How. Plants Grow 43 
Fic. 32. When a garden flourishes like this one, we know that the gardener 
has supplied the needs of his plants before they began to suffer, 
like the squash, the food is found in the fruit; in peas, 
beans, and corn most of the food is stored in the 
seeds. 
Importance of continuous care of plants. The growth 
and storage of food by a plant in its later life is but the 
accumulated result of the conditions under which it lived 
in its earlier life. Much depends on giving the young 
seedlings a good start, when they are, so to speak, getting 
ready to grow up. In this stage they are establishing 
the root system that must be developed before the top 
can be enlarged, and if the young plants become stunted 
and dwarfed it is difficult to get them to start rapid 
growth again. Every care also should be taken to keep 
plants growing continuously during the stage of most 
