PLANT DEVELOPMENT 



the case of the sugar-beet, which contains from 

 eight to twenty per cent of sugar, besides 

 other soUds in smaller quantities. 



And here, again, as he looks at the structure 

 of the plant, the New Earth man finds constant 

 similarity to himself. As his body stores up 

 food against which he may draw in days of 

 sickness, so the plant stores up food for its 

 own uses. While the man is able to take the 

 initial steps toward supplying himself with 

 food, an act of the will, if you please, yet the 

 plant is not so far behind the man after all, for 

 it also takes constant care that its food supply 

 does not run low in the larder. Man is as 

 dependent, too, upon favoring conditions of 

 soil, climate, sunshine, air and rain, as the 

 plant is; without them the plant dies, and 

 when the plants of the world die, man dies. 



Above the roots of the plant the great work 

 of food manufacture and assimilation goes 

 on, day following day adding to the plant's 

 strength and day following day adding to its 

 stature until, like man, it reaches a stage of 

 maturity and passes on to old age and final 

 dissolution. But just as man in these later 

 days is studying how he may prolong life, and 



77 



