PRACTICAL INFERENCES. 117 



two classes of workers more into accord, so as to ensure 

 a greater amount of co-operation beneficial to both parties. 

 The special value to the cultivator of scientific knowledge 

 will probably be found in the power it gives him of avail- 

 ing himself of new resources and of adapting himself to 

 altered conditions no light matter in the present state of 

 agriculture. 



In endeavouring to turn to account some of the lessons 

 which vegetable physiology is able to teach, we have in the 

 first instance to consider what is the special object with 

 which any particular crop is cultivated, because, as has 

 been shown, the conditions suitable say for the growth of 

 wheat, are not those most fitting for the production of 

 forage or of root-crops. Then it must be repeated that 

 we grow plants for our own benefit, and only indirectly for 

 the advantage of the plant itself. It may be that the 

 objects for which we cultivate a particular plant are of such 

 a nature as to be best compassed by means most favour- 

 able to the general health and welfare of the plant, as in 

 the case of cereals, or it may be that we grow the plant 

 for one particular product, to secure which we endeavour 

 to promote disproportionate leaf-growth or root growth, as 

 the case may be, at the expense of the other organs of the 

 plant, and so bring about what is really an unnatural and 

 morbid condition. 



In offering a few general considerations on these subjects, 

 in addition to the numerous incidental references in other 

 pages, it may here be convenient to arrange plants ac- 

 cording as they are cultivated for their roots, inclusive of 

 rootlike organs, for their stems, and for their leaves, fruits, 

 or seeds; omitting all those special details pertaining to 

 what we may term the individual constitution of plants. 



