The Elements of Agriculture

Why is grain good for food?

On what does the value of flour depend?

Is there any relation between the ashy part of plants and those of animals?

How may we account for unhealthy bones and teeth?

It is for this reason that grain, such as wheat for instance, is so good for food. It contains both classes of proximates, and furnishes material for the formation of both fat and muscle. The value of flour depends very much on the manner in which it is manufactured. This will be soon explained.

What is a probable cause of consumption?

What is an important use of the first class of proximates?

What may lungs be called?

Explain the production of heat during decomposition.

Why is the heat produced by decay not perceptible?

Apart from the relations between the proximate principles of plants, and those of animals, there exists an important relation between their ashy or inorganic parts; and, food in order to satisfy the demands of animal life, must contain the mineral matter required for the purposes of that life. Take bones for instance. If phosphate of lime is not always supplied in sufficient quantities by food, animals are prevented from the formation of healthy bones. This is particularly to be noticed in teeth. Where food is deficient of phosphate of lime, we see poor teeth as a result. Some physicians have supposed that one of the causes of consumption is the deficiency of phosphate of lime in food.

Why is the heat produced by combustion apparent?

Explain the production of heat in the lungs of animals?

Why does exercise augment the animal heat?

Under what circumstances is the animal's own fat used in the production of heat?

The first class of proximates (starch, sugar, gum, etc.), perform an important office in the animal economy aside from their use in making fat. They constitute the fuel which supplies the animal's fire, and gives him his heat. The lungs of men and other animals may be called delicate stoves, which supply the whole body with heat. But let us explain this matter more fully. If wood, starch, gum, or sugar, be burned in a stove, they produce heat. These substances consist, as will be recollected, of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and when they are destroyed in any way (provided they be exposed to the atmosphere), the hydrogen and oxygen unite and form water, and the carbon unites with the oxygen of the air and forms carbonic acid, as was explained in a preceding chapter. This process is always accompanied by the liberation of heat, and the intensity of this heat depends on the time occupied in its production. In the case of decay, the chemical changes take place so slowly that the heat, being conducted away as soon as formed, is not perceptible to our senses. In combustion (or burning) the same changes take place with much greater rapidity, and the same amount of heat being concentrated, or brought out in a far shorter time, it becomes intense, and therefore apparent. In the lungs of animals the same law holds true. The blood contains matters belonging to this carbonaceous class, and they undergo in the lungs the changes which have been described under the head of combustion and decay. Their hydrogen and oxygen unite, and form the moisture of the breath, while their carbon is combined with the oxygen of the air drawn into the lungs, and is thrown out as carbonic acid. The same consequence—heat—results in this, as in the other cases, and this heat is produced with sufficient rapidity for the animal necessities. When an animal exercises violently, his blood circulates with increased rapidity, thus carrying carbon more rapidly to the lungs. The breath also becomes quicker, thus supplying increased quantities of oxygen. In this way the decomposition becomes more rapid, and the animal is heated in proportion.

Thus we see that food has another function besides that of forming animal matter, namely to supply heat. When the food does not contain a sufficient quantity of starch, sugar, etc., to answer the demands of the system the animal's own fat is carried to the lungs, and there used in the production of heat. This important fact will be referred to again.

CHAPTER VII

LOCATION OF THE PROXIMATES AND VARIATIONS IN THE ASHES OF PLANTS

Of what proximate are plants chiefly composed?

What is the principal constituent of the potato root?

Of the carrot and turnip?

What part of the plant contains usually the most nutriment?

Let us now examine plants with a view to learning the location of the various plants.

The stem or trunk of the plant or tree consists almost entirely of woody fibre; this also forms a large portion of the other parts except the seeds, and, in some instances, the roots. The roots of the potato contain large quantities of starch. Other roots such as the carrot and turnip contain pectic acid,[10 - This pectic acid gelatinizes food in the stomach, and thus renders it more digestible.] a nutritious substance resembling starch.

It is in the seed however that the more nutritive portions of most plants exist, and here they maintain certain relative positions which it is well to understand, and which can be best explained by reference to the following figures, as described by Prof. Johnston:—

Fig. 1.

