Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1894-04-13
FERTILITY UNDER WATER.
POSSIBILITIES OF THE BOTTOM OF
CHESAPEAKE BAY.
IL is One of the Richest Agricultural
Regions in the World-Adapted
Only For One Crop.

the earth. The fertility of its
| bottom can be compared only with
| that of the valley of the Nile and the
Ganges and other great rivers. But
it is adapted for producing only one
crop-the oyster. This mollusk, it
must be remembered, lives on vege-
table food, as do all animals directly
or Indirectly. If there were no plants,
all animals would starve at once.
All human food is vegetable in its
origin, whether eaten in the shape of
plants or as beef, mutton and eggs In
the sea the blue fish preys on smaller
| fishes; many of these on smaller ones;
! these, in turn, upon minute crusta-
| ceaus; these ON still smaller creatures;
and these last pasture on the micro
scopic plants which swarm at the sur
face of the ocean. All animals on land
and water depend for their existence
on vegetable food.
To the superficial observer the vege-
tation of the sea appears to be very
scanty, and, except for the fringe of
sea weeds along the shore, the ocean
seems, so far as plant life is concerned,
to be barren desert. But the micro
scope shows that the surface swarms
with minute plants, most of them of
strange forms, having nothing in COM
mon with the trees and herbs and
grasses of the land except the power
to change mineral matter into food
that is fit for ANIMALS.
Most of these plants are SO small as
to be invisible to the unaided eye,
and, even when they are gathered to-
gether i'll mass, it looks like Shiny,
discolored water They seem too in
significant to play any important part
in the economy of mature, but the
great monsters of the deep, beside
which the elephant and the OK and the
elk are small animals, owe their exist
ence to these microscopic plants.
Their vegetativc power is wonderful
past all expression. Among land plants
corn, which yields seed about a hum
dredfold in single season, is the en-
blem of fertility, but it can be shown
that single marine plant very much
smaller than u grain of mustard seed
would fill the whole ocean solid in less
than week, if all of its descendants
were TO live.
AS countless minute animals are
constantly pasturin2 upon them the
multiplication of these plants is kept
in check, but in calm weather it is no
rare thing to find great tracts of water
many miles in extent packed so full OF
them that the whole surface is con
verted into Shiny mass, which breaks
the waves and smooths the surface
like oil. The so-called 'back water"
of the Arctic and Antartic Oceans con
sists of mass OF these plants crowded
together until the seas are discolored
by them.
Through these seas OF ''black water"
roam the right whales, the largest ami
mails on earth, gulping Mt each mouth
ful hundreds of gallons OF the little
mollusks and crustaceans which feed
on the plants. In tropical seas ships
sometimes sail for days through great
floating islands of this surface vege-
tation, and the Red Sea owes its name
to the coloration of its water by
swarms OF microscopic plants which
are of reddish tinge. 1t has been
surmised that man may at some future
time assert his dominion over the
fishes OF the sea, sending out hocks
and herds Of domesticated marine
animals to pasture and fatten upon
the vegetable life of the ocean and to
make its vast wealth OF food available.
Chesapeake Bay receives the drain
age OF more than 20, 900, 000 acres OF
fertile land, the most valuable part of
/ 1. 1
ally in the bosom of it's quiet waters.
| There it is deposited all over the
bottom IN the form of fine black sedi-
ment, known rs oyster mud. This is
| Just rs valuable to man and as fit to
nourish plants as the mud which set
ties every year on the wheat fields and
! rice fields of Egypt. 1t is II natural
fertilizer aud it is so rich in organic
matter that 1T putriies in few hoars
when exposed to the sun.
In the shallow waters of the bay,
\ under the influence of warm sunlight,
| this mud produces Il most luxurious
| vegetation, but with few exceptions
the plants which grow from it are mi
eroscopic and invisible. They are not
| confined like land plants to the sur
face of the soil, their food being diff
fused in solution throughout the whole
/ body of the water As they are
bathed ou all sides by nourishment,
they do not have to 60 through the
slow process of sucking 1t through
roots and stems, aud they grow an |
multiply at IA rate which has no par
allel iu the land plants. In fact, they
would quickly choke up the whole bay
| il they we're not held in check by
countless minute animals which feast
/ upon them.
The oyster Is an animal especially
adapted for living in su,h waters and
I for gathering up these microscopic
I plants and turning them into
food for man. Microscopes animals
also contribute a. it, diet These are
rather abundant ia all water. though
not So much SO ~ most people INA
I gine, When professional exhibitor
shows you, undor the microscope, what
he calls drop Of pure water, Il is
/ nothing at the sort II In either col.
lection made by iltsring several bar.
Y Tels oi water, or else u is drop
squeezed from piece of deeayed mus
/ OF from SOME other substance m which
/ such smHll uTganIamH have ltYrd anl