U BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



within reach of their roots, but they go deep to obtcain it, 

 and in such cases it would appear that they either find their 

 food in the subsoil or else take a part of it in a nearly dry 

 state from the surftice soil where we usually apply it. We 

 often see crops grow vigorously when the surface soil is 

 apparently dry. In cultivating corn, which always has a 

 great root development, I have often exposed quantities of 

 fibrous roots where the soil was dry enough to be dusty. Is 

 it not possible that plants have the power to take water 

 from the subsoil with the lower roots, and to carry it to the 

 surface or feeding roots, and there, with the water so car- 

 ried, dissolve and take up the dry plant-food? Are not 

 vegetables, like animals, able to take their food and drink 

 separately, and to moisten the dry food with their own 

 secretions ? 



Professor S. W. Johnson, in "How Crops Grow," page 

 254, gives the result of a single experiment, by Henrici, 

 which confirms this theory. In this experiment a 3'oung 

 plant was set in a glass funnel filled with garden soil. The 

 funnel was supported in a glass jar, with the lower end just 

 inserted in the water in the jar. The soil in the funnel was 

 kept moist until the plant was well rooted. After several 

 weeks the roots extended through the empty neck of the 

 funnel and developed rapidly in the water, after which the 

 soil was not watered, but care was taken to maintain the 

 supply in the jar. The plant continued to grow, but in a 

 feeble way, and the roots in the dry soil of the funnel re- 

 mained fresh, and it is evident they must have absorbed 

 nutriment from the dry soil, although that does not appear 

 to be the oliject of the experiment. Whether plants can 

 use dry food or not, is a question to be settled only by 

 careful experiments, but we all know that water must be 

 continually within reach of their roots or thej^ cannot grow. 

 Substances which are inimical to vegetation may often be 

 removed from the soil by water. We are told that the 

 alkaline plains of the American desert only need water to 

 dissolve the poisonous salts, when they will become fertile. 

 Rain purifies the air by the power of water to absorb its 

 impurities. Sickness is more prevalent during a protracted 

 drought, and is often checked by a heavy rain. Through 



