JOHN S. GOULD'S ADDRESS. 623 



which, entering into combination with the vegetable matter 

 contained in it, affords an abundant supply of food to the 

 plant, in a condition i»ost favorable for assimilation. 



K we desire to raise our average crops to the standard of 

 premium crops, and thus quadruple the annual production, we 

 must have better ploughmen and the best of ploughs. 



IV. Free exposure to the light is necessary for the produc- 

 tion of maximum crops of corn. 



The corn plant is filled with capillary tubes ; through these 

 the moisture of the soil, holding in solution the various organic 

 and inorganic matters, are sucked up by the spongeoles of the 

 root, and conveyed to the upper surface of the leaves. Here 

 an entire change is effected in the chemical character of the 

 solution by the action of the solar ray ; under the influence of 

 this potent agency, the carbonic acid is deprived of its oxygen, 

 while its carbon unites with the elements of water to form 

 starch, sugar, gum and woody fibre ; at the same time a play 

 of affinities is induced among the inorganic compounds, by 

 which the elements of the one are variously compounded with 

 the elements of the other, changing entirely their previous 

 chemical characters. After these changes are effected, the sap 

 passes to the under side of the leaf, and firom thence is diffused 

 to the other portions of the plant, each of which derives firom 

 it the kind of food suited to their several nec-essities, until it is 

 robbed of all its useful portions, when it is excreted again from 

 the roots, after having performed the whole circuit of the plant. 

 This chemical action of light upon the corn plant is explained 

 by philosophers, in conformity with their views of the nature 

 of light. Such as believe in the materiality of light, explain 

 the change which occurs in the sap on the upper surface of the 

 leaf, by asserting that the sunbeam is chemically united vrith 

 the other constituents, thus forming a new compound. They 

 assert that the light and heat given out by the combustion of 

 vegetable bodies, is simply a giving up of the light and heat 

 which it had formerly imbibed from the sun. Thus, coal is 

 represented as the charred remains of the vegetable antediluvian 

 world, which had drank in the heat and light of the primeval 

 sun. After keeping those rays imprisoned for siges. thev give 

 out Eigain in our grates the identical heat and light emined by 

 an ancient sun, which shone upon a world lying in chaos. 



