42 SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



the covering bursts, and the radicle, or rootlet, ap- 

 pears, and buries itself in the earth, while the little 

 stem or plumule, as it is called, rises to the surface of 

 the ground in search of sunlight. Nature has stored 

 up in the seed enough material to supply the growth 

 thus far, but henceforth its food must come from the 

 soil and atmosphere. This, in some mysterious way, 

 through the influence of sunlight, it is enabled to 

 take in and digest. 



90. The root once started, divides and subdi- 

 vides, sending out branches in every direction and 

 hunting industriously in the soil for nourishment, 

 while the stem and leaves do the same in the at- 

 mosphere. The leaves are in some sense the lungs 

 of the plant, while the roots are its mouths. The 

 length to which the roots sometimes extend is as- 

 tonishing, and they really seem to have a kind 

 of instinct that guides them to their proper food. 

 Those which find proper nourishment enlarge and 

 multiply rapidly, while those that do not, die or re- 

 main undeveloped. For a plant to be thrifty, it 

 must have plenty of suitable food, and have it near 

 at hand. It cannot, like an animal, run about in 

 search of what it needs^^Hiigh it will extend its roots 

 to a long distance if ^Hfssary to get suitable mate- 

 rial for growth. 



91. Schubert, a German agriculturist, made an 

 excavation in a &e\djto the depth of six feet, and di- 

 rected a stream of^water against the vertical wall of 

 soil until it was washed away, so that the roots of 



