How Plants Grow 



43 



FIG. 32. When a garden flourishes like this one, we know that the gardener 

 has supplied the needs of his plants before they began to suffer. 



like the squash, the food is found in the fruit ; in peas, 

 beans, and corn most of the food is stored in the 

 seeds. 



Importance of continuous care of plants. The growth 

 and storage of food by a plant in its later life is but the 

 accumulated result of the conditions under which it lived 

 in its earlier life. Much depends on giving the young 

 seedlings a good start, when they are, so to speak, getting 

 ready to grow up. In this stage they are establishing 

 the root system that must be developed before the top 

 can be enlarged, and if the young plants become stunted 

 and dwarfed it is difficult to get them to start rapid 

 growth again. Every care also should be taken to keep 

 plants growing continuously during the stage of most 



