72 LIFE ON THE FARM. 



lose its vitality and refuse to yield harvests to the 

 cultivator. When a harvest of seeds is taken from 

 a field, its equivalent in some form should be 

 returned if the quality of the soil is to be retained. 



The composition of seeds and other parts of 

 plants will be taken up in another chapter, but let 

 it be noticed here, that seeds, together with bulbs 

 and tubers, are the great sources from which 

 human beings derive food. Without them, life as 

 it now is would be impossible. 



If it can be said that plants desire, it is not their 

 desire to produce seeds and tubers for man to use, 

 but for the propagation of their kind. In fact, 

 they take all precaution to prevent their being 

 eaten; the hard shells of nuts, the thorny covering 

 of some, the repellant taste of the outer coats of 

 others, and a hundred other devices making them 

 difficult to secure. Plants, having no particular 

 device for the protection of their seeds against 

 animals, produce so many to each plant that a few 

 always escape and find their way to suitable soil 

 for germination. 



Man, with machinery, does what he likes with 

 plants. Those kinds which he finds rich in starch, 

 sugar, oils, or albumen, he cultivates to the exclu- 

 sion of other plants. Under cultivation, there is 

 no longer a struggle for existence the farmer with 

 his machinery protects and aids them so much, that 

 plants can use their entire energy in producing 

 more food. Thus plants, which in the wild state 



