The Adventures of a Grain of Dust

The glaciers, moving over thousands of miles and often meeting and dumping their loads together on vast fields, did the very same thing for everybody that England does for herself to-day in bringing different kinds of fertilizers from all over the world to enrich her farms. I'm very glad to speak of this because the author of the story of the pebble may have left a bad impression of the glaciers—"The Old Men of the Mountain"—as farmers, by what he said about their carrying off the original farm lands of New England, and leaving a lot of pebbles and boulders instead. While these pebbles have not produced what you would call a brilliant performer among soils, they have made a good, steady soil that in New England has helped greatly in growing farm boys into famous men, while the pebbles of Wisconsin have been of immense service to her famous cows. In the counties in Wisconsin where there are plenty of pebbles scattered through the soil, the production of cheese and butter is something like 50 per cent greater than it is in regions where there are comparatively few pebbles.[35]

The soils of New England are like the New Englander himself, they can turn their hands to almost anything; raise any kind of crop suited to the climate, while richer soils are often not so versatile. The reason is that these pebbles were originally gathered by the glaciers from widely separated river-beds, and so contain all varieties of rock with every kind of plant food in them. It takes a long, long time to make soil out of bed-rock, but in the case of soils in which there are a great many pebbles it is different; and you can see why. On a great mass of rock there is comparatively little surface for the air and other pioneer soil-makers to get at, and so decay is slow; while the same amount of rock broken up into pebbles presents a great deal of surface for decay.

If you will examine with a glass—an ordinary hand-glass will do—one of these decaying pebbles lying embedded in the grass you can trace on it a number of wrinkly lines—sometimes even a network. These are the marks, the "finger-prints," of little roots. Little roots, as we have seen, are very wise. They always know what they are about, and the fact that they cling to the pebbles in this way means that they are getting food out of them.

And that's right where the cows of Wisconsin come in. The rootlets of the grasses get a steady supply of food from the decaying surfaces of these pebbles scattered through the pastures, and then pass it on to the cows.

TEAMWORK BETWEEN MOUNTAINS AND PEBBLES

But now, going from little things to big things again, notice how the mountains and the pebbles are linked together in this chain of service. The mountains, too, continually feed the plains. Ruskin, in speaking of this great service, says:

"The elevations of the earth's surface provide for it a perpetual renovation. The higher mountains suffer their summits to be broken into fragments, and to be cast down in sheets of massy rock, full of every substance necessary for the nourishment of plants. These fallen fragments are again broken by frost and ground by torrents into various conditions of sand and clay—materials which are distributed perpetually by the streams farther and farther from the mountain's base. Every shower which swells the rivulets enables their waters to carry certain portions of earth into new positions, and exposes new banks of ground to be mined in their turn. The turbid foaming of the angry water—the tearing down of bank and rock along the flanks of its fury—these are no disturbances of the kind course of nature; they are beneficent operations of laws necessary to the existence of man, and to the beauty of the earth; ... and each filtering thread of summer rain which trickles through the short turf of the uplands is bearing its own appointed burden of earth to be thrown down on some new natural garden in the dingles below."

So we find a wonderful variety of things working together in making and feeding the soil that feeds the world: mountains and pebbles, volcanoes and lichens, the breath of the living and the bones of the dead; the sun, the winds, the sea, the rains; the farmers with four feet, the farmers with six feet; the swallow building her nest under the eaves, the earthworms burrowing under our feet, each bent on its own affairs, to be sure, but at the same time each helping to carry on the great business of the universe. From the little gizzard mills of the earthworm to the great earth mills of the sea, that renew the soil for the ages yet to come, all are—most evidently—parts of one great system; are together helping to work out great purposes in the advance of men and things; purposes which require that

"While the earth remaineth, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, shall not cease."

HIDE AND SEEK IN THE LIBRARY

As I said, most people not only think that they're smarter than their fellow animals, but when you point out to them how clever some of these other animals are, they say: "Oh, that's just instinct!" As if animals don't think and learn by experience, and all, just as we do! You look up "instinct" in the encyclopædia, and you'll see. Then read Long's "Wood Folk at School."

There's really a lot more fun in shooting animals with a camera than with a shotgun or a rifle. Did you ever try it? "Hunting with a Camera" in "The Scientific American Boy at School," by Bond, will tell you how to get the best results. Other good pointers on animal photography will be found in Verrill's "Boy Collector's Hand Book" ("Photographing Wild Things") and in "On the Trail," by A. B. and Lina Beard.

