JANUARY 283 



and wings have become distinctly degener- 

 ate. We may like the taste of white meat, 

 but it is not as useful to the chicken, and not 

 as nourishing to us, as the dark meat of her 

 legs, or as that on the breast of such birds 

 as use their wings frequently in flight. 



HOW NATURE MAKES NEW SOIL 



Now it is that we may see Nature getting 

 ready for the spring distribution of fertility 

 to her beloved meadows. The soil which 

 she is going to scatter so lavishly in the 

 spring in the shape of mud she is now most 

 assiduously preparing. All through the 

 rocks run lines of weakness. These may be 

 there because they mark the layers in which 

 the rock was originally formed. Sometimes 

 they are sheets of crystals that corrode on 

 exposure to the air more rapidly than the 

 other rock ingredients. Still again they may 

 be cracks formed when the rocks contracted 

 on cooling. But whatever may be the ori- 

 gin of these crevices, into them the water 

 soaks. When water freezes it swells with 

 a power well-nigh irresistible. That a very 



