LUTHER BURBANK 



solution, along with much smaller quantities of 

 phosphorus and potash and the other essential 

 minerals, it is carried to the plant cells and ulti- 

 mately compounded with sugars made in the leaf 

 laboratory to make living protoplasm and thus to 

 promote the growth and development of the plant. 

 The Finished Product 



This protoplasm is, of course, in the last analy- 

 sis the vitally important substance. Without it 

 there is no life. Even the chlorophyll body is 

 itself a protoplasmic substance and establishes its 

 workshop in a protoplasmic cell. All the life 

 processes — growing, flowering, fruiting — are 

 linked with the protoplasmic activities, just as are 

 all the life processes of animals of every kind. 



But from the standpoint of the gardener, which 

 furnishes our present outlook, interest may be 

 said to center on the production of the non- 

 nitrogenous carbon compounds, starch and various 

 sugars, the creation of which in the leaf of the 

 plant we have just witnessed. For the chief 

 products of the vegetable garden (with the notable 

 exception of peas and beans) contain only a small 

 proportion of the nitrogenous matter which the 

 food specialist names protein. We depend for our 

 nitrogenous foods largely upon the animal world. 



The products of the vegetable garden are stores 

 chiefly of carbohydrates, that is to say of starches 



[36] 



