THE WHEAT CHOP. 35 



those portions beneath the soil are furnished with powers 

 to appropriate the latter. In the parent seed a supply of 

 both organic and inorganic food is stored up for the young- 

 plant ; but as soon as this is all consumed, the plant is 

 thrown upon its own resources, and unless it then has 

 vigour and power sufficient to supply itself, it becomes 

 debilitated and stunted, or gradually dies away altogether. 

 It is at this period of plant life that the difference is most 

 forcibly shown, between the produce of good, fully-matured 

 seed and that of inferior quality the one exhibiting 

 itself in the shape of a bold, erect plant, with a broad, 

 green leaf, withstanding the change in its circumstances 

 from its parent seed to its own resources, with hardly an 

 inconvenience or perceptible effect while the other, with 

 its drooping stem and sickly yellow leaf, has all the aspect 

 of a debilitated plant, struggling against adverse condi- 

 tions, readily affected by every variation in the weather, 

 and offering a suitable home for the germs of those dis- 

 eases which so materially influence our crops. 



As soon, then, as the supply in the parent seed is con- 

 sumed, the leaf and the roots of the young plant ought 

 to be sufficiently developed to obtain a continuous supply 

 for its use from the air and the soil in which its life is to 

 be passed the leaf providing the necessary amount of 

 organic food from the atmosphere which surrounds it 

 the roots having the duty of furnishing the supply of in- 

 organic (mineral) food from the soil in which they are 

 placed. The change, however, from the food furnished by 

 the parent seed to that furnished by the soil is always 

 accompanied by a slight effect upon the organism of the 

 young plant. This, of course, is more felt by the weak 

 and half grown than by the strong and well developed 

 plant. It is analogous to weaning in the young animal, 

 and, indeed, is frequently known by the name of " wean- 

 ing" or "speaning" brash. 



