How to extract QCD baryons from a lattice theory with staggered fermions

The explicit form of the correlation function for the most general local baryon operators is obtained for staggered fermions, in the center of mass. From the discrete symmetries of the action, it is shown that all operators couple to spin-$\text{1}\text{2}$ states only. The whole physical information coming from any numerical simulation, including parity assignments, can be extracted from only one real function of the lattice time. All other correlation functions which can be measured vanish in the limit of large samples of gauge configurations, which may be used as a measure of the statistical significance of data.