THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



693 



and slow germinating seeds less. What is needed is not 

 too early a planting and protection against any inclemency 

 of the weather from frost or cold rains, and not too late 

 a planting in locations where there are no winter or spring 

 frosts, to avoid too great a heat from the sun, which is as 

 dangerous to tender plants as frost. "Warmth" is a suffi- 

 ciently descriptive word to make the meaning clear. 



3. Seeds refuse to germinate if entirely excluded from 

 the air, even where there is plenty of moisture. Hence, 

 in a damp soil, seeds will not show any signs of life for 

 a long time, and yet when turned up near the surface 

 within reach of the air, they speedily sprout. The starch 

 in the grain intended to feed the germ will not dissolve 

 in water, so it happens that the farmer, sometimes, in 

 ditching or digging a well, throws up earth that has lain 

 many feet below the surface for years, perhaps ages, the 

 length of time makes no difference, from which sprout 

 plants of unknown varieties. They have never lost their 

 vitality. The "oat hills" in the southern part of California 

 are familiar examples. Year after year a good crop of 

 oats springs up without planting, cultivating the surface 

 "being sufficient to bring the buried grain within reach of 

 the air. It is said that the old Padres originally sowed 

 this grain broadcast wherever they went, taking a sack 

 of it on their horses, and as they traveled along cast hand- 

 fills of it in the most favorable spots. This grain grew to 

 maturity year after year, going back to the soil unhar- 

 vested, there being nobody to gather it. The civil and 

 criminal records of the southern California courts are 

 full of lawsuits and murders growing out of struggles to 

 obtain and retain possession of these "oat hills." 



A friend for whose accuracy there is abundant evi- 

 dence, cites a case that happened to him personally in a 

 small valley in the semi-arid region. Wanting water he 

 began sinking a well and went down one hundred feet 

 before reaching moist ground. That ground was a soft 

 black loam, and desiring to keep it for a top dressing, he 

 laid it aside for future use. Not long afterward seeds 

 "began sprouting all over it and, helping the sprouts with 

 a little water to keep the soil moist, he raised a thick crop 

 of fine sweet clover. The seeds had never been planted 

 by the hand of man, for the formation of the soil indi- 

 caetd that it might have been in the same condition since 

 the Deluge. 



4. Generally speaking, light is injurious to germina- 

 tion, wherefore, the seeds must be covered with soil, and 

 yet not so deep as to be beyond the reach of air. Sowing 

 grain broadcast leaves much of it exposed to the light, 

 and even after harrowing, it does not germinate, being 

 food for birds and drying up or burning up in the sun. 

 In light, porous soils, it is common, however, to sow broad- 

 cast and then plow under, afterward harrowing lightly. 

 It is also common in the arid and semi-arid regions to 

 plow the grain in "dry" in the summer or dry months, 

 and when the rains come in the autumn, or say, in Novem- 

 ber and December, the grain sprouts in a few days. 



The reason why light is prejudicial to germination 

 and why atmospheric air is necessary is because during 

 germination seeds absorb oxygen gas and give off car- 

 bonic acid, and they can not sprout unless oxygen gas 

 is within their reach, the only place where they can obtain 

 it being from the atmosphere. In the sunshine the leaves 

 of plants give off oxygen gas and absorb carbonic acid, 

 while in the dark the reverse takes place. Hence, if seeds 

 are exposed to the sunlight, they give up oxygen which 

 they need and absorb carbonic acid, which kills them. 



5. During germination, acetic acid (vinegar) and 

 diastase are produced, as mentioned in the last preceding 

 article, whereby the insoluble starch is converted into 

 sugar, v/hich is soluble and can be absorbed as food by 

 the youthful plant. 



6. The tender young shoot which ascends from the 

 seed consists of a mass of organs or vessels, which grad- 

 ually increase in length, sometimes "unroll" into the first 

 true leaves. The vessels of this first shoot do not con- 

 sist of unmixed woody fiber, that is not formed until after 

 the first leaves are fully developed. In the meantime the 

 young root is making its way down into the soil, seeking 

 a storehouse of nourishment upon which it can draw 

 when the sugar of the seed shall all have been con- 

 sumed. 



