382 



LUSSOJfS WITS PL A ITT S 



because they have more food, the struggle must 

 be still more intense. There is likewise room for 

 many small apples from a cluster, but for only 

 one very large apple. Observe the different sizes 

 of fruits in dense clusters (Fig. 407). If a farmer 

 sows one hundred turnip seeds in a row a foot 

 long, there must be similar competition (Fig. 408). 



Fig. 408. 

 A battle for life. 



The weakest, and those which get a poor start, die 

 or subsist on crumbs ; but the farmer might have 

 prevented the slaughter by thinner sowing, or he 

 could have cut short the mischief by timely thin- 

 ning of the plants. 



481. If the surface of the earth is now full of 

 plants (412), and if every plant endeavors to mul- 

 tiply itself a hundred fold or a thousand fold, it 

 must result that plants are living under tension. 



