PART III 



STUDIES FOR SUMMER TERM 



XXXIII. THE PROGRESS OF THE SEASON 



" Now is the high tide of the year. . . 

 We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 

 How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell; 

 We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing 

 That skies are clear and grass is growing; 

 The breeze comes whispering in our ear 

 That dandelions are blossoming near, 

 That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing." 



Lowell (A Day in June) . 



Summer is here ! 



The fields that were brown when overturned in the spring 

 are now all green again. The desolation wrought by the 

 plow was but to prepare them for a better growth. The 

 cattle stand knee-deep in the grass. The butter is yellow. 

 There is no bare ground in the garden of the thrifty house- 

 holder. Splendid flowers are blooming; nestlings are trying 

 their wings. The earliest of the wild fruits are ripening; 

 and living is easier for every creature. 



The spring rush is over and the great work of the heated 

 season is on the work of crop production. We speak 

 figuratively of raising crops that is nature's work, not ours. 

 All we can do is to arrange some of the conditions favoring 

 their growth. We can remove their competitors and destroy 

 their enemies and stir the soil about them, but nature makes 

 them grow. 



Most plants consume their food reserves in getting started 

 in spring; then they settle down to the steady work of 

 gathering new sustenance from the soil and from the air. 

 Under natural conditions, they must act quickly when the 



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