Researchers found out that plants mate and have offspring very much as animals do. A male plant and a female plant are both needed to produce a seed from which a new plant will grow. This suggested taking one sort of male plant and another type of female plant and trying to produce brand-new foods that would integrate the qualities of two other foods. Luther Burbank, an American who made a lifelong study of this, created lots of brand-new plants. He developed brand-new, better-tast- ing fruits by mixing the pollens of two different plants (a process called cross- pollination) and his developments consisted of such things as the honeydew melon and the grapefruit we see usually on our table today. The same type of work produced string beans without strings (and many people today have actually forgotten the time when string beans had such strong, difficult and undesirable strings in them that you could barely bite through them), and oranges that give much more juice than other oranges, a development that caused the routine of drinking orange juice for breakfast today. Before then, oranges did not have sufficient juice to make it rewarding to squeeze them. The science of chemistry was a terrific help to agriculture. Farmers would discover that particular bugs were destroying their plants. The insects would consume the leaves, or bore into the veggies or fruits, or even assault the roots and keep the plants from growing. There were poisons that would kill the insects, however those same toxins might eliminate the plants– otherwise make the fruit of those plants poisonous to individuals who consumed them. The issue was to discover chemicals that would eliminate bugs without injuring the plant. Chemists have found liquids that you can spray or powders that you can dust on lots of plants that will keep the insects from eating them but will not keep the plants from growing and will not threaten to individuals who consume the veggies or fruits. Not all the problems have actually been resolved, so the work goes on and every year new methods are found to combat the insects and the diseases of our food plants therefore to make the crops bigger and much healthier.
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