A Civic Biology Part 13

If a commercial museum is available, a trip should be planned to work over the topics in this chapter. The school collection may well include most of the examples mentioned, both of useful and harmful plants.

A study of weeds and poisonous plants should be taken up in actual laboratory work, either by collection and identification or by demonstration.

Green Plants have a "Dollar and Cents" Value.--To the girl or boy living in the city green plants seem to have little direct value. Although we see vegetables for sale in stores and we know that fruits have a money value, we are apt to forget that the wealth of our nation depends more upon its crops than it does on its manufactories and business houses. The economic or "dollars and cents" value of plants is enormous and far too great for us to comprehend in terms of figures.

We have already seen some of the uses to mankind of the products of the forest; let us now consider some other plant products.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Cabbage Onions Lettuce Leaves used as food.]

Leaves as Food.--Grazing animals feed almost entirely on tender shoots or leaves, blades of gra.s.s, and other herbage. Certain leaves and buds are used by man as food. Lettuce, beet tops, kale, spinach, broccoli, are examples. A cabbage head is nothing but a big bud which has been cultivated by man. An onion is a compact budlike ma.s.s of thickened leaves which contain stored food.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Celery Kohl-rabi Potato Sugar cane Stems used as food.]

Stems as Food.--A city child would, if asked to name some stem used as food, probably mention asparagus. We sometimes forget that one of our greatest necessities, cane sugar, comes from the stem of sugar cane. Over seventy pounds of sugar is used each year by every person in the United States. To supply the growing demand beets are now being raised for their sugar in many parts of the world, so that nearly half the total supply of sugar comes from this source. Maple sugar is a well-known commodity which is obtained by boiling the sap of sugar maple until it crystallizes. Over 16,000 tons of maple sugar is obtained every spring, Vermont producing about 40 per cent of the total output. The sago palm is another stem which supports the life of many natives in Africa. Another stem, living underground, forms one of man's staple articles of diet. This is the potato.

Roots as Food.--Roots which store food for plants form important parts of man's vegetable diet. Beets, radishes, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and many others might be mentioned.

The following table shows the proportion of foods in some of the commoner roots and stems:--

-------------------------------------------------------------------- | WATER| PROTEINS| CARBOHYDRATES| FAT | MINERAL MATTER -------------+------+---------+--------------+-----+---------------- Potato | 75 | 1.2 | 18 | 0.3 | 1.0 Carrot | 89 | 0.5 | 5 | 0.2 | 1.0 Parsnip | 81 | 1.2 | 8.7 | 1.5 | 1.0 Turnip | 92.8 | 0.5 | 4. | 0.1 | 0.8 Onion | 91 | 1.5 | 4.8 | 0.2 | 0.5 Sweet potato | 74 | 1.5 | 20.2 | 0.1 | 1.5 Beet | 82.2 | 0.4 | 13.4 | 0.1 | 0.9 --------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Wheat Nuts Pear Melon Seeds and fruits used for food.]

Fruits and Seeds as Foods.--Our cereal crops, corn, wheat, etc., have played a very great part in the civilization of man and are now of so much importance to him as food products that bread made from flour from the wheat has been called the "staff of life." Our grains are the cultivated progeny of wild gra.s.ses. Domestication of plants and animals marks epochs in the advance of civilization. The man of the stone age hunted wild beasts for food, and lived like one of them in a cave or wherever he happened to be; he was a nomad, a wanderer, with no fixed home. He may have discovered that wild roots or grains were good to eat; perhaps he stored some away for future use. Then came the idea of growing things at home instead of digging or gathering the wild fruits from the forest and plain. The tribes which first cultivated the soil made a great step in advance, for they had as a result a fixed place for habitation. The cultivation of grains and cereals gave them a store of food which could be used at times when other food was scarce. The word "cereal" (derived from Ceres, the Roman G.o.ddess of Agriculture) shows the importance of this crop to Roman civilization. From earliest times the growing of grain and the progress of civilization have gone hand in hand. As nations have advanced in power, their dependence upon the cereal crops has been greater and greater.

"Indian corn," says John Fiske, in _The Discovery of America_, "has played a most important part in the history of the New World. It could be planted without clearing or plowing the soil. There was no need of thres.h.i.+ng or winnowing. Sown in tilled land, it yields more than twice as much food per acre as any other kind of grain. This was of incalculable advantage to the English settlers in New England, who would have found it much harder to gain a secure foothold upon the soil if they had had to begin by preparing it for wheat or rye."

