118 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



66 and 67), and how by a process we do not fully under- 

 stand, this starch is converted into other food compounds, 

 including fats and oils, or how it may in other cases be 

 combined with mineral elements from the soil to form 

 proteins. 



As the seed develops, it draws this food from other 

 parts of the plant and stores it within itself. Around the 

 tiny plant which is developing within the seed, is built 

 layer after layer of cells stored Avith starch, sugar, fats 

 and proteins. In the accompanying drawing (Figure 

 39), the arrows indicate the currents of food moving 

 toward the seed where food accumulates. 



93. How Man may thwart Nature's Plan. — It will 

 thus be seen that the whole plant is working to pro- 

 duce this seed. If, before the seed is fully formed, the 

 plant is harvested, much of the food will be retained in the 

 leaves and stems since it will not have had time to reach 

 the seed, and so these parts will be useful as forage for 

 animals, or even as food for man. If we want oat hay, we 

 cut the crop while it is yet green. On the other hand, 

 alfalfa or clover straw, from which the seed has been 

 threshed, has little food value, and you can readily see 

 ■ why this is true. 



Grasses are cut, dried only enough to prevent their 

 molding, and then stacked in the field or stored in barns 

 that animals may use the food that is stored in their 

 leaves and stems. For the same purpose corn plants are 

 cut before they are fully mature, and the leaves and stalks 

 are chopped together into short, small pieces, which will 

 pack solidly into the silo. 



None of us enjoys roasting ears when the kernels are very 

 small and consist principally of water; neither do we 

 enjoy them when so much food from the leaves has ac- 



