8 The Great World's Farm 



warmer latitudes the incessant struggle of the wild crops 

 to invade and recover the ground which they have lost is 

 still more marked. 



At Para, in Brazil, for instance, we are told that every 

 lane, yard, and square is a battle-ground. Even the roofs 

 and cornices of some of the public buildings are occupied 

 by plants or small trees, which wave their feathery heads 

 aloft like flags of triumph in defiance of the enemy. The 

 city is hemmed in by a wall of tropical forest, consisting 

 of giant trees, palms, and tangled creepers, which ever 

 and anon send out skirmishers to try and effect a lodg- 

 ment in the enemy's territory; and so well do they suc- 

 ceed where circumstances favor them, that a large square, 

 which was cleared and turfed, but left unguarded, was 

 covered in five years' time with a tangled mass of 

 vegetation fifteen feet high, and denser than the virgin 

 forest. 



For there is no lack of laborers on the great farm. 

 They are employed by the million in all parts of it, and 

 though they are always ready to reclaim any portion which 

 has been taken from them, they nevertheless attend im- 

 partially to the whole — the small part which man has 

 taken under his own care, as well as that which he leaves 

 at present entirely to their management. 



And a very sorry condition the human farmer's fields 

 would be in if they were left to himself alone, in spite of 

 all his improved modern appliances and scientific knowl- 

 edge. 



"It is an easy error to consider that he who has tilled 

 the ground and sown the seed is the author of his crop." 

 And for the most part, perhaps, the farmer realizes but 

 little of the vast debt which he owes to the unseen, un- 