To-day, in spite of the great wealth which comes from our mineral resources, live stock, and manufactured products, the surest index of our country's prosperity is the size of the corn and wheat crop. According to the last census, the amount of capital invested in agriculture was over $20,000,000,000, while that invested in manufacture was less than one half that amount.

Corn.--About three billion bushels of corn were raised in the United States during the year 1910. This figure is so enormous that it has but little meaning to us. In the past half century our corn crop has increased over 350 per cent. Illinois and Iowa are the greatest corn-producing states, each having a yearly record of over four hundred million bushels. The figure on this page shows the princ.i.p.al corn-producing areas in the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Corn Production--Percentage]

Indian corn is put to many uses. It is a valuable food. It contains a large proportion of starch, from which glucose (grape sugar) and alcohol are made. Machine oil and soap are made from it. The leaves and stalk are an excellent fodder; they can be made into paper and packing material.

Mattresses can be stuffed with the husks. The pith is used as a protective belt placed below the water line of our huge battles.h.i.+ps. Corn cobs are used for fuel, one hundred bushels having the fuel value of a ton of coal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wheat Crop in United States--Percentage Source]

Wheat.--Wheat is the crop of next greatest importance in size. Nearly seven hundred millions of bushels were raised in this country in 1910, representing a total money value of over $700,000,000. Seventy-two per cent of all the wheat raised comes from the North Central states and California.

About three fourths of the wheat crop is exported, nearly one half of it to Great Britain, thus indirectly giving employment to thousands of people on railways and steams.h.i.+ps. Wheat has its chief use in its manufacture into flour. The germ, or young wheat plant, is sifted out during this process and made into breakfast foods. Flour making forms the chief industry of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and of several other large and wealthy cities in this country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A field of rice, showing the conditions of culture.]

Other Grains.--Of the other grain and cereals raised in this country, oats are the most important crop, over one billion bushels having been produced in 1910. Barley is another grain, a staple of some of the northern countries of Europe and Asia. In this country, it is largely used in making malt for the manufacture of beer. Rye is the most important cereal crop of northern Europe, Russia, Germany, and Austro-Hungary producing over 50 per cent of the world's supply. One of the most important grain crops for the world (although relatively unimportant in the United States) is rice. The fruit of this gra.s.slike plant, after thras.h.i.+ng, screening, and milling, forms the princ.i.p.al food of one third of the human race. Moreover, its stems furnish straw, its husks make a bran used as food for cattle, and the grain, when fermented and distilled, yields alcohol.

Garden Fruits.--Green plants and especially vegetables have come to play an important part in the dietary of man. The diseases known as scurvy and beri-beri, the latter the curse of the far Eastern navies, have been largely prevented by adding vegetables and fruit juices to the dietary of the sailors. People in this country are beginning to find that more vegetables and less meat are better than the meat diet so often used. Market gardening forms the lucrative business of many thousands of people near our great cities. Some of the more important fruits are squash, cuc.u.mbers, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. The latter fruits bring in an annual income of $25,000,000 to our market gardeners. Beans and peas are important as foods because of their relatively large amount of protein. Canning green corn, peas, beans, and tomatoes has become an important industry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Picking apples, an important crop in some parts of the United States.]

Orchard and Other Fruits.--In the United States over one hundred and seventy-five million bushels of apples are grown every year. Pears, plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines also form large orchards, especially in California. Nuts form one of our important articles of food, largely because of the large amount of protein contained in them.

The grape crop of the world is commercially valuable, because of the raisins and wine produced. The culture of lemons, oranges, and grapefruit has come in recent years to give a living to many people in this country as well as in other parts of the world. Figs, olives, and dates are staple foods in the Mediterranean countries and are sources of wealth to the people there, as are coconuts, bananas, and many other fruits in tropical countries.

Beverages and Condiments.--The coffee and cacao beans, and leaves of the tea plant, products of tropical regions, form the basis of very important beverages of civilized man. Pepper, black and red, mustard, allspice, nutmegs, cloves, and vanilla are all products manufactured from various fruits or seeds of tropical plants.

Alcoholic liquors are produced from various plants in different parts of the world, the dried fruit of the hop vine being an important product of New York State used in the making of beer.

Raw Materials.--Besides use as food, green plants have many other uses.

