ordinary results that might and probably will yet be reached in thus improving and multiplying the varieties of Indian corn, by the joint aid of careful selection, judicious crossing, and thorough cultivation. 66 "This plant," says a writer in the New York Daily Tribune, hybridizes with great facility. Some choice varieties have originated in this way, and others will undoubtedly be forthcoming, as no topic occupies more space in our agricultural journals than corn and its culture. Small fortunes have been realized by the originators of new strawberries, raspberries, and other perishable fruits. Others have grown rich by providing machines for shelling and grinding corn, and chopping the stalks into fodder. But to the fortunate author of a variety which will measurably supplant all others, there will be a rich reward." We have every reason to believe that there is at least as wide a margin for improvement, in the case of Indian corn, as Webb and other eminent breeders have found, in the case of cattle and sheep. The results already achieved in this direction clearly enough indicate that a broad field for useful and remunerating effort is here presented to the culti vator. Whoever will apply to this subject the requisite care, judgment, skill, and patience, will find ample compensation in the production of a quality of maize superior to any yet known. The competition is open to all. The humblest farmer in the country is just as likely, as the wealthy owner of a thousand acres, to be the founder of a new variety of corn that shall be, to all other varieties, what the South Down or the Merino is among sheep, or the stately Durham among cattle. LIBRA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN. THE chemical constituents of maize, according to Dr. Jackson, are starch, dextrine, gum or mucilage, sugar, gluten, albumen, oil, phosphoric acid, phosphate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, silica, potash, and oxide of iron. The proportions in which these elements are combined vary according to the variety of corn, and also, but in a less degree, according to soil and other circumstances. A careful attention to the component parts of this plant, and a general acquaintance with the subject, are both useful and essential to the practical farmer. No man who goes on from year to year planting, cultivating, and harvesting his most important crop, without any definite idea of the elements composing it, can consider himself creditably posted in his business. The following is the analysis of Dr. Dana: Flesh forming principles, (gluten and albumen). 12.60 In the ruta baga, according to Dr. Dana, the fatforming principle amounts to 13 per cent., and in the potato to 24.34; while the proportion of flesh-forming substance in the former is equal to only 1 per cent., and in the latter to 2.07 per cent. As these roots are used, more or less, in feeding to stock, it is of some interest to the farmer to compare their nutritive and fattening properties, as here stated, with those of Indian corn: ANALYSIS OF INDIAN CORN (when dried at 212. Fahr., to expel the water), by PROF. JOHNSTON. The following table, by Prof. Johnston, gives the composition of the ash of corn-stalks, as compared with a similar analysis of the straw of wheat, barley, oats, and rye. The proportion of each constituent is given for one thousand pounds of the ash: The ash of the grain of each of the above, when analyzed, gives the following proportions: These tables will serve to guide the farmer in the application of fertilizers to his corn. They indicate the proportions in which the various constituents of both the grain and the stalk should be found in the soil. If, for example, he is about to plant a corn crop exclusively for the fodder, he finds that soda and silica are required in the soil, in far larger proportions than any other inorganic element, and next to these |