The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-20
HOW PLANTS
EAT THEIR FOOD

LHl InLUn IUUU
For life mankind depends upon the
animal Kingdom I'm a large part, but
both depend ultimately for their exis-
tence upon the humber vegetable
life that takes It's nourlshment direct
~ from the breast Of mother earth.
Neither man nor animal is capable Of
this marvellous feat and yet II vege-
table life did not possess this extra
ordinary power, the higher and more
complex forms OF existence could new
er have existed on our globe.
! And between the chemicals in the
earth--between the nitrates which the
vegetable chiefly lives upon and the
vegetable itself there is a great gulf
fixed. And this chasm that exists be-
tween the growing plant and the nj
trates that it must eat is covered over
by bacteria, by microbes, by germs.
And It is, therefore, the germs, bac-
terra and microbes which are so much
dreaded by mankind. that actually di-
gest the foods needed for plant life
and so indirectly, but none the less
surely, enable mankind to exist. The
dried and rotting plants that fall all
over the ground, the fallen leaves, the
branches of trees and the very trees
themselves cannot help to nourish
new plants and vegetables.
The bodies of animals and insects
are in themselves of no value as plant
food or as fertilizer. All the swarm
ing life of the earth is of no value to
vegetable existence until the mi
crobes, the germs, the bacteria, jump
into the breach and change these ma
terials into soluble nitrates, which
the roots of the plant understand how
to suck up and the structure of the
plant knows how to digest, and to
change into new vegetable matter for
man and the animal kingdom to live
upon.
Animal and insect debris must be
changed by bacteria from organic in
to inorganic matter before a second
set of microbes can get to work to fix
up the soluble nitrates which are in
dispensable for vegetable existence
This work is done by a family of mi
crobes that are called variously fer
ments or diastases. They resemble
somewhat the common yeast that is
used to tighten our daily bread.
Technically described, the process
is as follows The "micrococcus ur-
cas-" changes the final form of all or.
ganic matter from its state known as
urea" into carbonate of ammonia
Then a family of bacteria known as
the nitrous and the nitric bacilli
change these ammonia compounds in
to the nitrates which plant life car
eat and grow tall and fat on.
These two steps between animal
and vegetable existence depend alb
solutely on bacteria-that is to say, on
certain family of germs or microbes
If this unseen sort of life was to sud
denly die out upon the earth, man
kind would speedily cease to exist
and just as surely and even more rap
idly than if the all-powerful sun were
to be suddenly blotted out into dark
ness.
After the soluble nitrates are form
ed, along comes another family o
germs that eat up much of the nj
trates, and in the process give off NJ
trogen gas into the air. All the nitro
gen in our atmosphere which helps q
nourish the earth's vegetation ha'
been passed through the organism
of an infinite number of invisible
= germs that are born and die every sec
ond by the billion of billions on tn,
. surface of the globe.
!, So it is that the one crucial gap be
!. tween dead matter and new vegeta
ton on the earth has been closed b.
a series of microbes, germs and bac
terias. Without them, there would b,
no spring times on this planet and NJ
. existence of any kind. In these in
visible microbes there lies the ulti
mate secret of existence vegetable
animal and human.