And if you ever feel like killing a bird "just for fun," read in the diary of "Opal" about the farmer boy who shot the little girl's pet crow; it was "only a crow," he said, and he wanted to see if he could hit it. That will cure you, I think. The diary of "Opal" reads like a fairy-tale, but it's all true, and although it was written—every word of it—by a little girl of seven, it is one of the most remarkable books that anybody ever wrote. The crow's name, by the way, was "Lars Porsina of Clusium." The little girl used to give her pets names like that.

Don't forget what the great naturalist, Agassiz, said about the pencil being "the best eye"; that is to say, you can get a more accurate knowledge of things and come nearer to seeing them as they really are, by drawing them. Drawing, in the best schools, is a part of Nature Study, and when you get so that you can draw fairly well—as everybody can with practice—you will find there is even more of a thrill in thus creating forms—out of nothing, as you might say—than there is in taking photographs. The pencil is a magician's wand! As an example and inspiration for taking your pencil and sketch-book into the fields, get "Eye Spy," by Gibson, and, of course, Seton's animal books. I do believe Seton drew his pictures with those simple, expressive outlines so that young folks could redraw them. The difference between redrawing a drawing and simply looking at it, is a lot like the difference between reading a book and merely glancing at the print.

You are sure to be interested in Sir John Lubbock's book on "Ants, Bees and Wasps," and you will find a world of interesting things about the earlier animal days of man in his "Origin of Civilization" and "Pre-Historic Times."

And who do you suppose had most to do with teaching men they were really brothers, and so bringing them up to the civilized life we know to-day? Mother! (See Drummond's "Ascent of Man," or Chapter XII of "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble," where the whole marvellous story of evolution is told in simple form.)

If Nature Study proves half as delightful and profitable to you as I am sure it will, the following list of books will be very useful in building up your library on the subject, and in selecting books from the public library:

"Among the Farmyard People," by Clara D. Pierson, deals with various things you probably never noticed about chickens and pigs, and other domestic animals. "Among the Meadow People," by the same author, tells about birds and insects. You can see what her "Among the Pond People" tells about—tadpoles, frogs, and so on. Really, it's a perfect fairy-land, an old pond is! "Among the Moths and Butterflies," by Julia P. Ballard, is about fairies, too, as the title shows.

For children of the seventh to eighth grades, and up, Hornaday's "American Natural History" will be a delight, and it has loads of pictures which, as in all well-illustrated scientific books, are as valuable as the text. You know who Hornaday is, don't you? He is the man at the head of the great Zoo in New York City.

Margaret W. Morley's "The Bee People" is worthy of its subject, and that's about the highest praise you could give to a book about bees, I think. Then don't forget, when you are in the library, to look up her "Grasshopper Land." The grasshopper book also treats of the grasshopper's cousins, which include the crickets and the katydids; yes, and the "walking sticks"; and the "praying mantis." (Did you know that whether you spell this weird little creature's first name, "praying," with an "e" or an "a" you'd be correct?)

Every boy and girl, of course, is supposed to know about Ernest Thompson Seton's books, but for fear some of them don't, I'll mention a few that it simply wouldn't do to miss. "Animal Heroes" gives the history of a cat, a dog, a pigeon, a lynx, two wolves and a reindeer; "Krag and Johnny Bear" is made up from his larger book, "Lives of the Hunted"; "Lobo, Rag and Vixen" is from his "Wild Animals I Have Known," and "The Trail of the Sandhill Stag."

John Burroughs is very different from Seton and Long, but the older you get the better you will like him. His is one of the great names in the study of Nature's pages at first hand and, as literature, ranks with the work of Thoreau. Get his "Birds, Bees and Other Papers," "Squirrels and Other Fur-bearers."

Darwin, one of the greatest men in the whole history of science—the man whose name is most prominently identified with the greatest discovery in science, the principle of evolution—how do you suppose he started out? Just by looking around! Read about it in "What Mr. Darwin Saw in His Voyage around the World."

INDEX

Africa, one country where the Hornbills live, 169

Ants, their interesting habits in relation to the history of the soil, 94;
ants that thresh and store, 205, 213;
how they clean up after the day's work, 208

Aphids, how they supply the ants with honey, 99

Armadillo, a four-footed farmer who wears armor;
how fast he can dig, 120;
the funny gimlet nose that helps him travel so fast under the ground, 121

Asia, one of the countries where the Hornbills live, 169;
home of a farmer who stores grain for the winter, 212

Australia, home of that animal paradox, the Duck-billed Mole, 144;
and of birds that hatch their babies with an incubator, 174

Bears, how they go into winter quarters, 216, 219

Beavers, their work and their wisdom, 148

Bees. (See Mason Bee and Bumblebee.)

