FROM GRAIN TO EAR. 69 



scopic hairs force their way l)et\veen the fine particles of the 

 soil, and thus their thin absorbing surfaces are given a 

 good opi)oitunity for rapid action. The imj^ortance of a 

 deep, nieUow soil is cleai-Iy seen in the light of the above 

 facts. The more readily the root hairs come in contact with 

 the soil particles and the larger the absorbing surface which 

 the roots present, the better it is for the plant. 



The food elements which the root system absorbs pass into 

 the stem, and from it into the leaves. In structure the corn- 

 stem consists of a central pith with mimerous imbedded 

 fil)rous thieads, which pass in curved lines from joint to joint. 

 The outside of this stem is a hard sheath, which gives suffi- 

 cient strength to the stalk and protects the soft parts 

 within. 



The leaf is the laboratory of the plant world ; in it take 

 place those mysterious chemical changes that raise matter 

 from the inoiganic to the oi-ganic form. A cornfield with 

 its thousands of rustling leaves waving in the noon-day sun 

 is a scene of silent labor that is known only by its effects. 

 The sunlight works in some hidden way within the green 

 cells of the leaves and there transforms the crude sap that 

 comes np from the roots and the gases that enter directly 

 from the air, into the starch and other materials that go to 

 build up the structure of the growing plant and the substance 

 of the grain. Free entrance for the air is provided l)y the 

 multitude of small openings in the epidermis or skin of the 

 leaves. These stoniata or breathing pores are so numerous 

 in the leaves of some plants, that more than a hundred thou- 

 sand may be found with the microscope upon a single square 

 inch of surface. The amount of water that rises from the 

 soil, is vaporized in the leaves, and afterwards passes out of 

 the breathing pores, on a single acre of corn duiing a hot 

 day, is many tons. The corn crop is grown during about 

 one hundred days ; that is, from the last week in Ma\' to the 

 first of September. The value of this crop is estimated at 

 seven hundred million dollars, whether sold in the kernel or 

 transformed into beef, pork and other condensed forms of 

 food. On the average, therefore, there are seven millions 

 of dollars' worth of corn gathered from the soil and air on 

 each growing day, and that without a sound audible to the 



