UNDER THE MAPLES 



herds of well-kept dairy cows. In the season 

 of rains the grass springs up and for a time cattle 

 do well, but during the long dry season there is no 

 pasturage save dry pasturage. 



Although winter is supposed to be the rainy sea- 

 son here, I have been here during three seasons and 

 have so far seen only light rains. To-day (Decem- 

 ber 16th) the earth is like powder as deep down as 

 you care to dig. Yesterday I saw a man dragging in 

 grain, and a great cloud of dust streamed out behind 

 him. Ten or more years ago there was a very heavy 

 rainfall in this locality that inundated large sections 

 of the country and destroyed much property, the 

 dry San Diego River getting out of bounds and 

 carrying away bridges and floating houses on its 

 banks. But it has been as dry as a highway ever 

 since. It is clear that when the big rains do come 

 they are more sporadic and uncertain than formerly. 



VIII. ALL-SEEING NATURE 



Sitting by a flat rock one summer morning, on 

 my home acres in the Catskills, I noticed that the 

 wild strawberry-vines sent out their runners over 

 the rock, the surface of which is on a level with the 

 turf, just as over the ground. Of course they 

 could not take root, but they went through all the 

 motions of taking root; the little clusters of leaves 

 developed at intervals, the rootlets showed their 

 points or stood at "attention," and the runners 



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