The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-09-15
Edited by r. Walden


page 2O2, as follows: Although these
simple inorganic materials absorbed
from the air and soil are frequently
spoken of as the food of plants, it is
better perhaps to speak of them as
food-materials, for the living sub
stance of a plant can not directly
nourish itself upon them. 1t is only
after they are elaborated or built ur
| into more complex compounds thai
they become food which can be used
| for the nutrition of the protoplasm
and the formation of the tissues OF
growing organs"
That we may the better understand
what is here set forth, attention may
be called to the fact that starch, sugar
of various kinds and other similar
compounds are the only things thai
can nourish plants and yet no starch
or sugar or other compounds referred
to ever enter a tree, or for that mat
ter any plant. How does the plant
secure them? 1t has to take the raw
materials referred to above and make
the starch, sugar, etc. When we say
that starch, sugar, and other com
pounds are made in the plants, we dc
created, but that new combinations
are made.
To illustrate this, let me say thai
starch consists of parts OF carbon
IL parts of hydrogen and 5 parts Of
oxygen, while cane-sugar consists Of
II parts of carbon, % parts of hydro
gen and II parts of oxygen. Other
combinations of carbon, hydrogen anC
oxygen give us grape sugar and many
other carbohydrates. The whole pro
cess consists in the different cOmblna
lions of these three substances, bu
| till these combinations are made there
| is no nutriment for plant or animal
Furthermore, these useful comb1na
lions must be made in living plants
! A COW cannot be fed and live on car
bon. hydrogen and oxygen unless they
are first combined in plantS-the COW
cannot form carbohydrates out of raw
material Hence the animal kingdom
is dependent on the vegetable king
DOM When we read in the records
of geology and in Holy Writ thai
plants were made before animals WE
find no occasion of surprise-it just
had to be so in the nature of the case
All animals, including men, must be
fed on organized food, they will starVe
on raw materials, but plants can take
the raw materials and organize then
and then live on them.
Where does this Transforming take
place? Only in the leaves. Perciva
above quoted gives the conditions
under which this celebrating takes
place as follows: "G) The plants
must be living. Ci) Carbon dioxlde
must be present in the air surround
ing the leaves Gid The leaves mus
contain chloroplasts. Gv) A certain
intensity of light is essential. (v) Al
adequate degree of temperature Is
necessary for the process. Page I'll
Sorauer, in his great work on The
Physiology of Plants" page 3, says:
"The leaves are concerned in the pro
duction Of the necessary food mate
rial. This is effected in the greer
cells of the leaves under the influence
of light, and from the raw materla
which they obtain partly from the at
mosphere (carbonic acid, and partly
from the soil in the form of minera
salts dissolved in water Again or
page 1O6. this same author says: "The
wood contains vessels which lift the
nutritive solution taken up by the
roots to the centres of assimilatine
activity, and carry them by delicate
qualifications (veins) to the most ex
IRENE points of the leaves, the greer
cells of which have the power, under
the influence of light, of building w
from the carbonic acid of the air and
from the salts of the soil new organic
material which can be used for further
growth"