HOMOEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 209 



and without these bases it is perhaps, in most cases, impossi- 

 ble for the acids to be formed." 



I mio:ht ffo on citiaof instances where certain forms of 

 plant food seem to be more beneficial to certain crops than 

 are other forms, showing that plants have the power of selec- 

 tion, and invariably exercise it if given the opportunity. 

 And after all, why should it not be so? A plant that has 

 the delicate organism by which it can run through the soil 

 and gather up the most minute morsel of nutriment, must be 

 capable of distinguishing between the forms of plant food 

 that are present It is known that plants will substitute, for 

 example, soda for lime, magnesia for potash ; but it is 

 thought that they never do substitute, when the right form 

 is present. When plants are forced to substitute, or forced 

 to wait for some form of food to be developed, then an un- 

 healthy condition is the result, and we have rot, rust, mildew 

 or yellows. To be sure, these may not entirely be due to 

 the plant food in the soil ; but it has been demonstrated over 

 and over again that a healthy plant will withstand disease, 

 and a healthy plant means one that is properly fed from 

 beginning to end. 



Dr. Goessmann has taught this over and over asrain. He 

 says, in speaking of fruits: "It is quite certain that the 

 practice of returning to the soil, in suitable form and in due 

 time, those constituents which fruits abstract, will give us 

 larger crops by stimulating a vigorous condition of the entire 

 plant." 



Again, he says: "A strong, healthy plant is, of course, 

 better able to overcome interior local disorders, and to resist 

 external injurious influences more successfully, than feeble 

 specimens." 



Health in man, beast or plant presupposes certain healthy 

 conditions, one of which is proper feeding. Men have been 

 ridiculed because they have drawn an analogy between the 

 feeding of plants and the feeding of animals. It is true 

 that there is not so much difierence between the feedinsr of 

 plants as between that of different animals ; nevertheless, 

 there is a difference, slight though it may appear, and yet so 

 important that if it is not recognized it means failure every 

 time. 



