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 quantity of ash in wheat varies from 11/4 to 21/2 per cent.; the average is about 1.69.  The amount of phosphoric acid in any given quantity 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 quantity.  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 quantities.  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 1/2 lbs. 
Straw 113
Chaff 47 1/6th.
-----------
Total 204 7/10ths.

Analysis 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.