Beetle, Sacred (Tumble Bug), sinful tactics of, 92

Birds, their ancestors among the ancient monsters, 24;
service of the Moas in ploughing and in grinding up rock, 28;
other farmers who wear feathers, 162

Bumblebees, their homes under the ground, 104

Caveman, what he learned from his fellow animals, 228

Central America, a good place to look for Flamingoes, 166

Chipmunks, work and play in Chipmunkville, 131;
why they have large feet for such little people, 132;
inside the Chipmunk's home, 132;
why they have several front doors, 133;
how they spend the winter, 218

Clouds, how dust helps make them, 56;
and shape them, 57

Colorado, once the home of prehistoric monsters, 27

Corn, how the "rag babies" tell the fortune of the seed, 199

Crabs, water farmers who help make land, 140

Crayfish, their habits and their service in helping get land ready for the farmer, 140

Crustaceans, their relation to insects, 143

Cuvier, Baron, the famous paleontologist, and his adventure with a "monster," 34

Dandelions, flying machines of, 51

Darwin, Charles, on the importance of earthworms in the history of human civilization, 75;
what he said about the intelligence of roots and why he said it (the whole chapter is about that), 186;
how he taught roots to write their autobiographies, 190

Deserts, plant pioneers in, 8;
rich in plant food, 59;
how irrigation transforms them, 72

Dormice, their Thanksgiving dinners and their long winter naps, 204, 217

Duck-billed Mole, the Animal X that lays eggs like a bird and yet suckles its young like a pussycat, 144

Dust, how it helps the rain come down, 56

Earthworms, great importance of their work in pulverizing and fertilizing the soil, 75;
their habits and remarkable intelligence, 75;
how the great sea and the little earthworms work together, 242

East Indies, home of some of the Hornbills, 169

Electricity, how it helps in the shaping of the clouds, 57

Elephants, their ancestors among the prehistoric monsters, 27;
elephants as ploughmen, 28

Fabre, Henri, his study of the Mason Bee and how his schoolboys helped him, 108

Farms, abandoned, how Nature restores them, 16

Fish, monster fish of other days, 23

Flamingoes, habits of some feathered farmers with queer noses, 162

Florida, one place where you may find flamingoes, 166

Fox, home life and habits, 128

Frost, Jack, how he helps convert rock into soil, 43;
how he makes stones "walk" and in other ways co-operates with the river mills in making soil, 60

Geese, their relation to the flamingoes, 166

Groundhog. (See Woodchuck.)

Hamster, a four-footed farmer who uses a threshing-machine, 210

Hedgehogs, why they are so unpopular as food, 121;
their homes and how they do their ploughing, 122;
pictures of baby hedgehogs, 216, 217;
why they go into winter quarters, 216, 218

Hibernation, "The Autumn Stores and the Long Winter Night," 204

Hornbills, why Mr. Hornbill shuts his wife up in their home in a hollow tree, 169

Hungary, home of the field rat, a farmer who stores grain for the winter, 212

Ice Ages, how the glaciers ploughed and mixed the soil, 237

Insects, their service in pulverizing and fertilizing the soil, 92;
damage done by injurious insects, 93;
relation of insects to crustaceans, 143

Kangaroo rat, 131

Kingfishers, their tunnel homes in the bank and how their fishing habits help enrich the soil, 171

Kiwi, a late bird that nevertheless gets the worm, 167

Lichens, first of the soil makers—how they helped Columbus discover the world by discovering it first, 1;
how the volcanoes and the lichens work together, 235

Lizards, reign of the lizard family in the days of the prehistoric monsters, 25

Lubbock, Sir John, the great London banker who carried ants in his pocket—what he had to say about the pleasures of Nature Study, 231

Maeterlinck, on the presence of mind of a tree and its heroic struggle against adverse circumstances, 200

Marmots, their farm villages, 124

Mason-Bees. The house that Mrs. Mason-Bee built and its relation to the story of the soil, 104

Moles, their work as ploughmen, 115;
how they do their tunnelling, 117;
Mr. Mole's castle under the ground, 118;
how he keeps his hair so sleek, 119;
where he spends the winter, 218

