Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1914 — HOW TREES PROCURE FOOD [ARTICLE]

HOW TREES PROCURE FOOD

Belief Is That Sustenance la Digested In Advance of .Its Consumption. Every gardener knows that a tree can be fed and nude to grow with increased vigor. If proper nourishment in the form of humus, nitrogen, phosphate, etc., be placed about Va roots the tree will absorb this food and grow rapidly and strongly. But how the tree feeds is somewhat more difficult to explain. In all probability the tree digests its food first and consumes it afterward. Certain it is that the average tree has no means of consuming food as a whole, as members of the animal kingdom absorb it. It is well known that the larvae of certain insects digest their food first and consume it afterward. Observation would indicate that thisis exactly what the tree does. The tiny rootlets act on the substances lathe earth, dissolving and bracking them up so they can be absorb«*d through the root pores. In order so to be taken up the chemicals must be in liquid form and devoid of all waste. The end of each root is armed with) a horny substance with which it can burrow through the hard soil in search of food.