SUNSHINE ON THE FARM. 373 



could hear, the hum of the busy workers as their gigantic 

 labors go forward. Consider the fact that hundreds of tons 

 of water are lifted by millions of little pumps in the cellular 

 tissues of the great trees in yonder forest ; think of what is 

 going on in that cornfield which stretches away to the 

 meadow. 



So constant and unceasing is the work going on under the 

 influence of solar light, that each individual cell resembles a 

 hive of bees in the height of the honey-harvest. Each mole- 

 cule of rich material needed to build up and perfect the 

 separate parts — whether it be the leaf, the blossom, the 

 shining silk of the ear, or the kernel itself — finds its appro- 

 priate place, and no mistakes are made. The water which 

 holds in solution the mineral constituents — potash, phos- 

 phoric acid, lime and silica — is started on its rounds by the 

 greedy appetite of the spongioles springing from the roots ; 

 and the volume which is lifted and exhaled is immense. 

 Work, work, work ! All nature seems intent upon con- 

 structing and developing. There is intense activity in the 

 air as well as in the soil ; and behind this press and hurry 

 there must be some producing cause, some force or forces 

 which carry forward and sustain this mighty work. We 

 have not to go far to find it ; it is in the sunshine which falls 

 so noiselessly and copiously upon the glowing fields. The 

 earth is not the source and possessor of its own life-forces. 

 The high power which gathers dead matter into living struc- 

 tures, and calls into existence all the beauties and glories of 

 the earth, is not of our world, it is superterrestrial ; it comes 

 from the great central body of our planetary system, the 

 sun. 



Before directing attention to the nature of the solar beam, 

 and the service it performs in clothing our fields in vest- 

 ments of surpassing beauty, I must bring to view the great 

 orb itself, and consider some of its physical and chemical 

 peculiarities. If the question is asked, " What is possible 

 to be known of a body ninety-two millions of miles distant 

 from our earth?" I reply, " We know very much regarding 

 it." Our knowledge is as positive and demonstrable relating 

 to the physics of the sun as that relating to the nature of 

 many terrestrial bodies. A considerable number of rather 



