The Great World's FarmChautauqua Press, 1902 - 283 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able acid ammonia amount animals anthers ants arum bees birds blossoms breathe brought burrows butterflies calyx carbon dioxide carried caterpillars chiefly climate cockchafers color constantly contains course covered crops damp decay desert dissolved dust earth especially eucalyptus evaporation farmer feet fertilized flesh-forming flowers forest fruit garden gases germinate Gilbert White grains grass ground grow grubs hairs heat hundred inches insects instance Kalahari Desert laborers land leaf-green leaves less lichens live look miles mineral matter moist moisture nature nature's nectar night nitrogen organic matter ovary ovules oxygen petals pistil plants plow pollen pollen-grain pollen-tube produce quantity QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW rain regions ripen rocks roots sand seeds seen soil South America sown sparrow spring stalk stamens stems sucks supply surface temperature thing thousand transpiration trees tropical tube vegetable matter whole wild wind winter worms
Popular passages
Page 55 - The plough is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions ; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues to be thus ploughed by earth-worms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.
Page 55 - For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure...
Page 269 - Twixt dripping ash-boughs, — hedgerows all alive With birds and gnats and large white butterflies, Which look as if the May-flower had caught life And palpitated forth upon the wind; Hills, vales, woods, netted in a silver mist, Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills; And cattle grazing in the watered vales, And cottage-chimneys smoking from the woods, And cottage-gardens smelling everywhere, Confused with smell of orchards. "See,
Page 264 - We are the army of the Great God ; we produce ninety-nine eggs ; if the hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it*.
Page 55 - ... slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work: and the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But these men would find that the earth without worms would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and consequently sterile...
Page 7 - ... giving us clouds, and with them all the glories of sunrise and sunset. Fogs, too, are considered to be masses of "water-dust," and ships far out at sea have had their sails colored by this dust while sailing through banks of fog. Astronomers find meteoric dust in the atmosphere. When this falls on the snow and ice fields of the Arctic regions it is readily recognized. The eruption of Krakatoa proved that volcanic dust is disseminated worldwide. An old writer has said: "The sun discovers atomes...
Page 266 - Benedictus of Monferrand, Archbishop of Lausanne, condemn and excommunicate Ye obnoxious worms and grubs, that nothing shall be left of Ye, except such parts as can be useful to man." The government ordered its officers to report the consequences of the excommunication; but the saucy chronicler says " that no success had been obtained — probably on account of the sins of the people.
Page 8 - God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work," yet the surface of populous countries affords generally the insipid produce of man's labour ; it is an easy error to consider that he who has tilled the ground, and has sown the seed, is the author of his crop, and, therefore, those who are accustomed to see the confused produce, which in populous and cultivated countries is the effect of leaving ground to itself, are at first surprised in the Pampas, to observe the regularity and beauty of the vegetable...
Page 3 - There are vast pasture-lands here, there are extensive forests there ; there are woods, jungles, heaths, moors, downs, but they have all been planted ; and the soil was prepared in the first instance, and has been renewed since, by laborers who are not less truly deserving of the name of laborer than the plowman, though they do not work with his implements.