NATURE'S CALENDAR 



January 2 



survived, or, in the case of shrubs and 

 trees, their whole woody framework, but 

 their leaves fell to the ground, giving 

 way to plump buds kept warm by many 

 scales. It is a part of the silent duty of 

 January to dissolve and absorb the good 

 in these discarded leaves and worn herb- 

 age, and to mingle it with the soil, help- 

 ing the earth to recuperate strength for 

 the labors that must soon be renewed. 



Meanwhile the water carrying the sap, 

 which contains the food and building- 

 material of the tree, ceases to flow into 

 the branches, so that one may say that 

 its veins are drained of their blood. The 

 soft layer of new wood beneath the bark 

 hardens, and there is no danger of dam- 

 age from freezing. 



The snow which now covers the earth 

 plays a beneficent part towards vegeta- 

 tion. It is like a blanket, keeping in the 

 warmth, preventing excessive freezing of 

 the ground, protecting it against a too 

 rapid evaporation of its moisture, and by 

 its occasional melting contributing evenly 

 to the soil the water stored in its glisten- 

 ing crystals. 



The vegetable world, then, rests and 

 sleeps in our January days. The same is 

 extensively true of the animal world. 

 Most creatures of the lower types die out 

 altogether in the autumn, like the annual 

 plants, leaving only their eggs or young 

 to renew the tribe when warm weather 

 returns, yet some of the simplest as well 



January 3 



