MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 
51 
and pushed through board curbing and brick walls 
to reach the water in open wells. 
In 1898, at Harry Pierce’s residence on Silver 
Heights, overlooking New Albany, the four-inch 
waste-pipe of fire-brick tiling, solidly cemented at 
joints, became completely obstructed by a solid 
mass of willow roots, so that the water could no 
longer find a (passage. On examination, it was 
found that these roots penetrated the cement and 
entered the pipe through these joints. The tree it¬ 
self stood several feet away from the tiling and as 
much as five feet above. From this, and from 
many other instances already on record, it is evi¬ 
dent that the roots are faithful to their trust as 
water carriers. They bare their backs, so to speak, 
and even heave up brick pavements, in their frantic 
efforts to obey the will of the superintendent of the 
seed factory. 
Let the children narrate instances in their own 
experience, and bring reports from the parents in 
regard to the energy of the roots. Call attention 
to the fact that the large roots provide themselves 
with tiny root-hairs to suck the moisture out of 
the very fine particles of dirt; in this way the 
dirt itself is screened back, thus providing the 
factory with pure, clean water,—a wonderful filter! 
Use the hand lens to see the root-hairs on wheat 
