234 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 
season gets warm enough, in order to hold a place among 
aggressive competitors. To be outrun in the race for light 
is fatal. So, they put forth tender shoots with all the leaves 
they can carry, leaves being their working capital. So, 
in early summer, all the world is full of soft green tints. 
New growth is everywhere. In dark-hued evergreens, like 
hemlock and spruce, the contrast between the pale new 
shoots and the mature old ones is very striking. In the 
heat of summer the new growth will harden and new reserves 
of food will be accumulated. 
This is the ordinary routine for the larger perennial plants 
that are best suited to our temperate climate. But there 
are some little plants that avoid the strife of summer by 
making haste to finish all their work in the spring. Such 
is the narcissus, now withering on our lawns; and like it 
are the adder’s-tongue and the squirrel-corn, and many other 
early spring flowers that dwell under the heavy shade of the 
woods. Doubtless the onion grew originally where it was 
subject to late-season shading, and there acquired the habits 
which it still retains when grown in the open fields. 
Our field crops are mostly annuals, brought from various 
climes. Some, like oats, are natives of cold countries, and 
are sown early and mature early. Some, like corn, are semi- 
tropical, and are sown late and grow well only in hot weather. 
Our hottest spells are proverbial ‘‘corn weather’. Some, 
like wheat, spend a part of the season thickening up their 
“stand” by producing offsets from the bases before rising 
to full height and flowering. We plant one grain of corn for 
each stalk wanted in the field, but not so with wheat or 
timothy: seedlings of these, early in the season, produce 
at the surface of the ground a clump of buds, which later 
shoot up tall flowering stalks simultaneously. The wheat, 
after fruiting, dies, but the timothy goes on producing other 
offsets at the base, holding its ground after the manner of 
perennials, and getting ready for another season. 
