8 Feeds and Feeding. 



a thousand fold. In each of these grains is a miniature plant, 

 the germ, about which is stored a generous supply of nutriment. 

 This is placed in compact, concentrated form, awaiting the time 

 when the germ begins life on its own account. In the potato 

 tuber there is a liberal storage of starch. In the beet root the 

 stored materials are held in the form of cane sugar, reserved for 

 seed production the following season. Each germ, or repro- 

 ductive part, is surrounded with food elements, arranged after 

 nature's choicest plan to aid in reproduction. 



14. The sun the source of plant life. Thus far we have 

 spoken of the plant as though it accomplished all these wonder- 

 ful transmutations through self-contained powers. This is incor- 

 rect. A plant can no more unite the elements of carbonic acid 

 and water into starch, or move this starch, changed to sugar, to 

 needed points, than can the wheels of a great factory move with- 

 out the impelling force of steam or the electric current. The 

 source of all life and power is the sun, the energy of which in 

 the shape of light and heat is absorbed by the protoplasmic mass 

 and its chlorophyll particles. In the plant cells the all-powerful 

 energy of the sun, guided by the mysterious principle of life, 

 works all the wonderful transmutations we have recorded. 



15. Plants the support of animal life. Nature has decreed that 

 it is the function of the plant, through the sun, to build inorganic 

 compounds into organic matter, in which operation the energy 

 employed becomes latent. Through digestion and absorption the 

 various plant compounds are incorporated in the animal body, 

 or are broken down within it into simpler compounds than those 

 of the plant structure. In this dissolution the energy which was 

 hidden in the plant is again revealed in all the manifestations of 

 animal life. In the coal burning in the grate we observe the 

 re- appearance of the energy of the sun which was stored in plants 

 ages ago. In the stalks and ears of corn which we feed to cattle, 

 we are furnishing energy received from the sun and rendered 

 dormant in plant building during the previous summer. When 

 supplying plants and seeds to the animals under his care, the 

 stockman observes in their growing bodies warmed by internal 

 fires the energy of the sun transmitted by the plant to the animal. 



