VII. THE EDIBLE WILD ROOTS OF THE FARM 



"The sunshine floods the fertile fields 



Where shining seeds are sown, 

 And lo, a miracle is wrought; 



For plants with leaves wind-blown, 

 By magic of the sunbeam's touch 



Take from the rain and dew 

 And earth and air, the things of life 



To mingle them anew, 

 And store them safe in guarding earth 



To meet man's hunger-need. 



Then lo, the wonder grows complete; 



The germ within the seed 

 Becomes a sermon or a song, 



A kiss or kindly deed." 



— Dean Albert W. Smith. 



Nature sometimes caches her stores of provisions — hides 

 them underground. She puts them up in mold-proof 

 packages, and stows them away in the earth, where, protected 

 from sudden changes of temperature, they keep for along- 

 time. It is chiefly a few of the mammals that are the reci- 

 • pients of this bounty — those that can 

 burrow in the soil and those that can 

 root. The burrowers are numerous, 

 and of very different sorts. They all 

 have stout claws on their fore feet. 

 The rooters are few: only the pigs and 

 their nearest allies. These have a most 

 unique and beautiful digging apparatus, 

 happily placed on the end of the nose, 

 where it is backed by all the pushing 

 power of a stout body, and where it is 

 directed in its operations by the aid of 

 very keen olfactories. This is a most 

 efficient equipment for digging. If any- 

 58 



Fig 



Nature's most 

 efficient implement of 

 tillage. But, alasl a 

 little bit of metal ring 

 thrust into the sensitive 

 base of the "rooter" 

 renders this beautiful 

 contrivanceinoperative, 

 reduces the efficiency of 

 his pigship to the com- 

 mon level of mamma- 

 lian kind, and leaves 

 him endowed only with 

 his appetite. 



