The oil is nearly formed fat, easily convertible into animal oils by a slight change of composition.

Starch is convertible also into fat, and into the carbonaceous substances of the body, and, during its slow combustion in the circulation, gives out a portion of the heat of animal bodies; while, in its altered state, it goes to form a part of the living frame.

Sugar acts in a similar manner, as a compound of hydrogen, oxygen,

and carbon.

From the phosphates, the substance of bone, and the saline matters of brains, nerves, and other solid and fluid parts of the body, are in a great measure derived.

The salts of iron go to the blood, and there constitute an essential portion of it, whereby it is enabled by successive alterations of its degree of oxidation during the circulation through the lungs, arteries, extreme vessels, and veins, to transport oxygen to every part of the body.

These remarks apply also to the other cereal grains, and in part to leguminous seeds.

It is evident, then, that grain contains all the elements required for the perfect development and support of the bodies of animals; and that even when we consume animal food, we obtain the same ingredients, some of which are presented in a more concentrated form; but they were all originally derived from vegetables, and are but little changed in nature in animals.

From the modern researches of French chemists, it is evident that "flesh. is grass" in a more strict sense than was formerly supposed; Dumas having demonstrated that vegetable fibre is of the same composition as animal fibre; vegetable albumen identical with animal albumen; caseine, or the basis of cheese, also of the same composition as legumen of beans, peas, and other plants; while, at the same time, a kind of cheese was made from beans.

The identity of composition of vegetable and animal proximate principles leads to some remarkable conclusions; and it is now laid down by the French chemists, that plants are the exclusive producers of the proximate principles common to both them and animals; and that animals never produce any of them, but only appropriate those previously formed by plants.

"Plants," says Dumas, " are organs of reduction; animals are organs of combustion. Vegetables produce neutral nitrogenized matters, fat matters, sugar, starch, and gum; decompose carbonic acid gas, absorb heat and electricity, and are an apparatus of reduction.

"Animals consume neutral nitrogenized matters, fat matters, sugar, starch, and gum; produce carbonic acid gas, give out heat and electricity, and are an apparatus of combustion."

14. Brown corn. 15. Tuscarora corn. 16. Burden corn. 17. Pop corn.

18. Barley.

No. 7.

CORN SOWN FOR FODDER.

In a former report, the advantage of sowing corn broadcast for fodder was mentioned. The experiment has been made in various parts of the country, and it is with pleasure that we find the following account from the Pedee Agricultural Society of South Carolina. If, indeed, 10 tons of well-cured fodder can be obtained from an acre in a climate unpropitious for the grasses, the South may hail this experiment as the harbinger of much good.

"The piece of land sown is a narrow slip lying on the Pedee, cleared in 1841, planted in corn the same year, and lay out in 1842. The soil is alluvial, and of a chocolate color. Early in December, 1842, it was shrubbed, and deeply broken up with a narrow scooter. On the 27th of April following, it received a cross-ploughing with a turn plough; and on the 1st of May the corn was sown at the rate of three bushels per acre, ploughed in lightly, and brushed. It grew off finely, receiving no other attention than once or twice to cut down the weeds and bushes that sprang up on its margin; and, what to me was remarkable, it retained its dark-green color during a drought of such length and severity as to cause vegetation elsewhere to exhibit evident signs of suffering. On the 20th July, when the corn was generally in silk, it was cut down with weeding hoes, no other implement answering so well, in consequence of its prostration by a gale of wind a short time previously. The average size of the stalks was about half an inch in diameter, and the height, when erect, from seven to eight feet. Three parcels, of five feet square each, taken from different parts of the piece, weighed, severally, as follows: 88, 90, and 92 pounds. Taking the average weight, we have, per acre, (assuming 4,840 square yards to be an acre,) of green forage, 156,816 pounds. After three days' exposure, the aggregate weight of the three parcels was 150 pounds; which gives, per acre, of partially cured forage, 87,120 pounds. They were then thrown loosely into an open barn, where they remained until the 15th of August; and being then thoroughly cured, weighed together 47 pounds. Taking 15 as the average weight of one parcel, we have, per acre, of thoroughly cured forage, 27,297 pounds. The loss in weight, as above, is greater, perhaps, than it would otherwise have been, in consequence of the corn having been harvested too early-a course I was constrained to pursue, or lose, for a time, the benefit of a large pasture field. The method adopted in curing it was to spread it on racks erected for the purpose, made of poles resting on forks planted in the ground, and to expose new surfaces to the sun as often as it was deemed necessary. A portion of it was thrown under a shelter, on rails so disposed as to admit the free circulation of air. This, being protected from the weather, cured well. With the remainder I did not have equal success, owing to the quantity on hand and the unfavorableness of the season. It was used as a winter food for cattle; they ate it freely, and kept in good condition.