Many of our city industries would not be in existence, were it not for certain plant products which furnish the raw materials for many manufacturing industries. Many cities of the east and south, for example, depend upon cotton to give employment to thousands of factory hands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cotton Crop in United States--Percentage Source Cotton Crop in United States--Percentage Consumption]

Cotton.--Of our native plant products cotton is probably of the most importance to the outside world. Over eleven million bales of five hundred pounds each are raised annually.

The cotton plant thrives in warm regions. Its commercial importance is gained because the seeds of the fruit have long filaments attached to them.

Bunches of these filaments, after treatment, are easily twisted into threads from which are manufactured cotton cloth, muslin, calico, and cambric. In addition to the fiber, cottonseed oil, a subst.i.tute for olive oil, is made from the seeds, and the refuse remaining makes an excellent cattle fodder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map showing the spread of the cotton boll weevil. It was introduced from Mexico about 1894. What proportion of the cotton raising belt was infected in 1908?]

Cotton Boll Weevil.--The cotton crop of the United States has rather recently been threatened with destruction by a beetle called the cotton boll weevil. This insect, which bores into the young pod of the cotton, develops there, stunting the growth of the fruit to such an extent that seeds are not produced. The loss in Texas alone is estimated at over $10,000,000 a year. The boll weevil, because of the protection offered by the cotton boll, is very difficult to exterminate. The weevils are destroyed by birds, the infected bolls and stalks are burnt, millions are killed each winter by cold, other insects prey on them, but at the present time they are one of the greatest pests the south knows.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mexican cotton boll weevil. Much enlarged, above; natural size, below. (Herrick.)]

The control of this pest seems to depend upon early planting so that the crop has an opportunity to ripen before the insects in the boll grow large enough to do harm. Ultimately the boll weevil may do more good than harm by bringing into the market a type of cotton plant that ripens very early.

Vegetable Fibers.--Among the most important are Manila hemp, which comes from the leaf-stalks of a plant of the banana family and true hemp, which is the bast or woody fiber of a plant cultivated in most warm parts of the earth. Flax is also an important fiber plant, grown largely in Russia and other parts of Europe (see picture on next page). From the bast fibers of the stem of this herb linen cloth is made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Flax grown for fiber.]

Vegetable Oils.--Some of the same plants which give fiber also produce oil.

Cotton seed oil pressed from the seeds, linseed oil from the seeds of the flax plant, and coconut oil (the covering of the nut here producing the fiber) are examples.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Poison ivy, a climbing plant which is poisonous to touch.

Notice the leaves in threes.]

Some Harmful Green Plants.--We have seen that on the whole green plants are useful to man. There are, however, some that are harmful. For example, the poison ivy is extremely poisonous to touch. The poison ivy is a climbing plant which attaches itself to the trees or walls by means of tiny air roots which grow out from the stem. It is distinguished from its harmless climbing neighbor, the Virginia Creeper, by the fact that its leaves are notched in _threes_ instead of _fives_. Every boy and girl should know poison ivy.

Numerous other poisonous common plants are found, but one other deserves special notice because of its presence in vacant city lots. The Jimson Weed (_Datura_) is a bushy plant, from two to five feet high, bearing large leaves. It has white or purplish flowers, and later bears a four-valved seed pod containing several hundred seeds. These plants contain a powerful poison, and people are often made seriously ill by eating the roots or other parts by mistake.

Weeds.--From the economic standpoint the green plants which do the greatest damage are weeds. Those plants which provide best for their young are usually the most successful in life's race. Plants which combine with the ability to scatter many seeds over a wide territory the additional characteristics of rapid growth, resistance to dangers of extreme cold or heat, attacks of enemies, inedibility, and peculiar adaptations to cross-pollination or self-pollination, are usually spoken of as weeds. They flourish in the sterile soil of the roadside and in the fertile soil of the garden. By means of rapid growth they kill other plants of slower growth by usurping their territory. Slow-growing plants are thus actually exterminated. Many of our common weeds have been introduced from other countries and have, through their numerous adaptations, driven out other plants which stood in their way. Such is the Russian Thistle. A single plant of this kind will give rise to over 20,000 seeds. First introduced from Russia in 1873, it spread so rapidly that in twenty years it had appeared as a common weed over an area of some twenty-five thousand square miles. It is now one of the greatest pests in our Northwest.