Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-12

has you must first count its leaves, for they serve as a good index. Now if you examine leaf you will find that its stem either runs through the center to. the tip, or else divides at the base and runs in diff ferent directions. In every case the stem divides or sends of little branches. The branches in their turn divide and sub-di- vide until they become so small that mi croscope is needed to trace them to their ending places. Now you may not see the use of all this explanation, but if you think moment it will be very plain to you. The earth is made up of deposits that are every year settling down and get ting more slip, and if left to themselves they would get so hard that water could not find its way through, but would re- main standing on or near the surface of the ground. You can see many instances of this hardening of the soil in old stone quarries, or in fields that have been plowed for many years without being fer tilized. By this time you probably see the use of all these little roots"
 "Yes, they crack open the ground and let the water through when it rains" said one of the children.
 "That is right" said the professor ''Every little root forms a very small opening, through which the water seeps and when the tree dies, or any part of it, these little roots decay and leave thou sands of small openings which lead of much water. One tree, indeed, does not amount to much, but whole forests do, and the cutting away of forests is one of the great causes of floods.
 Again, take another view of the mat ter. On hillsides, where water naturally runs of the quickest, the large roots of trees block its way and form innumersble little dams that hold considerable water. If it were not for these natural checks, many would be at the mercy of every heavy rain. So forcibly has the destruc- tion of our forests impressed itself upon scientists that societies have been formed for the express purpose of taking care of what trees are left; and these men also try to persuade farmers and gardeners to plant young trees, so that future genera tions may not suffer through our negfi- gsnce. At the present rate at which trees are disappearing, floods are bound to be more and more disastrous every year"
 But the leaves-you have said nothing about them"
 "The leaves" said the professor, 'tfall to the earth and decay and form rich, loose soil which acts in the nature of a sponge and retains the water until it can sink into the earth. In other ways the leaves form little dams that act as checks and prevent the water forming into rivu- lets, just as in the case of roots; so you see every part of a tree has its use. The little dead twigs that are shaken to the ground by the wind and rain also assist in checking the course of little rivulets, and often fallen trunk will stop quite quan- tity of water. Now you can see the use of trees. If they were all cut off, look at the thousands and thousands of unchecked | H. after rain. Of course other kinds of vegetation, such as weeds and grasses, as sist in this work, but the value of trees in preventing floods cannot be over-estima- ted. Now I think have told you quite enough for one time, and if we can think of any other subject of interest we can have another talk in the future.n