths.

Peroxide of iron .29 0 2 Potash 34.51 15 5 6/10ths.

Soda 1.87 0 13 3/10ths.

----- --- ---------- Total 99.98 44 6 l/10ths.

_a.n.a.lysis of Straw with its proportion of Chaff._ Per centage. Removed per acre.

lbs. ozs.

Silica 69.36 111 1 7/10ths.

Phosphoric acid 5.24 8 6 7/10ths.

Sulphuric acid 4.45 7 2 2/10ths.

Lime 6.96 11 2 2/20ths.

Magnesia 1.45 2 5 Peroxide of iron .29 1 2 Potash 11.79 18 14 Soda none none.

Chloride of sodium " "

----- --- ----------- Total 99.54 160 1 l/10ths.

If we subtract the 111 pounds of silica from 160 pounds of minerals in the straw and chaff, the difference between what are left and those in wheat, is not great. As the stems and leaves of wheat plants grow before their seeds, if all the phosphoric acid, potash, and lime available in the soil is consumed before the organization of the seeds begin, from what source is nature to draw her supply of these ingredients to form a good crop of wheat? If the farmer could reverse the order of nature, and grow a good supply of seeds first, and make straw afterwards, then many a one would harvest more wheat and less straw. But the cultivator must grow the stems, roots, and leaves of wheat, corn, and cotton, before nature will begin to form the seeds of these several plants: and every one should know that the atoms in the soil, which are consumed in organizing the bodies of cultivated plants, are, in the main, identical in kind with those required to make their seeds. The proportions, however, differ very considerably. Thus, while 100 parts of the ash of wheat contain an average of 45 parts of phosphoric acid, 100 of the ash of the wheat straw contain an average of only 5 parts. The difference is as 9 to 1. In magnesia the disparity is only a little less striking.

In what are called the organic elements of wheat (the combustible part) there are seven times more nitrogen in 100 pounds than in a like weight of straw. Hence, if the farmer converts straw into manure or compost, with the view ultimately of transforming it into wheat, it will take 7 pounds of straw to yield nitrogen enough to form one pound of wheat. Few are aware how much labor and money is annually lost by the feeding of plants on food not strictly adapted to the peculiar wants of nature in organizing the same. It is true, that most farmers depend on the natural fertility of the soil to nourish their crops, with perhaps the aid of a little stable and barn-yard manure, given to a part of them. As the natural resources of the land begin to fail, the supply must be drawn from other quarters than an exhausted field, or its cultivator will receive a poor return for the labor bestowed.

In Great Britain, where the necessity for liberal harvests and artificial fertilizing is far greater than in this country, the yield of wheat is said to be governed in a good degree by the amount of ammonia available as food for growing plants. This opinion is founded not at all on theory, but altogether on the teachings of experience. But in England, limeing and manuring are so much matters of constant practice, that few soils are so improverished as many are in the United States, With land as naked and sterile as is much that can be found in the whole thirteen colonies between Maine and Alabama, English farmers could hardly pay their t.i.thes and poor rates, to say nothing of other taxes, rent, and the coat of producing their annual crops.

The first step towards making farming permanently profitable in all the older States, is to acc.u.mulate in a cheap and skilful manner the raw material for good harvests in the soil.

Over a territory so extensive as the United States, it is extremely difficult to lay down any rule that will be applicable even to a moiety of the republic. There are, however, many beds of marl, greensand, gypsum, limestone, saline and vegetable deposits available for the improvement of farming lands, in the Union. In addition to these, there are extraneous resources, the ocean with its fish, its sh.e.l.ls, its sea-weeds, and its fertilizing salts, which will yield an incalculable amount of bread and meat. In the subsoil and the atmosphere, every agriculturist has resources which are not duly appreciated by one in a thousand.

As a general rule, the soil must be _deepened_ before it can be permanently improved. One acre of soil 12 inches deep is worth more to make money from, by cultivating it, than four acres 6 inches in depth. Thus, admit that a soil 6 inches deep will produce 14 bushels of wheat, and that 12 bushels will pay all expenses and give 2 for profit. Four acres of this land will yield a net income of only 8 bushels. Now double the depth of the soil and the crop: making the latter 28 bushels, instead of 14 per acre, and the former 12 inches deep, in the place of 6. Fifteen bushels instead of twelve, will now pay all annual expenses, and leave a net profit not of _two_ but of _thirteen_ bushels per acre. If small crops will pay expenses, large ones will make a fortune; provided the farmer knows how to enrich his land in the most economical way. It is quite as easy to pay too dear for improving lands, as to lose money at any other business whatever.