^be Ibope of HJears to Come 53 



withered by too great dry heat, devoured by worms, 

 frozen, choked by too close lAunt growth, or rumed 

 by overmuch shade. If plantlets were not very 

 numerous the varieties of plants would presently die 

 out. 



This vision of the desolation of the world if the 

 general death of the new plants happened, sets us to 

 a bus}^ thinking. Each jenr the harvest of the pre- 

 vious years is nearly expended l)y the time the fresh 

 supplies come. The world cannot turn a Bishop Hatto 

 and store up its corn ; supply and demand, getting 

 and using, pretty nearly balance each other. China 

 has floods, or India has droughts, and China and 

 India are presently starving, because last year's food 

 is eaten up and this year's food failed to grow. When 

 the potato crop perished in Ireland there was a 

 famine never to be forgotten, because each summer 

 only provided potatoes enough for a year, and when 

 the blight cut off a crop there was nothing to fall 

 back upon. The dependence of the greater upon 

 the less, of the animal upon the vegetable, of man 

 upon his plant neighbors, is impressed upon us when 

 we are told that after that year or two of famine the 

 Irish race never fully recovered the vivacity and easy 

 gaiety which had until then been theirs. 



When March winds shake out the leaf buds and 

 the seeds in the ground begin to stir with strong life, 