"Of the comparative value of this forage, I am not prepared to speak with accuracy, having instituted no well-conducted experiment to test it; of this, however, I feel confident: that, in no other way with which I am acquainted can good and substantial food for stock be more easily and cheaply procured. The difficulty of saving it is measurably obviated by

cutting no more than can be conveniently managed; and after exposing it for a few days, although it will not be entirely dry, (particularly the juices of the large stalks,) yet it will be sufficiently so as to be safely housed in small quantities; or what, perhaps, would be a better plan for using it, at the same time that it would entirely remove the difficulty above mentioned, would be, to feed it away in its wilted or partially cured state, where a suitable piece of ground for growing it can be procured convenient to the stable or horse lot. It would not only afford a grateful food for the horse, but would also give no small relief to his owner, by coming in at a season when it too often happens there is no great abundance of provender in the barns of the cotton planter.

Respectfully submitted.

"JNO. W. LEAK.”

No. 8-(1.)

IMPROVEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF POTATOES.

Any improvement that can be effected in the quality of potatoes is important. Some observations on the subject, at this season of the year, may possibly, therefore, have a useful tendency.

It is well known that, in some soils, and most seasons, the produce of potatoes is abundant, and their quality excellent; while in others, the quantity is not deficient, but the quality is inferior; and there are situations so unfavorable, that the crop is always bad in every respect. Occasionally, indeed, cold wet seasons deteriorate this important crop, even in the best soil, on which the most skilful cultivation has been bestowed.

Supposing, however, that all has been done that could possibly be effected in the way of good cultivation, yet, when the crop is fit for taking up, its proper after-management is a most important consideration. People think that, if they guard their crop from frost, they have done all that can be needed; but this is a mistake of the worst kind. By improper management after up, potatoes of the finest quality are easily spoiled; and, on the contrary, by judicious treatment, even such as are watery may be much improved.

ous.

It is of the first consequence that light, as well as frost, should be guarded against; for light reuders the tubers unwholesome. The stems, and, in fact, all the parts of the potato plant above ground, are more or less poisonTubers are occasionally formed along the stem; but they are, as we all know, green and bad. This is entirely owing to their exposure to light. Having pointed out one of the sources of deterioration, it may be as well to name a means of improvement. Always dry the tubers before cooking them. If a potato is weighed when fresh taken up, then laid in a dry, warm place for some time, and again weighed, it will be found to have become lighter, in consequence of the evaporation of a portion of its water; and it will then, in cooking, be more floury. In Ireland, with this in view, potatoes, when watery, are often taken out of the caves, and kept in a dry place for a few weeks, and a great improvement is the consequence. The French are aware of this fact. A writer in the Revue Horticole says:

"In unfavorable seasons, potatoes are often found to be watery and with out flavor, although cooked with the greatest care. In this case, the mode of effecting an amelioration is easy: it consists in placing them near a stove or oven for about a week previously to their being used. At the end of that time, they will be found mealy and of good flavor."

The editor of the Farmers' Monthly Visiter has this season raised between twelve and thirteen hundred bushels of potatoes on about six acres of sward land. The ground was prepared in the following manner: After the corn planting had been finished, about the 25th of May, manure (on about one acre compost, and upon the other five acres clear manure from a stable, made during the preceding summer and winter) was laid out in piles, and spread over the grass, which had then already started green from the ground, in furrows of about 12 inches in width; the whole flat was completely turned over, these shutting into each other so close as to leave no vacuum between. With the sod thus inverted, and the manure all covered to the depth of about six inches, the potatoes were planted between every third furrow, at the distance in the rows of about three feet from each other. A hole or crevice was made, from two to three inches below the surface, with a sharpened stick, and, at the distance of 18 inches, a single potato, of the common size, placed in it, and covered up—with a kick of the heel, generally, when the soil would admit of it. Great care was taken that the seed potato should not enter so deep as to go below the upturned sward. In this way the potatoes grew above the soil, while the roots drew sufficient sustenance from the decomposed manure and decayed turf at the bottom. During the whole season, there was no difficulty from weeds; the witch grass in some parts of the field, where it had taken root, did indeed, late in the summer, spring through the inverted turf. The whole process of hoeing the six acres twice cost only 22 days' work of one man. The planting was done with great expedition. In twice hoeing and going over with the cultivator, and the subsequent digging of the potatoes, neither the bottom turf, nor the manure overlaid by it, has as yet been disturbed. The crop of Indian corn intended for the same land next year (according to our present year's experience of a field last year cultivated in the same way) will derive a greater advantage from the manure than the potato crop of the present year.

One advantage of raising potatoes in this manner we believe to have been, the entire freedom of the crop from the disease and rot which have been so generally complained of. The ground was the ordinary intervale of Merrimack river, which had lain so long to grass as to give not much over half a ton of hay to the acre. It was good land, but was much in want of stimulating manure. The crop of potatoes was probably not quite so large as it might have been if the same manure had been mixed in the same depth of soil actually pulverized; neither was the labor of making the crop more than half as much; but the manure is left in the ground, to do much the most effective service hereafter. On a diligent inquiry of our potato diggers, we have not been able to learn that any of the new potatoes were infected with the rot. The earliest kind were taken from the field before the warm weather of September; and those laid in the common cellar have as yet discovered none of those offensive qualities which have been so much a matter of complaint.

One hundred and fifty barrels of the first dug were sent and sold in the Boston market, averaging, after paying the price of transport, 25 cents the