In the previous chapter something was said of the food required by a growing corn plant after it has reached a stage in its development in which it is independent of the parent plant and is able to live on the elements of the soil and air. When this corn plant began its growth from the seed which the farmer planted in the ground, it led a very different life, and one typical of young plants in general.

The young corn plant lives upon the material provided for it by the parental organism, and stored away in the dry corn grain. When a dry grain is put into a warm, moist place it begins to swell and germinate. The young corn plant which has been lying asleep in the germ of the kernel is waked up by the warmth and moisture and begins to grow, taking its nourishment from the substance of the kernel. This nourishment consists of starch, oil, protein, and salts. The germinating corn plant digests these substances, dissolving them and making them a part of the plant's sap. Prom this sap, or circulating fluid, the young plant takes up the nourishing materials and assimilates them, or builds them up into plant tissues. After a few days of growth in the warm, moist soil of the field or garden the corn plant produces the bright-green pigment peculiar to most plants called chlorophyll. Through the help of this wonderful substance, chlorophyll, the growing plant is able to build up sugar and starch from the carbon dioxid of air and the water of the soil. It is able at this time to take up the nitrates, phosphates, sulphates, chlorids, and other salts of the soil, and build them up into the plant tissues, thus becoming an independent living thing, able to maintain itself. It received its start in life from its parents, and thus became a debtor. It pays its debt to Nature by producing a numerous progeny of young corn plants, each one of which it supplies with a store of material to set it up in business.

To summarize, young plants that start from seeds consume a menu consisting of the following food materials: Protein, starch, sugar, fat, salts.