Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-19
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! Housematc Il. is a good word of
E.-!erson Shave enjoyed each snow as
it came, and liked the last one the best
/ of all. The SHOWS of yesteryear have
melted, that is all. They are gone, and
their memories with them.
This fresh white loneliness which
clothes the landscape surely is a very
practical, although beautiful, thing.
For the brief present we revel in its
quiet beauty, but we lock to its future,
its melted state, rather than to its past.
X
In essence this snow is all water, and
melted 1t will be worth many millions
of dollars to farmers and others. 1t
has been worth every cent of it.
Slowly the snow-water seeps into the
ground, even as it is falling, causing the
earth to take on mushinesS which
! the hardest rain will not put in it.
! This is the soft feel of earth in
! Spring. At no other time of year will
| turf especially become so soft Nature
is looseninT it up for the April rains
! 1t may be that there is some special
chemical characteristic of snoW-water
VIII! Il gives it the power to soften up
the hard-packed earth resulting from
the White freezes.
At any rate, the average soil at no
time Of the year is in precisely the
state 1t Is In at present, as the result
OF the beneficial snow. Hence the
farmers can plan.
1t is a fine time, therefore, barring
freezing weather, to SOW grass seed and
to plant hedge material and shrubs and
pushes OF all kinds, especially roses,
and to transplant almost anything.
The ambitious gardener scarcely will
admit the possibility Of return of real
| Winter after this date. There may be,
and undoubtedly will be, unpleasant
days-days too raw to make gardening
! eslioyAble-bs.t it is difficult to believe
That there Will be any genuine continu-
ance of Winter.
Therefore such gardening as may be
| done IN the ra , as it were, may be
begun now. Do not expect much, of
course, in the way of Sprouting unless
milder DAYS set in at once and so con-
tinue. But there is a certain gain in
getting things into the ground a bit
ahead of the season.
Grass seed planted now may not
sprout as quickly as it would later. but
it VIII do its natural best to please.
and probably will grow to pleasing
grass days befo one hopes it will.
4 x
The continued precipitation. begin
ming Saturday and lasting in one form
or another until Tuesday morning, was
hopeful sign of perhaps better times,
meteorologically speaking.
There can be little doubt that thou
sands of people had got the idea that
1T" could not rain. The drought had
! fixed in their minds stubborn belief
in the Inability of lit" to do anything
about it.
They felt that even when a bit of
rain did fall it was some sort OF mis-
take and would dry up shortly. Usually
since almost a year ago-"it' did.
But three-6ay precipitation was
something like old times, and cheered
up thousands. If st" could do it once,
| lit" could do it again.
Hence Washington's ladylke snow,
which necessitated not one penny in re-
moval, not only provided beauty, as
well as vast benefit, permitting farmers
to work their soil and fertilizing the
land, but also tended to end in MANY
minds the belief that drought was in
evitable. Many hxed beliefs need to be
shattered.