"Thus a shows the position of the oil in the outer part of the seed—it exists in minute drops, inclosed in six-sided cells, which consists chiefly of gluten; b, the position and comparative quantity of the starch, which in the heart of the seed is mixed with only a small proportion of gluten; c, the germ or chit which contains much gluten."[11 - See Johnston's Elements, page 41.]

Is the composition of the inorganic matter of different parts of the plant the same, or different?

What is the difference between the ash of the straw and that of the grain of wheat?

The location of the inorganic part of plants is one of much interest, and shows the adaptation of each part to its particular use. Take a wheat plant, for instance—the stalk, the leaf, and the grain, show in their ashes, important difference of composition. The stalk or straw contains three or four times as large a proportion of ash as the grain, and a no less remarkable difference of composition may be noticed in the ashes of the two parts. In that of the straw, we find a large proportion of silica and scarcely any phosphoric acid, while in that of the grain there is scarcely a trace of silica, although phosphoric acid constitutes more than one half of the entire weight. The leaves contain a considerable quantity of lime.

What is the reason for this difference?

In what part of the grain does phosphoric acid exist most largely?

This may at first seem an unimportant matter, but on examination we shall see the use of it. The straw is intended to support the grain and leaves, and to convey the sap from the roots to the upper portions of the plant. To perform these offices, strength is required, and this is given by the silica, and the woody fibre which forms so large a proportion of the stalk. The silica is combined with an alkali, and constitutes the glassy coating of the straw. While the plant is young, this coating is hardly apparent, but as it grows older, as the grain becomes heavier, (verging towards ripeness), the silicious coating of the stalk assumes a more prominent character, and gives to the straw sufficient strength to support the golden head. The straw is not the most important part of the plant as food, and therefore requires but little phosphoric acid.

Why is Graham flour more wholesome than fine flour?

Are the ashes of all plants the same in their composition?

The grain, on the contrary, is especially intended as food, and therefore must contain a large proportion of phosphoric acid—this being, as we have already learned, necessary to the formation of bone—while, as it has no necessity for strength, and as silica is not needed by animals, this ingredient exists in the grain only in a very small proportion. It may be well to observe that the phosphoric acid of grain exists most largely in the hard portions near the shell, or bran. This is one of the reasons why Graham flour is more wholesome than fine flour. It contains all of the nutritive materials which render the grain valuable as food, while flour which is very finely bolted[12 - Sifted through a fine cloth called a bolting cloth.] contains only a small part of the outer portions of the grain (where the phosphoric acid, protein and fatty matters exist most largely). The starchy matter in the interior of the grain, which is the least capable of giving strength to the animal, is carefully separated, and used as food for man, while the better portions, not being ground so finely, are rejected. This one thing alone may be sufficient to account for the fact, that the lives of men have become shorter and less blessed with health and strength, than they were in the good old days when a stone mortar and a coarse sieve made a respectable flour mill.

Another important fact concerning the ashes of plants is the difference of their composition in different plants. Thus, the most prominent ingredient in the ash of the potato is potash; of wheat and other grains, phosphoric acid; of meadow hay, silica; of clover, lime; of beans, potash, etc. In grain, potash (or soda), etc., are among the important ingredients.

Of what advantage are these differences to the farmer?

Of what are plants composed?

These differences are of great importance to the practical farmer, as by understanding what kind of plants use the most of one ingredient, and what kind requires another in large proportion, he can regulate his crops so as to prevent his soil from being exhausted more in one ingredient than in the others, and can also manure his land with reference to the crop which he intends to grow. The tables of analyses in the fifth section will point out these differences accurately.

CHAPTER VIII

RECAPITULATION

We have now learned as much about the plant as is required for our immediate uses, and we will carefully reconsider the various points with a view to fixing them permanently in the mind.

Plants are composed of organic and inorganic matter.

What is organic matter? Inorganic?

Of what does organic matter consist? Inorganic?

How do plants obtain their organic food?

How their inorganic?

How is ammonia supplied? Carbonic acid?