8 Feeds and Feeding. 



productive parts. First come the blossoms, tiien the young enlarg- 

 ing fruits. Into these the sugars, amids, and mineral substances, 

 all elaborated and worked over by the plant in its leaves, are 

 poured in a steady current. The wheat plant resulting from a sin- 

 gle kernel bears a hundred fruits in the shape of seed grains, while 

 the Indian corn plant may produce a thousand-fold. In each of 

 these grains is a miniature plant, the germ, composed largely of 

 protein, about which is stored a generous supply of rich nutri- 

 ment — proteins, starch, sugar, oil, and mineral matter — all in com- 

 pact, concentrated form, awaiting the time when the germ shall 

 begin life on its own account. In the tuber of the potato the cells 

 are packed with starch, while in the beet root the stored material 

 is largely in the form of cane sugar. Each germ, or reproductive 

 part, is surrounded with food nutrients stored after Nature's choic- 

 est plan to aid the new life which is to follow. 



8. Plants support animal life. — Nature has decreed that it is the 

 function of plants to build inorganic matter taken from earth and 

 air into organic compounds, in which operation the sun energy em- 

 ployed becomes latent. Thru the life processes the various plant 

 compounds used as food by animals are, after more or less change, 

 built into the animal body, or are broken down within it to give 

 heat and energy. In this change and dissolution the sun energy 

 which became latent or was hidden in the growing plant is again 

 revealed in all the manifestations of animal life. In the coal burn- 

 ing in the grate we observe the reappearance of the energy of the 

 sun which was stored in the plants of ages ago. In the stalks and 

 ears of corn which we feed our cattle we are furnishing energy re- 

 ceived from the sun and rendered latent by the corn plant during 

 the previous summer. Thus it is that the stockman, when supply- 

 ing plants and seeds to the animals under his care, observes in their 

 growing bodies, warmed by internal fires, the energy of the sun 

 transmitted by the plant to the animal. To the plants of the farm 

 the stockman turns for the nourishment and support of his animals. 

 A general knowledge and full realization of how plants live and 

 grow is therefore not only of interest, but also may be helpful in a 

 thousand Avays. 



II. How THE Chemist Groups Plant Substances. 



In the following table, taken from Table I of the Appendix, the 

 composition of a few common feeding stuffs is arranged after the 

 manner adopted by agricultural chemists. The first column gives 