These phenomena are brought about in the following 



manner: The seed absorbs oxygen and gives off car- 

 bonic acid. This transforms a portion of the starch into 

 acetic acid, which aids the diastase to transform the in- 

 soluble starch into soluble sugar, or food that can be 

 taken up into the plant. It also dissolves the lime in 

 the soil contiguous to it, and returns into the plant, carry- 

 ing the lime or other dissolved earthy substances with it. 

 The seed imbibes moisture from the soil, and this dis- 

 solves the "sugary starch," so to speak, and it all goes into 

 the circulation, and the plant is enabled to grow and 

 develop its first leaves. It is like a baby fed on milk. 



When the true leaves have expanded, woody fiber 

 begins to make its appearance, which can be readily un- 

 derstood by attempting to break the plant stalk, a thing 

 easily done before the first leaves appear, but not so 

 easily afterward. The sugar in the sap is now converted 

 into woody fiber, the root drawing up food from the soil, 

 and the leaf drinking oxygen and carbonic acid from the 

 atmosphere. The moisture must still be constant, for 

 the root can not absorb food unless the latter is properly 

 dissolved. 



From the First Leaves to the Flower. 



The plant now enters upon a new stage of existence, 

 deriving its sustenance from the air and the soil. The 

 roots descend and the stem shoots up, and while they 

 consist essentially of the same chemical suostances ai 

 hefore, they are no longer formed at the expense of the 

 starch in the seed, and the chemical changes of which 

 they are the result are entirely different. 



Here is where the farmer will make a fatal mistake 

 if he relaxes his vigilance. The whole energy of the plant 

 is directed toward one single goal, that of preparing for 

 the flower which is the forerunner of the fruit. What 

 the flower is, that will be the fruit. 



The leaf absorbs carbonic .acid in the sunshine and 

 gives off oxygen in equal bulk, and the growth of the 

 plant is intimately connected with this absorption of car- 

 bonic acid, because it is in the light of the sun that plants 

 increase in size. Now, by this function of the leaf, carbon 

 is added to the plant, but it is added in the presence of 

 the water of the sap and is thus enabled by uniting with 

 it to form any one of those numerous compounds which 

 may be represented by carbon and water, and of which, 

 as was shown in the last article, the solid parts of plants 

 are principally made up. This period may be called the 

 period of "plant building," the plant utilizing every ma- 

 terial that will bring it up to the condition of flowering. 



The sap flows upward from the roots, through which 

 have been received the silica, potash, soda, phosphorous, 

 etc., in solution, and reaching the leaves, meets the car- 

 bonic acid flowing in through myriads of mouths in the 

 leaves, and then flows along back downward to the roots, 

 depositing, as it descends, the starch, woody fiber, etc., 

 which have been formed by the action of the carbonic 

 acid. Thus the sap circulates round and round like the 

 circulation of blood in the veins of an animal, except that 

 its heart is not a central organ, but an attraction of affin- 

 ities among the substances which enter into plant life, 

 . affinities constantly pursuing each other through the veins 

 *or capillaries of the plant, and forming unions, the pro^ 

 ducts of which add to the growth of the plant and enable 

 it to accomplish its destiny. 



During this ante-flowering period there are produced 

 in the plant not only woody fiber, but other compounds 

 which play an important part in a subsequent stage of its 

 existence; one of these, the most important, is oxalic acid, 

 which has already been alluded to. This acid seems to be 

 formed at this period to aid in perfecting the future fruits 

 that will follow the flower. What is curious about these 

 various acids now formed is that many of the plants are 

 sour in the morning, tasteless during the middle of the 

 day, and bitter in the evening. The reason is, during the 

 day these plants have been accumulating oxygen from 

 the atmosphere to form acids, but as the day advances this 

 oxygen is given off, carbonic acid is imbibed and the acids 

 decomposed. Hence the sourness disappears, but the ma- 

 terials are in the plant ready for use when required the 

 acid storehouse is filling against the day of need. 



In the case of wheat, barley and other grains, the 

 chief energy of the plant, previous to flowering, is ex- 

 pended in the production of the woody fiber of its stem or 



