Green factories

Every green plant is a "factory". It's a sugar "factory". It works from early day to dark every day, even on Sunday.

The plant must have two things for making sugar: water and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide comes from the air. It is one of the gases the air is made of. Water comes from the ground.

As soon as water from the ground gets to a leaf it goes all over the leaf. Water and carbon dioxide are put together to make sugar. Most factories run on electricity. The green factories run on sunshine.

After the plant has made sugar, it makes the other kinds of food it needs.

Without green plants there wouldn't be any sugar or any other food for men and animals. Green plants are the world's most important "factories".

Do you know that ...

... The sunflower came from Central America? As Incas were sunworshippers they reproduced this flower everywhere. They made different decorations in the form of a sunflower and even their flags were in the form of a sunflower.It was a very popular flower at one time, but by the end of the 17th century, had rather gone out of fashion.

Most people when they first see a sunflower, however, are amazed at its size. Not only is it very tall, but its actual flowers are very large, compared with the flowers of other plants. One in the Royal Gardens at Madrid was supposed to have reached a height of 24 ft,, and one in Padua, Italy, a height of 40 ft.

Sunflowers are very useful plants. Their petals produce a yellow dye. The leaves make excellent food for livestock. The most valuable parts of sunflowers, however, are the seeds. As many as 2,362 seeds have been once in a single head. They are rich in protein and calcium and are used for making edible oil for margarine and also artists colours.

... Primula is the name of one genus of the Primulaceae family sometimes known as the primrose family. There are three wild species which grow in Great Britain and these are the primrose, the cowslip and the oxslip.

The primrose is supposed to have been the favourite flower of Benjamin Disraeli, who was Britain's Prime Minister in the 19th century, and it is said that Queen Victoria often gave him these beautiful yellow flowers. When he died, in April 1881, the Queen sent primroses to his funeral. Later Primrose Day was set up. This was celebrated on April 19th, the day of his death. On that day primroses were laid on his statue in Parliament Square.

The generic word "primula" is a corruption of the French "primeverole" and the Italian "primeverola". Both these words came from the Latin "prima vera" and mean "the first flower of spring".

Cereal crops

Cereal crops, and wheat in particular, are grown on a large territory in Ukraine.Ukrainian selectionists have made real efforts to raise new, hardy strains of wheat, the best of which are Besosta-1, Saratovska-29, and Myronivska-808. This is hard-grained wheat which has great germinating force¹ and high yields – 40–50 centners per hectare. Now, the scientists have developed new, even more productive varieties of wheat – the Avrora, Kavkaz and Myronivska-Yuvileina. The winter strain of the Myronivska-Yuvileina wheat yielded 100,3 centners per hectare.

Rye is also grown on vast areas. Groat cereals and leguminous plants² occupy vast tracts – mostly in the Crimea. As to rice, it needs a lot of moisture. Plans are afoot³ for the costruction of large irrigation systems to supply water to rice fields.

Maize is popular in Ukraine as well. New varieties of hybrid maize have been adapted to various climatic and soil conditions.

The crop-producing power⁴ of grain, especially wheat, is being investigated at various research institutes and at a great number of strain testing stations⁵, and farms.

Notes and Commentary

¹ germinating force - схожість

² groat cereals and leguminous plants - круп'яні і бобові культури

³ plans are afoot - розробляються плани

⁴ the crop-producing power - врожайність зерна

⁵ strain testing station - сортовипробувальна станція