THE CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



THE FRUIT; ITS FORMATION AND ITS 

 CHARACTERISTICS. 



During the formation of the fruit, which begins to be ef- 

 fected when the bud first opens into a flower, several im- 

 portant chemical changes occur in the plant. As the for- 

 mation of a seed is the grand climax of the process of plant 

 growth, and is a return to the point from which the plant 

 first started; so we find the chemical action which controls 

 the various changes in the plant, to return to its point of 

 departure and complete a circle of results. 



The germination of a seed is accompanied by the change 

 of starch into gum and sugar, and the growth of the plant 

 is due to the change of these into woody fiber; the blossom- 

 ing of the plant being a period when these changes are the 

 most active. The sap of the maple tree, becomes less sweet 

 when the flowers begin to appear and the sugar in the beet 

 root and the sugar cane is less abundant when these plants 

 begin to blossom. 



Thus the maturity of a plant is marked by a reversed 

 chemical action; and whereas in its earliest stages starch 

 was converted into sugar, at its mature period sugar is con- 

 verted into starch which is concentrated in the fruit, and 

 stored up for the nutriment of the germ when it is in its 

 turn awakened into life and action in the soil. 



The husk or envelope of the future seed, of wheat or corn 

 for instance, is at first filled with a milky liquid which 

 gradually becomes more sweet and dense, and finally con- 

 solidates into a mass of starch and gluten. This process of 

 ripening the seed is exactly the reverse of that of the ger- 

 mination of it; and it is a curious fact that while w r e can 

 perform the same operation of changing woody fiber and 

 starch into sugar and sugar into acid, we cannot con- 

 vert acid into sugar nor sugar back to starch or woody fiber. 

 This is a process of nature which we cannot imitate, and 