Monsters, prehistoric, what they looked like, their habits and how they help the farmers of to-day with their farming, 20

Mosses, as soil makers, 8

Mound-Birds, how they build their incubators;
other interesting habits, 174

Mountains, how the trees climb them, 13;
why you always hear a rattle of stones in the mountains at sunrise, 43;
how the winds help trees to climb the western slopes, 55;
how the mountains help the rain to come down and why so many rivers rise in mountains, 56;
why the bones of the monsters are found in the mountains, 31;
how the mountains helped kill off the monsters, 32;
farm villages of the marmots in the mountains, 124;
team-work between mountains and pebbles, 240

Nature Study, its great value, 231;
how it is taking the place of cruel sport, 232

New England, why its soil is so versatile and dependable, and how it helps grow farm boys into famous men, 239

New Zealand, home of a bird that is a very late riser but nevertheless gets the worm, 167

Oven-Birds, of South America, how they differ from the American oven-birds, 172;
their remarkable adobe homes and their friendliness toward man, 172

Pebbles, how they help feed the Wisconsin cows, 239, 240;
teamwork between mountains and pebbles, 240

Philippines, one of the regions where mound-birds live, 174, 176

Ploughing, Nature's system: work of the squirrels, 14;
of the elephants and their ancestors among prehistoric monsters, 27;
of the Moas, 28;
of the Dinosaurs, 29;
storm ploughs of the winds, 46;
use of the plough to prevent soil waste, 70;
the great ploughs of the Ice Ages, 237

Pocket Gopher, Thompson-Seton's "master ploughman," 128;
why he has that queer expression on his face, 128;
how he spends the winter, 218

Pocket-Mouse, 130, 131

Pot Holes, soil-grinding mills of the rivers, 61

Prairie-Dog, his watch tower and how it protects him from his enemies, 126;
his great sociability, 127

Rains, their work in making and transporting soil, 44, 55

Rivers, work of the river mills in soil making, 60

Roots, how lichens get along without them, 4;
how and why they work at different levels, 11;
how they make their way about (you won't wonder that Darwin said their actions suggested intelligence!), 186

Sand, how it helps the soil to breathe, 59

Seeds, how they determine the order of march of the trees, 12;
use of screw-propellers and other devices, 42, 49, 51;
how and why baby plants back into the world, 190;
how they tried to change a sprouting seedling's mind but couldn't, 195;
how "rag babies" tell the fortune of corn, 199

Shrews, their work as ploughmen, 115;
where they spend the winter, 218

Siberia, there you will find the voles and their root cellars, 212

South America, home of the four-footed farmers that wear armor, 120;
and of the viscacha, 127;
a good place to look for flamingoes, 166;
and for oven-birds, 171

South Sea Islands, one of the regions in which you find birds that hatch their babies with an incubator, 174

Squirrels, how they help the trees to march, 14;
the winding streets of Ground-Squirrel Town, 123;
marmots, the largest of the squirrel family, 124;
how the tree-squirrels spend the winter, 218

Swallows, their habits and their service as soil makers, 177

Termites, insects improperly called "white ants";
their habits in relation to the history of the soil, 100

Terracing, how employed to prevent waste of soil, 71

Texas, you can still find armadillos there, 120

Trees, their settled order of march into new lands, 8;
how the winds and the rains help trees to climb the western slopes of mountains, 55;
how waste of trees causes waste of soil, 69

Turtles, how turtles differ from tortoises;
habits of both these water farmers, 137;
how turtles differ from crabs in their notions about laying eggs, 142

Viscachas, South American relatives of the prairie-dogs;
their villages and their athletic fields, 127;
how they rescue their buried comrades, 128

Volcanoes, their contribution to soil making, 39;
how they help the plant world to get its breath, 40;
team-work between volcanoes and lichens, 235

Voles, four-footed farmers who fill root cellars for the winter, 212

Wasps, their habits in relation to the history of the soil, 102

Weather and the groundhog's shadow, 219

Weeds, as soil makers, 9

Winds, how they helped Mr. Lichen to discover the world, 1;
how they help the trees to march, 12;
their work in making, mixing, and transporting soil, 37

Winter in the animal world, under the ground, 204

Woodchuck (Groundhog), picturesque home of a Connecticut woodchuck, 134;
Mr. Woodchuck's winter quarters and his shadow, 219

Wyoming, one of the homes of the prehistoric monsters, 27

FOOTNOTES: