356 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



foreign substances, instantly assume now forms of vegetation, 

 and the rudeness tliat labor has occasioned is covered with 

 drapery of plant-life. Myriads of minute plants, seen only in 

 their distinct proportions by the microscope, spring forth upon 

 the smoothest surfaces, others, of a larger growth, upon the 

 quarried rock ; out of their decay, grass and shrubs and even 

 trees, in turn, rise, and no waste of opportunity or of space is 

 allowed in the economy of nature. The hardest rocks, abraded 

 thousands of years ago by the iceberg and polished by the drift 

 geological material, and left covered by superstrata of earth, 

 when exposed to light and moisture and the atmospheric 

 changes, yield some kinds of alga or lichen, from which the 

 botanist foresees manifold uses to future generations. He 

 traces, too, in the sedimentary layers of mud of the ditch or of 

 the pond, wonderfully constructed vegetables, and anticipates 

 from their agencies new fields of labor to unborn nations, whose 

 people shall " plant vineyards, and sow fields, and dwell on the 

 dry ground," which once were " standing pools." To a benevo- 

 lent Creator's will and power these most minute agencies of 

 nature are made subservient, and no soil so sterile which may not 

 be converted by His wisdom into results beneficial and impor- 

 tant, and from whose lessons science is not enabled to profit and 

 to make practical application. 



This almost instantaneous presence of vegetation upon new, 

 artificially-created areas suggests a lesson of some importance. 

 It implies the need of such agencies in fitting this earth as a 

 comfortable residence of men. The chemist analyzes the rock, 

 the solid ground, the semi-fluid mass of bog and mire, and 

 detects in them all some particular elements favorable to some 

 peculiar sorts of plants. He analyzes the plant and finds in 

 turn secretions, which act upon such substances, and which 

 render them fit for successive and higher orders. The results 

 of combined observation and study encourage industry in new 

 channels, and recommend some hitherto untried plan to renovate 

 or beautify the earth's surface. 



Artificial planting and culture of forest trees has been left too 

 much to the man of fortune or to those of decided artistic tastes. 

 By want of judicious observation on the part of otherwise prac- 

 tical people, a great many serious blunders have occurred. The 

 proper season to sow the seeds of forest trees, the proper modes 



