Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1917-10-11

corn or wheat and TO form part OF the
gray matter OF some brain of genius.
ltis strange 10 think that there are atoms
of matter in our bodies today that have
come unchanged into our systems through
the plants we have eaten, and 10 realize
that those atoms may have been through
millions OF other bodies before they
reached our own, ,--bodies Of insects, OF
animals and Of plants, s,-and that they
will 60 on unchanged as long as life lasts
on this planet.
II is pity that the happenings beneath
the soil are closed to so many forms OF
human observation. Put your ear 10 the
earth on The stillest night, and the soil
gives forth no sound With the excep-
ton, perhaps, OF the frost cracks OF win
ter, the countless happenings under the
ground are noiSeleSS 10 the hum2n ear
Taste the soil, and what more can you
learn than that it is or is not saline !?
Feel it, and that most important OF our
senses, touch, tells you only few mea-
gre facts about its texture, IFS temperature
and its humidity-nothing about the &C
tivlties that are going on in IFS countless
microscopic caverns. Look at it, and it
seems about as penetrable TO vision as
black blanket.
Darwin fixed his eyes upon an angle
worm as it crawled hurriedIy into its hole
in spadeful OF garden earth, and out OF
the observations and musings OF his quiet
loving mind came the knowledge that the
earthworm castings thrown up year after
year are what have buried the boulderS
in the pasture and the ruined temples OF
Greece and Rome. Working in perpet-
ual darkness, those worms are passing
through their bodies and continually mix
ing the countless billions OF tons OF earth
that form the dark layer OF good soil upon
which the lives Of most land animals and
plants depend.
A million times as small as the earth
worms are those curious and little-known
nematodes - spindle shaped creatures
that squirm perpetually with nervous,
whiplike motion. There is nothing that
is so ceaselesSly in motion, and when we
think that they live everywhere on the
earth's surface, that the waters Of the
ocean are swarming with them even as
far north and south as man has gone,-
even TO the poles,-it seems strange that
we know so little about them. Our
knowledge OF them is where our knowl-
edge OF bacteria was twenty-five years
ago.
Put piece OF soil under tumbler and
see how soon the moulds will cover it.
From particles Of dead leaf and from the
carcasses Of insects grow out long, pear
Iy white threads, so delicate that they
wither when you lift the tumbler and let
in the dry air upon them. Forms so
graceful and so beautiful that they seem
the objects OF fairy dream are here, liv-
ing and growing and dying as the hours
pass by.
The n everywhere, in every nook and
crevice OF The soil, clinging TO every frag-
ment OF decaying vegetable matter, are
the tinieSt OF all living things. the bacte-
ria, so busy growing and dividing that no
sooner have you fairly got view OF one
than il has split and formed itself into
two others exactly like itself.
Forming their tunnels as they 20 are
the beetle larvae with their powerful
Jaws, which they use upon all sorts OF
other insects in the soil, for il must be
remembered that the warm, dark earth is
the nesting place OF myriads OF insects.
OF course as you 90 downward into
the earth the forms OF life quickly grow
fewer, just as they do when you 60 up
ward into the air. At one foot down
most forms disappear at three feet
scarcely more than bacteria and nematodes
exist; and at tlle depth OF an ordinary
cellar the earth is lfeless, except where
some deep rooted tree may have sunk
IFS moisture sucking roots.
So a spadeful OF earth is not merely so
much dirt; il is living thing, as full OF
life, almost, as the stagnant water OF a
frog pond.
Look round you in any room and see
whether everything in it is not destined
in a century or two TO become part OF
some spadeful OF earth. Follow the rag
carpet, already started on the downward
road from the pretty dresses, hair ribbons
and other bits OF iinery from which If
was made. II goes TO the kitchen floor.
TO the barn and TO the scrap heap. A
brace breaks, and the table is fit only for
outdoor use, where the hickory borers
honeycomb the rounds and the fungl rot
the top. Soon if is smashed into kindling
wood or decays in the dump heap.
The shoes we have worn, the glasses