The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-03-11
Nv. PROF. J. =. ThompsoN.

S"~Vs - oSNs
In the last two articles it was point
ed out that the food of plants and
animals is the same in kind, that is.
organic material. 1t is common know
ledge that no animal can make food.
Not even DR.. Wiley with all his skill
in chemistry can make q grain OF
wheat. Animals are consumers of food.
but not food makers; or We may say
that animals are food destroyers, or
We may say that animals use food in
such a way that it Ia always tending
toward, and finally becomes, inorganic
matter
Two hundred and fifty years ago
John Evelyn saw that something kept
up this food supply and he was right
in believing that plants did it, but
while this English scholar was a keen
observer. he was more Of a philoso-
pher than a botanist. He reasoned
that life and death are two equal fore
es and that it was the business of
plants to reconstruct new living plant
forms from the dead of both animals
and plants. He knew, as we know
that death follows life, with equal and
certain step, and he thought, life must
follow death in like manner, using
again the same organic material.
Some plants can do this. that is. can
live on decaying matter alone. The
toad-stools live this way and we call
them Saphrophytes. Some plants live
On living things, the Dodder that flor
let's oh fhio NJ nall
1t parasite. But these plants are both
more or less degenerate, the toad-stool
is a scavenger and the dodder is a
thief and neither ranks high in any
kind of society. If living organisms
live only on dead organisms, life would
degenerate, or deteriorate and would
finally disappear.
Suppose the Starr Piano company
would say to its customers, I'VE can
not make any more pianos because the
raw material cannot be had any long
er. When your pianos are worn out,
send them back to the factory and we
will make them over again" Suppose
three come back to the factory for re-
pairs and it takes one, to repair the
other two; it requires no argument
to make it clear that the time would
come when there would be no more
Starr pianos. In other words, new in
struments must be made all the time,
new ones out of raw material. No mat
ter how good made over piano may
be, there Is always loss that cannot
be made good, except out of new ma
terial, and no made-over instrument
can be as good as new one. Paraslt-
ic plants and parasitic animals may be
regarded as kind of made over ma
chimes, never as good as plants and
animals that feed on food that is new.
In another article it was stated that
there are ten necessary constituents
in a plants makeup; that is If a
piece of wood is analysed chemically,
while it may and does contain many
more elements than ten, yet Carbon,
Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Sulphur,
Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Mag
nesium and Iron are always found in
normal healthy plants with green
leaves. The last six may be found
in the ashes of wood when it is burned
and therefore represents what the
plant gets from the soil.
Starch is one of the most abundant
Of our foods. Wheat, corn, rice, beans,
potatoes are starch. and the elements
that enter into the composition of
starch are Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxy-
gen. In the cooking department., Miss
Parsons will tell you they are called
Carbohydrates. Now where does the
potato plant get it's carbon out of
which to build a potato? Everyone