CHAPTER VI 



ON UNDERGROUND LIFE 



Mother-earth— Quarries and Chalk-pits— Wandering atoms— The soil 

 or dirt — Populations of Worms, Birds, Germs — Fairy Rings — Roots 

 miles long — How roots find their way — How they do the right thing 

 and seek only what is good for them — Root versus stones — Roots which 

 haul bulbs about — Bishops weed — Wild Garlic — Dandelion, Plantain 

 —Solomon's Seal — Roots throwing down walls— Strength of a seedling 

 root. 



THE word " Adam " means red earth, Poets and 

 essayists still regularly write about Mother-Earth 

 and, in so doing, admit one of the most interesting 

 and wonderful facts in Nature. 



If you go to some quarry or clifF where a section has been 

 cut, laying bare the original rock below ; then (with Hugh 

 Miller) you may reflect on the extraordinary value of those 

 few inches of soil which support the growth of all our trees 

 and of all our cultivated plants. 



It is probable that plant-roots never go deeper than about 

 thirty feet. All our food, our energy, and activity depend 

 therefore on this thinnest surface-layer of an earth which is 

 8000 miles in diameter. But in most places the depth of 

 true soil is far less than thirty feet, generally it is not more 

 than thirty inches, and by far the most valuable part of it is 

 a very thin layer five or six inches thick. 



It is in this true soil that the roots gain their nourishment, 

 and not only roots, for whole populations of worms, of 



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