INTRODUCTION. XI 



prisoners upon it, we may be very well satisfied. On 

 the ground stand our homes ; out of the ground come 

 our food and clothing, fruits, flowers, grain, wood, 

 precious metals, coal, gas, iron, and all else that goes 

 to make our lives worth living. Out of this same 

 ground we stand upon, comes all wealth of every kind. 

 Certainly it is well worth our time and labor to -study 

 this stony surface of the earth. If the ground is the 

 source of so many good things, we ought to be well 

 acquainted with it, that we may learn to win from 

 it more food, more clothing, more wealth of every 

 kind. 



One of the first things we observe in looking at the 

 ground is, that it is in almost every place covered with 

 plants. These plants we see are good, some for food, 

 some for useful woods, some for materials for clothing, 

 and others are excellent foods for birds and animals. It 

 is through these plants we gain wealth from the ground. 

 We have already, in the first book of this series of 

 Chautauqua Talks, made a number of observations and 

 experiments, that we might learn something of the 

 relations of the earth and the sun to living plants. 

 We examined the effects of the movements of the 

 earth upon plants ; we studied the effects of light and 

 darkness, the changes of the seasons, the winds and 

 rains, and learned much that is of value in caring for 

 useful plants of all kinds. We have now to consider 

 the home of plants, the soil in which they live and 

 grow. We shall in this book, as in the other, make 

 experiments with real things, and thus learn by direct 



