THE NEW EARTH 



ized individual, for by means of its root system 

 it draws up from the earth large quantities of 

 water, uses it for its own purposes, and sends 

 it off again through the air by transpiration. 

 A single poplar tree of normal size and in 

 good health sends off through the air every 

 day a barrel of water. It has been found that 

 gas in trees plays a most important part in 

 this act of pumping. Maple-sugar trees, for 

 example, have been carefully tested by the 

 specialists in the Vermont Experiment Station 

 by means of pressure gages. It was shown that 

 the gas in the tree is at times in a state of 

 suction through being highly rarefied. This 

 draws up the sap from the roots it is not 

 forced up from the roots, as had long been 

 believed. There is root pressure, however, and 

 the man of science comes forward with the in- 

 formation that the dew which makes the grass 

 brilliant as with many diamonds when the sun 

 is coming up is not dew at all as we commonly 

 call it, a product of condensation, but water 

 which has been drawn up from the roots in 

 the night and, there being no sun or warmth 

 to dry or evaporate it, it has formed in drops 

 upon the grass-blades. 



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