God Arises
Nature and Science Speak about God
~ 148 ~
survive throughout the winter, and, when spring
comes, the ice melts rapidly. If water did not behave
in this way, all of us in general, and people in cold
countries in particular, would face severe
calamities. Clearly this property of water is
tremendously important to life.
In the world of arboriculture, there are also
numerous examples of nature aiding man. In the
first two decades of the century, a chestnut blight,
caused by the pathogen
Endothia
, spread rapidly
across the forested regions of the U.S.A. It was
widely felt that the holes it made in the forest
canopy would never again be filled. This was
highly regrettable because of the large number of
useful things the chestnut tree yielded: high-grade,
rot-resistant timber, wood pulp, tannin, and nuts—
not to speak of its shade. It also had the special
advantage of being able to grow on mountain
ridges with scanty soil as well as in rich fertile
valleys. The unique position occupied by the
American chestnut was unsurpassed by any other
species and, until the arrival of
Endothia
from Asia
around 1900, it had truly been king of the forest.
Now it is almost extinct. But the holes in the forest
