Evening star., 1933-02-13

Getting ready for the Spring garden
Is not much of a task. Nature does
most of the work. The home gardener
merely stands and waits, leafing over
the seed catalogues, from time to time,
and hoping for warmer weather
The real work Is done sub rosa down
in the soil, where the action of freez-
ing, thawing, alternately goes on. So
Nature furnishes plants with finer par
ticles of soil, broken down to a con-
sistency appreciated by small feeding
roots.
Beneficial changes Of many kinds are
occurring. Certain inimical spores, and
germs, and even insects, are being
killed out by the colder days.
Only the person who has no garden
interests kicks too strenuously at the
cold. Severe weather is a part of the
program of the years.
Here is a never-ending drama taking
place, all about us, as some one. has
pointed out (perhaps it was our Elmer
SOM, a pageant in four acts, entitled
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter"
Each act has its color, the first green,
the second yellow, the third brown,
and the fourth white.
There IS the green OF plants, the yel-
low Of full sun and ripened grain, the
brown Of falling leaves and sere vege-
tation, and the white of our Snowstorms.
This is an unrivaled performance, to
eyes which are able to see 1t in its true
colors. It is drama which all hope
to enjoy as many times as possible, but
which far too many human beings sadly
muff, as the ball players say, because
they are too familiar with it.
Some minds respond only to novelty.
That, too, Is human. St. Paul found
that the citizens of Athens were in
terested only in seeing and hearing
some new thing.
The curious part of it is that the
story of the seasons Is always new
enough, being quite the most up-to-date
thing there is, but that all too many
people, especially in the cities, tend to
lose sight of its perennial novelty.
The weather, and what the weather
does, becomes to them only trivialities,
to be mentioned as conversation, merely,
and then only when some snowstorm
or other manifestation makes 1t in
evitable, even among the dullest.
Better than such an attitude, how
ever, is the always interested outlook
upon an always happening drama.
The curtain never goes down on this
great show.
It Is continuous performance.
1t is a pageant in which every one
alive is an actor, too. not only as
Shakespeare pointed out. but also in a
closer way, one may think, since every
one Is from the earth, is of the earth,
and goes back to it at last.
Part of the success of "The Good
Earth" the novel, wss due to its
felicitous title, as simple as could be,
but stating all that may be said of
mans best attitude toward the univer-
sal mother.
Every reader felt it. Every human
being knows it. Not always, however,
do we keep it in mind.
Therefore are we the debtors to all
who remind us, from time to time, OF
our relationship to this whirling globe
on which we live, and Of which the
procession Of the seasons Is major
display.
The home gardener may felicitate
himself upon the never-ending labors
of the earth itself, as 1t takes care Of
its proper children. the trees, and the
shrubs, and the plants.
Man has cut himself of, somewhat,
from the feeling which perhaps he once
had, that no child of Nature were
closer to the universal power than
himself. Various attempts have been