SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 207 



THE LAW OF GROWTH. 



BY MKS. A. E. CONXABLE, HAMILTON. 



From our observations of Nature, and knowing that the law of 

 growth is applicable to every thing that has expansion and cultiva- 

 tion, from the smallest blade of grass to the highest, the human 

 soul, 



That link 'twixt earth and heaven, 



and that there is no chance work in Nature, and taking all growths in 

 consideration, then the law of growth must be upward. That this is so 

 is the result of the operation of the law, that makes the general result 

 of all growth in the animal and vegetable world an upward growth. 

 There is such a mutual dependence between the animal and vegetable 

 existence, that we cannot speak fully of one without the other. For 

 the very preference of the vegetable world is essential to the animal 

 with their life giving oxygen, and in picking up inorganic matter and 

 changing it into organic, so that it is ready for our own consump- 

 tion; and the animal creation return the compliment by furnishing 

 them their carbonic acid gas which bears the same relation to them 

 that oxygen does to the animal, and so it is that the one re-live upon 

 the other. So far as growth produces motion or change of position 

 in the vegetable world, we may say that it originally had no tend- 

 ency, either upward or downward. The motion of this growing 

 plant, whether in root or stem, follows the law enunciated by Spen- 

 cer for all motion. It must grow along the line of greatest traction 

 and least resistance. All things under cultivation, let it be one gar- 

 den, field, or orchard, contain the same elementary constituents, yet 

 no two of them in the same proportion. They are carbon, hydro- 

 gen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, cal- 

 cium, magnesium, silicon and chlorine. These plant constituents 

 are furnished in part by the surrounding atmosphere and by the 

 soil, which is defined by the chemical analysis of the word earth, as 

 a tasteless, inodorous, uncolored, earthy looking metalic oxide, or 

 alumina, glueine, zirconia, ythria and thoria, each plant has its 

 own wants at different stages of its growth; some rec^uire more ni- 

 trogen in the latter period of growth, blooming and forming seeds. 

 Others call for a greater amount of hydrogen during the blooming 

 period. 



And yet not one of the essential elementary mineral constitu- 

 ents can take the place of another without changing in many in- 

 stances in a serious way the relative proportion of the organic con- 

 stituents of the plant. I will say, in this connection, that to pro- 

 duce a vigorous growth every essential food constituent of the plant 

 under cultivation must be supplied, so, when called for, it is in readi- 

 ness for the required want. We give the grain of corn a certain 



