524 Home Nature- Study Course. 



The elaboration of this lunch of starch is the most strenuous time 

 in the history of the plant. A stalk of growing corn is a common example. 

 Before the formation of the kernels the stalk when cut and cured makes 

 acceptable fodder. After the kernels have matured, that is the lunch of 

 starch fully elaborated and placed next the embryo, the ear has more 

 nutrition than the stalk, and the stalk is less valuable for fodder than 

 before the maturing of the ear. 



The good farmer cuts his grass before the seed has fully matured. 

 The food when in the blade and stalk, is more available for animal 

 digestion than when stored in the fine grass seeds. 



LESSON XCII. 



Purpose. — To lead the child to think why fruit should be thinned 

 on overloaded trees. 



Observation lesson. — Notice that a tree overloaded with apples one 

 year bears none or few the next. 



Should the orchardist permit his peach tree to overbear, the mother 

 tree will give her last energies in perfecting a lunch and protection for 

 the embryo in each pit and becomes exhausted and unable sufficiently 

 to develop the fleshy part of the fruit wherein lies the commercial value 

 to the orchardist. A man of experience will thin the fruit one-half or 

 three-quarters as he would depopulate an overcrowded orphan asylum, 

 thereby fitting the demands required of the tree to its capabilities. A 

 tree debilitated by overwork of motherhood cannot be depended on for 

 a full crop another year, and furthermore is more liable to disease when 

 thus overworked. In breeding new varieties of any of the stone fruits 

 those having the smallest pits have a strong merit in their favor. This 

 principle of seed exhaustion is very strikingly shown in the frequent 

 cutting of flowers to cause the plants to continue to bloom. 



LESSON XCIIL 



Purpose. — To give the pupil an understanding of the reason that 

 cutting of flowers enables the plant to continue in blossom for a long 

 period. 



Experiment in gardening. — Two pansy plants in flower ; other plants 

 will answer the purpose. Let the flowers on one mature ; keep the flowers 

 of the other cut, and note which yields the most blossoms, and which 

 blossoms for the longer period. 



This principle may be markedly illustrated in sweet peas and pansies 

 and nasturtiums. For a test let some plants of the above kinds retain 

 all the blossoms and form seeds and from the remaining plants pick all 



