26. Water in grains. Every part of a plant contains ordinarily a certain quantity of water-succulent herbage and fruits like the watermelon having a great deal, while woody parts, seeds, and grains have comparatively little. The quantity of water contained in a given specimen, is estimated by drying a known weight of the material at the temperature of boiling water, and then reweighing to find how much has been lost: the loss will be practically equivalent to the weight of water originally present. In the Food Chart on the student will find indicated the average percentage of moisture in each of the cereals and in various other vegetable foods as commonly found in the markets. A glance will show what a comparatively small amount the cereals contain. For this reason they keep remarkably well when stored, and take up very little room in proportion to the amount of nutriment they afford.