Evening star., 1933-10-20
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL,

hurry to apply remedies TO plants Of
any sort.
Give Nature a chance!
she Is, In the final analysis, the basis
of all cures. The healing power of
Nature" is no idle phrase. Itapplies to
much to the vegetable as to the animal
children Of this world.
Faith in this power should prevent no
one. especially the gardener, from ap-
plying tested remedies as soon as pos
sible. That Is not what we mean. What
we do mean is that often it is possible
to wait just a little while, to see what
Nature is going to7do about it.
~ ~
Plants, being rooted in the earth, may
be supposed to be even closer to Nature
than we are Certainly they are tied up
tight, their roots will not let them get
away for q second, even If they wanted
to fee As far as history records,
plants seem generally satisfied with their
lot. Given the proper conditions, they
send their roots down deep and anchor
themselves to their main source of sup
ply as securely as possible.
source of supply? The tremendous feat
light to create green matter. is achieved
by radiation. The air plays the impoy-
tant part of transmitting the light waves
The plant, no matter how humble, even
II no larger than the individual grass
plant, utilizes materials from millions of
miles Of space. The vitamin D, of which
We hear so much nowadays. is as i'm
portant to plant tissue as to human
tissue.
Every lawn is a collection of millions
upon millions Of tiny chemical labora-
tories. utilizing quite the latest research
methods.
The fact that the person who walks
upon the grass does so without the
slightest thought Of all this work and
wonder beneath his feet has no bearing
upon the case at all.
Puppies and kittens likewise scamper
without regard to chemistry, either their
own or plants. Their scampering Is
just as efficient.
chemistry, however, undoubtedly adds
to the enjoyment of the garden. Nor is
1t necessary to know great deal about
1t. The bare essentials are enough to
permit q better grasp Of horticultural
facts and q keener realization of what
goes on around one in even the smallest
garden.
In no type of plant material whatso-
ever Is this better exemplified than in
the grass. Sod is another miracle Of the
everyday. 1t may be cut and stacked
like cordwood, to be unrolled, put in
place, watered, and grown again to utter
freshness and greenness.
A roll of sod reminds one of the slabs
of dried earth which have been brought
from Africa by scientists. To the lay
man they look like dried earth, and MOTH
ing more, but to the ichthyologist they
take on a different aspect. He knows
that they contain live fish left by the
drying Of the pool in which they lived.
Unique provisions of Nature permit these
fishes to dry along with the earth,
which becomes baked hard, yet still the
essential vital processes of the animals
are kept going. It is said that these
creatures can survive for several years
under these seemingly impossible con-
ditions.
A roll of sod strikes the observer as
almost as mysterious as the dried. live
fishes, except that here one has dried
live plantlets. eager, like the strange
fishes, for the revivifying touch Of
water, most elemental of all elements
Grass in Winter often takes on a dull
brown or gray look yet the roots down
deep keep alive and hearty. Even warm
Winter days will permit them to work,
and add a green tinge to the blades left
functioning. The more one studies the
grass, the more interesting 1t becomes,
for all its universal commonness.