374 



Junior Naturalist Monthly. 



You cannot hide in the corn for you are often taller than the stalks, and 

 the farmer's back aches as he bends over all day to cut the short fodder. 

 The shocks are small and far apart. " Dry weather," says the farmer 



as he looks at his field. 

 Thirsty plants cannot 

 grow. 



Have you ever 

 noticed the cornfield 

 when the spring days 

 are cold? There is 

 plenty of water; it 

 rains often, but still 

 the little plants get no 

 taller as you watch 

 them day after day. 

 " Warm nights," says 

 the farmer, " we must 

 Fig. 3. — Keeping a record of the growth of a plant. have warm nights." 



Then by and by when 

 every one is sure the crops will all fail and every one looks glum and 

 growls about the weather, suddenly the sky clears and the nights grow 

 warm. Sometimes it is so hot you cannot sleep, but it is fine for the 

 corn. See how it grows in a night. It seems as though you can almost 

 see it grow. If the cold weather has not lingered too long, the little plants 

 may forget the chilly days and grow tall and strong, seeming to make up 

 for lost time when the warm weather does come. But if the cold nights 

 continue too long, the stalks will never be tall and the ears will be small, 

 even though there has been plenty of rain, ll^orm weather and plenty of 

 rain; that is what makes plants grozv. 



What did the machine tell you about the growth during day time and 

 during night time ? When the plants were small, you will perhaps have 

 noticed but little diiTerence in the rapidity of growth during night and day. 

 If you will measure the growth of the youngest leaf on your wheat plant 

 when the plant is a month old, you will very likely find that it grows quite 

 a bit faster at night. When the little plant is very young, it lives almost 

 entirely on the starch that the mother plant made and packed away in the 

 seed for it. This food is ready to be used at once and can be made over 

 into root, stem, and leaf during the day as well as at night. As it gets 

 older, this starch food is used up and the little plant must make starch 

 for itself. 



