The Story-Book of the Fields 



buttresses the maize, in order to make it 

 steadier, and bundles of adventitious roots 

 are formed in the earth heaped at the base 

 of the stem, which afford strong support 

 to the plant. 



The stalk of wheat bears shoots on its 

 lower part, which may either perish, to the 

 detriment of the harvest, or may be developed 

 and increase the number of ears. If the 

 wheat is sown in autumn, a cold and rainy 

 season, the growth is slow, the stalk remains 

 short and the different shoots remain very 

 near each other, almost at the level of the 

 ground. Favoured by the vicinity of the 

 damp ground, these shoots give out adven- 

 titious roots, which feed them directly and 

 provide them with the abundant nourish- 

 ment that the ordinary root, from its own 

 resources, could not have supplied. Thus 

 stimulated they each develop a stalk which 

 will afterwards provide an ear. But if the 

 wheat is sown in spring, the rapid growth in 

 a mild temperature carries the shoots too 

 high for them to be able to take root, and the 

 stem remains single. In the former case 

 from each grain of wheat sown a bundle of 

 stalks is grown, producing the same number 

 of ears ; in the latter the harvest is reduced 



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