Genius: A Poem

WATER. 443

things. The tiny laboratory-cells of the leaves seize upon one particle of carbon, and another of water, compel them to unite, and by that wonderful chemistry of nature that man cannot imitate with success, sugar is produced. Strange as it may seem, sugar is nothing else than charcoal and water united under the influence of the living plant. From this sugar, starch, gums, woody fibre, fats, and many other substances of value to the plant, are made. The water used by a plant is taken from the soil by means of the roots. The soil particles, in land that is moist enough for crop production, are surrounded by a film of water. The root hairs already mentioned, touching these water films, draw the water into the roots. While this is going on in the roots and soil, the hot sun, beating down upon the plant, evaporates water from the cells of the leaf. These cells, to live and do their work, must have enough water; and they, therefore, draw water from the roots to replace that evaporated by the sun. In this way, a plant becomes a machine, in the root-end of which, water is drawn in; and at the leaf-end of which, water is given off. Incidentally, attention may be called to the fact that sunshine is the cause of this movement of water from the soil through the plant into the air. The amount of water thus passing through the plant is very high. When we consider the total quantity of water required to produce a crop, it will be found that nearly five hundred pounds of water are necessary to produce one pound of dry matter. A barley field that yielded about two tons of dry matter —straw and grain required for maturing, that nearly one thousand tons of water be applied in irrigation. The animal kingdom is equally dependent for its well-being on a plentiful supply of pure water. The process of digestion in animals is essentially a process of making soluble the food eaten. In the mouth, the food undergoes changes that tend to dissolve certain portions; in the stomach, meat, and many flesh forming elements, are attacked by the gastric juice and dissolved; in the intestines, the starch and sugar, and remaining materials of the food, are acted upon and rendered soluble. The food thus prepared, penetrates the walls of the stomach and intestines, enters the blood, and is distributed throughout the body. Because the