Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-05-19
WONDERS OF rNANIMATE NATURE.


York. The reader will find in it many points
for contemplation
"In recommending fruit, wish not to be
understood as approving the qualification OF a
merely sensual appetite. | should not, per-
haps, have much sympathy with the French
traveller here, who complained, on his return
to Europe, that in America they had thirty or
forty kinds of religion, and only one kind OF
grayy-thnking, as he did, that attention TO
the appetite was more important than freedom
of thought and development of the mind.
Neither would l commend the employment OF
raising fruit at the expense of other occupa-
tions, all of which have their important places |
in the wide and immense social family. But |
could not agree with the city resident, who |
to prove the greater Importance of cities over
the country, exclaimed, ssHow admirable it Is, |
that large, navigable river has been made to |
run beside every great town!' Those who |
bury themselves in the narrow apartments OF /
city, with no other recompense than the hope |
of accumulating money, are perhaps making |
sacrifice which dollars and cents cannot pay |
for. 1t is not merely the luxuries obtained |
that commend rural cultivation. He who raises |
trees only to make money by them, sacrifices
likewise the most valuable part of the occu-
patton. There objects always before the
rural cultivator, the result of Creative Wisdom,
constantly tending to excite his wonder and
admiration. 4 single tree is continued
miracle before him. The termination of the
embryo is q beautiful and mysterious process
the circulation of the sap, through innumcr-
oll tuI ,oll Than no finest hair
yet showing perfection of finish under a
powerful achromatic microscope, far excelling
the most elaborately made parts of the finest
watch-and these tubes in such amazing num-
bers, that have estimated in single apple
tree limb, one inch only in diameter, no less
! than million. The leaves on a fully grown
pear tree are half million in number; yet
every one of these leaves is divided up into
minutely branching veins, and every branch is
| furnished with great numbers of sap tubes or
vessels-every part of the leaf is made up of
millions of microscopic cells, more perfect
than the cells of the honey bee-and the
minute pores on the surface of the leaves,
through which the ascending sap evaporates,
while changing its nature to descend again to
form new wood, are SO small that thirty thou
sand are found on single square inch of sur
face-while the beautiful process constantly
going on for months together, in the circula-
tion of the food for the growing leaves and
| forming fruit, through these myriads of pores,
is immeasurably more complex, more COM
plete, and more really wonderful than the
working of the most perfect steam engine ever
made by man. We see in the water only,
which supplies the wants of the growing tree,
! several most remarkable properties, without
which every living organization in the yege-
| table world must perish-and these gone,
what would become of the human race Were
it not for the capillary attractions between the
PARTICLES of soil and those of water, the earth
would not retain moisture moment-it would
| instantly pass downward through the soil and
! blooming gardens and refreshing landscapes
would soon become frightful desert. Were
| it not for the latent heat contained in water,
the whole upper portion of the soil would
! freeze instantly as soon as the thermometer
| sunk below the freezing point; and no matter
how deep the snow might be upon the surface
of the earth, the very moment the teInpera-
| ture of the air rose above freezing, the whole
| HOiju INSTANTLY oiSSO4NC IhbO NdlSi S'hNi
cause the most destructive floods. The latent
heat of vapor prevents the instant expansion
of all the water which moistens the ground,
on the first warm day. All these and many
| other most accurate contrivances, show be-
yond contradiction, that all that supports us
and maintains our existence, and that sustains
US during every breath We draw, is the design
of Superior Power on whom We constantly
depend. But the thinking mind does not
| stop at the boundaries of his own garden.
| What theme for contemplation is the view
! of broad meadow, consisting as it does OF
countless millions of blades, and every one
OF these made up of myriads of beautiful YES
sells and tubes, all having the most perfect fin
| ish. Every tree of the thousands which com
pose the broad landscape, is so wonderfully
constructed, that an ingenious man could moi
parts, in a whole lifetime. But what is q
broad landscape, of few miles in extent, to
the wonders of the earth's surface at large,
with its far-stretching and gloomy forests It's
ranges of sublime and mighty mountains lis
long sweeping rivers, and the eterhai lurou-
lanca of its rolling oceans Yet every por-
} ton is filed with microscopic wonders, and
, the most beautiful proof OF Omnisclent design
and shall any one say or think, that with
r This proof of the infinite number of creative
conceptions, afforded by the myriads of organ
lied and animated objects upon its surface
the ever varying beauties of the clouds ant
skies-the rain bows and the dew -drops-th,
! placid lakes and rolling seas-the delicat,
| foyarS and hlacEeninU fOFpStS-fhp gloomy