Photo 95. 



terminal bud. As this elongates it becomes 

 the stem or trunk of the tree. From this 

 simple, but wonderful zero point the work 

 of plant and tree building commences Just 

 in proportion to the activity of the roots, so 

 is the growth of the top; it could not be 

 otherwise. The little, wee, microscopic 

 rootlets are away down out of sight, multi- 

 plying and faithfully gathering moisture and 

 sending it up to the other extremities. As 

 the plumule shoots up it forms buds at the 

 sides; these in time become branches. Out 

 of these limbs come other branches; from 

 these, smaller ones. At the ends of all are 

 what we call the twigs, on which is borne the 

 leaves. If you want to understand blight 

 you must always keep this fact in mind, namely: The little 

 microscopic rootlets and the leaves always ivork reciprocally. 

 Let me use an illustration. We hear the hum and clatter of 

 thousands of machines; we see the "iron horses" darting 

 hither and thither ; the electric cars, like a lot of bumble- 

 bees, flying here and there ; gigantic steamers plowing the 

 lakes and oceans, etc. Whence comes all the motive power ? 

 From the sun. He has stored up heat in the bowels of the 

 earth in the form of coal. But the direct agents who move 

 the machines on the surface are the miners. Suppose you 

 withhold water from the miners ; theyfawis/i and die. Sup- 

 pose you fill the mines with water and drown the miners, 

 the result is the same, it is death in either case. That means 

 stagnation or even death to commerce. 



It is just so with your trees and plants. These delicate, 

 but faithful little fibres gather up the moisture and the leaves 

 show a corresponding activity. The leaves are real, com- 

 mercial workers. The leaf receives the sap as it is brought up 

 by capillary attraction. Oh, wonderful laboratory of nature 

 is the leaf! It takes the crude sap, spreads it out to the sun's 

 rays, which decomposes the carbonic acid, and the leaf 

 throws off the oxygen for the good of man and beast. Cam- 

 bium is formed and is returned down, layer 

 upon layer, thus constructing countless mil- 

 lions of trees whose timber is used in com- 

 merce, and whose fruits sustain animal and 

 human life. Trees thus keep up activity in 

 the commercial world, and thereby prevent 

 war. The leaves of the trees are, to a large 

 extent, the factories in which o.rygen is 

 manufactured, without which the human and 

 animal creation could not exist. Literally it 

 is true that ''the leaves of the trees are for 

 the healing of the nations." Wonderful is 

 the leaf, and much has been written concern- 

 ing it; but how comparatively little has been 

 said about that faithful little miner or rootlet, 

 that is away down there in the dirt and mud, 



