8 FERTILITY AND FERTILIZER HINTS 



Water in Young and Mature Plants. — The percentage of water 

 in young plants is greater than in mature plants. This is easily 

 accounted for because the young plant uses a great deal of water 

 in transferring food materials required for its growth. The 

 Maine State College conducted an investigation on timothy with 

 the following results •} 



Water Water 



Per cent. Per cent. 



Nearly headed out 78.7 Out of blossom 65.2 



In full blossom 71.9 Nearly ripe 63.3 



The results on timothy are similar to what would be found 

 with other plants. It follows that the more mature a plant is, 

 the easier it is to field cure. 



Active cells in plants contain more water than do the older 

 or less active cells and this may account for the larger per- 

 centage of water found in young plants. 



Dry Matter of Plants. — As previously stated, the plant is made 

 up of water and dry matter. When water is driven off from 

 plants the dry matter is what remains. Now if we burn this 

 dry matter a larg-e proportion of it passes off in the form of 

 invisible gases. This material which so disappears, in burning, 

 is known as organic matter, that which is left is the ash or 

 mineral matter or inorganic matter. The organic imatter is 

 composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, etc. The ash 

 is made up of soda, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, potassium, cal- 

 cium, silicon, etc.''' 



We may express the composition of plants as : 



Plants I Water J ^^j^ 



I Dry matter | o,g^„i^ „,3tter 



Composition of the Dry Matter of Plants. — A German scientist, 

 Knop, estimated ; according to Jordan : "That if all the species 

 of the vegetable kingdom, exclusive of the fungi, were fused into 

 one mass, the ultimate composition of the dry matter of this mix- 

 ture would be the following:" 



1 Jordan, The Feeding of Animal.s. 



