76 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



the skyey influences, come down; the harmony, the 

 adjustment, the perfect understanding of the soil 

 beneath and the air that swims above, are implied in 

 the marvelous benefaction of the rain. The earth 

 is ready ; the moist winds have wooed it and pre- 

 pared it, the electrical conditions are as they should 

 be, . and there are love and passion in the surrender 

 of the summer clouds. How the drops are absorbed 

 into the ground! You cannot, I say, succeed like 

 this with your hose or sprinkling-pot. There is no 

 ardor or electricity in the drops, no ammonia, or 

 ozone, or other nameless properties borrowed from 

 the air. 



Then one has not the gentleness and patience of 

 Nature ; we puddle the ground in our hurry, we seal 

 it up and exclude the air, and the plants are worse 

 off than before. When the sky is overcast and it 

 is getting ready to rain, the moisture rises in the 

 groimd, the earth opens her pores and seconds the 

 desire of the clouds. 



Indeed, I have found there is but little virtue in 

 a sprinkling-pot after the drought has reached a cer- 

 tain pitch. The soil will not absorb the water. 'T is 

 like throwing it on a hot stove. I once concentrated 

 my efforts upon a single hill of corn and deluged it 

 with water night and morning for several days, yet 

 its leaves curled up and the ears failed the same as 

 the rest. Something may be done, without doubt, 

 if one begins in time, but the relief seems strangely 

 inadequate to the means often used. In rainless 

 countries good crops are produced by irrigation, but 



