22 
ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 
proceeds in two opposite directions, forming tne radicle 
below, and the plumicle above. 
48. Germination, then, is the act by which a seed, 
placed in the soil under favorable circumstances, develops 
itself, in order to give birth to a plant of the same kind as 
that whence it sprang. 
49. That a seed may develop itself, and form a vegeta¬ 
ble, it is not only necessary that it should be placed in the 
soil, and that the soil should contain the humus and min¬ 
eral substances^ required for the nutrition of the plant, but 
there must also be a concurrence of certain atmospheric 
influences, that perform an important part in the phe¬ 
nomena of vegetation. These atmospheric influences, or 
agents, are heat, moisture, air, and light. 
50. The success of germination and vegetation depends 
upon a union of heat and moisture. Those spots always 
exhibit the finest vegetation in which we find these two 
agents united. If, on the contrary, one of them should 
preponderate for a sufficient time, the plant would suffer, 
and finally perish. It is to establish the relation between 
heat and moisture, that we water plants in dry seasons. 
It is a common practice to soak seeds before sowing or 
planting them, to hasten their germination ; but the utility 
of this practice is more than doubtful; for at the moment 
of sowing one thing or the other occurs — either the soil 
is sufficiently moist, or it is too dry. In the first case, 
steeping the seed would be useless; in the other, vegeta¬ 
tion would suffer, after germination, for the want of 
moisture. 
51. Air is also indispensable to germination, on account 
of the combination of the oxygen which it contains with 
the superabundant carbon enclosed in the seed. It is 
* When vegetables or animals die, they are decomposed, and their forma 
changed. The product of this decomposition is called humus. Thus, alS 
manures put in the soil become humus. 
