186 LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE 



they are called, serve as a storehouse for the food of the 

 little bean plant. In the kernel of corn the same kind 

 of a little plant was seen, but instead of two cotyledon 

 storehouses of food, there is only one cotyledon. We 

 are often told that the plant stores up food in the seeds 

 for our use, and although we do use this stored up food 

 for our own food in many cases, nature intended this 

 food matter, not for man, but for the little plant, to 

 use for its own growth until it is large enough to get 

 food for itself directly from the soil. 



Essentials to plant growth. The little bean plant 

 between the cotyledons of the seed cannot begin to grow 

 or germinate with its stored up food alone ; it must have 

 outside help. We usually plant the seed, and in the 

 ground it finds the needed help. Of course, we know 

 that in the ground the seed finds moisture, heat, and air, 

 and these are the essentials of germination. These 

 points we shall try to prove in the practical exercise. 

 Good seed and proper conditions of soil, moisture, air, 

 heat, and light are essentials to plant growth, and a 

 part of the study of agriculture consists in determining 

 how to control these conditions. 



Practical Exercises 

 1. Essentials of Germination 



Place a dozen good seeds of any kind on a woolen 

 cloth or blotting paper in each of two tin pans. Cover 

 the seeds in the first pan with water and keep them com- 

 pletely covered. In the second pan keep the cloth or 

 paper on which the seeds are placed always moist, but 



