“Yes, it does. We have grasses that grow from the sown seed and mature their grains in eight days. But, we have others, whose habit requires that they be sown about midwinter, and they are harvested in midsummer. Other plants are annual, dropping their leaves soon after darkness sets in and putting forth new ones again as soon as daylight returns. Our food plants are, however, chiefly raised artificially in both the exterior and the interior continents. The farms are often immense buildings covering several acres and consisting of from ten to twenty stories, each story comprising a farm. As our space can thus be multiplied indefinitely, and as we can raise twelve or more crops a year in the same space, you see a single acre can be made to be equal to one or two hundred. It is not necessary to use this degree of economy of room in all cases, and so, many farms consist of but a single story on the ground, and often on the exterior continent only the suns rays are employed instead of electricity to furnish energy for the growth of the crop. Even this method gives us about 13 crops a year. The artificial methods are generally preferred, however, as they are far more certain and reliable. In the interior continent of course these methods prevail exclusively.” “It seems strange,” said I, “that the spaces in the interior continent, should be great enough to hold any considerable population. We have on earth some large caves, but put them all together and they would not afford shelter for the inhabitants of a small city.” “The caves that are at present accessible to you, are small and due to the action of water. All springs, by carrying out mineral matter in solution from below the surface, are constructing caves, and much more extensive ones than might be supposed. But those formed by the action of volcanoes, your explorers have had little opportunity to study, and, but few probably have any adequate idea of the sizes of the holes left under the surface, by the ejection of materials by volcanoes.