ALL 'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD 



from the stump to replace the parent trunk. They 

 all grow vigorously the first season ; the whole push 

 of the complex root system of the stump is behind 

 them. They grow vigorously the second season, 

 and the third, and maybe for several years more. 

 But the competition becomes sharper and sharper; 

 some of the shoots, from causes hard to penetrate, 

 outstrip their fellows, they get the lead, they get 

 more light, more foliage, and this enables them to 

 take up more nourishment from the soil. The others 

 lag, then stop, then die. Then the struggle among 

 the three or four or five thrifty shoots goes on for 

 a few years longer, till some of them are distanced, 

 and finally die when they are the size of one's leg. 

 Then two or three remain to take the place of the 

 parent trunk. We witness here the same struggle 

 that we witness in the animal world. It is all a 

 question of the means of subsistence; the soil can 

 nourish only just so much life, and the fittest or 

 luckiest gets this nourishment, just the same as 

 when you throw a bone to a pack of hungry dogs. 

 Sometimes the grain will "run out" the weeds, 

 and sometimes the weeds will run out the grain, 

 or the grass. The cereals that depend upon man, 

 and that he depends upon, cannot of course hold 

 their own with the wild denizens of the soil. Much 

 care and culture has made them weak; they have 

 grown dependent; they must be fed and cosseted 

 and protected, the battle against the foes of life 

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