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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Conservation Reader, by Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Conservation Reader
+
+Author: Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2008 [EBook #26935]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSERVATION READER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Verity White, Joseph Cooper and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: _Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies_
+  The passenger pigeon, an extinct species.]
+
+
+
+
+CONSERVATION SERIES
+
+
+CONSERVATION READER
+
+BY
+
+HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS
+
+  AUTHOR OF "HOME GEOGRAPHY, STORIES OF OUR
+  MOTHER EARTH," "ROCKS AND MINERALS,"
+  "THE WESTERN UNITED STATES,"
+  "PRACTICAL PHYSIOGRAPHY,"
+  "GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA,"
+  ETC.
+
+  ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND
+  WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF PAINTINGS
+  IN COLOR
+
+YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
+
+WORLD BOOK COMPANY
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+WORLD BOOK COMPANY
+
+THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE
+
+Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson
+
+YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
+
+2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO
+
+
+The need for education in the principles of conservation is imperative.
+As Henry Fairfield Osborn states the matter, "We are yet far from the
+point where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and
+roll back the tide of destruction." The movement for the preservation of
+natural resources can succeed only with the establishment of an
+enlightened public sentiment on the subject. To create and maintain such
+a sentiment is the proper work of the schools. In making this
+_Conservation Reader_ available for school use, author and publishers
+have had in mind the great and lasting service that such a text might
+render. The publishers believe that this little volume and others
+forthcoming in the Conservation Series will rank high among "Books That
+Apply the World's Knowledge to the World's Needs"
+
+
+  Copyright, 1920, by World Book Company
+  Copyright in Great Britain
+  _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The wave of enthusiasm for the conservation of our national resources
+must reach the children or it will expend much of its force uselessly.
+
+It is from the education of the children in right ways of looking at
+Nature that everything is to be expected in the years to come. If they
+learn to understand the value of the things about them, as well as to
+appreciate their beauties, the carrying on and enlarging of the
+conservation program which is now so well under way can be safely left
+to their care.
+
+The West, although it has already been ruthlessly exploited, has lost
+less of its natural wealth than have the longer-settled Eastern states.
+
+In the newer parts of our country we can reasonably hope to save most of
+the forests and most of the wild life, and pass them on down to our
+children and grandchildren in something of their primeval beauty and
+richness.
+
+In the East we can hope to arouse a stronger sentiment for preserving
+what remains of the forests as well as for extending their areas, for
+proper forestation will lessen the danger of erosion of the soil and of
+floods, and will encourage the return of the wild creatures that are of
+so much economic importance and add so much to the joy of life.
+
+A book bringing out in a simple and interesting manner the principles of
+conservation has long been needed, for there has been little that could
+be placed in the hands of pupils. It is with the earnest hope of
+furnishing something which will answer in part the present need that
+this _Conservation Reader_ has been prepared.
+
+Acknowledgments are due the publishers of _American Forestry_ and the
+_Century Magazine_ for courteous permission to reprint poems taken from
+those publications. For their help in supplying photographic subjects to
+illustrate the book, thanks are extended to the persons to whom the
+various illustrations are accredited in immediate connection with their
+use in the text. The reproductions in color of two bird subjects have
+been secured through the friendly coöperation of Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson,
+Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                            PAGE
+   1. HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED                                     1
+   2. HOW OUR NEEDS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF THE FIRST MEN                  9
+   3. THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF CIVILIZED MEN           18
+   4. NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS                       25
+   5. THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE                                      32
+   6. WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY                                39
+   7. HOW FAR WILL NATURE RESTORE HER WASTED GIFTS?                    44
+   8. THE SOIL--THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE                      51
+   9. THINGS OF WHICH SOIL IS MADE                                     57
+  10. HOW THE SOIL IS MADE                                             61
+  11. HOW VEGETATION HOLDS THE SOIL                                    67
+  12. WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE IS NO PROTECTING CARPET OF VEGETATION   73
+  13. THE USE AND CARE OF WATER                                        81
+  14. COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?                            89
+  15. WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?                              96
+  16. WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE TREES?                              104
+  17. HOW THE FORESTS ARE WASTED                                      112
+  18. HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES                               119
+  19. EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS                125
+  20. HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS               130
+  21. OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS                                          139
+  22. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS                           144
+  23. NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS          150
+  24. WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE COAL, OIL, AND GAS ARE GONE?          155
+  25. NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER         162
+  26. MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS                     171
+  27. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS                      176
+  28. THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE                          183
+  29. THE COURT OF THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS                              188
+  30. THE BIRDS OUR GOOD FRIENDS AND PLEASANT COMPANIONS              195
+  31. HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN                      203
+      INDEX                                                           213
+
+
+
+
+CONSERVATION READER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED
+
+  Before these fields were shorn and tilled
+  Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
+  The melody of waters filled
+  The fresh and boundless woods;
+  And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd,
+  The fountains spouted in the shade.
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, quoted in _American Forestry_, XIV. 520
+
+
+The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled with the most
+wonderful things. Although people have lived on the earth for many
+thousands of years, they have been very slow in learning the secrets of
+their treasure house. This is because early men were much like the lower
+animals. During all these years their minds have been slowly growing.
+Now we can learn and understand many things which our ancestors of long
+ago could not.
+
+In habits and appearance the first men that roamed the earth were little
+different from the other animals except that they walked upright. When
+they had enough to eat and a home safe from enemies, they seemed
+perfectly happy and contented.
+
+These early men lived in the same wonderful treasure house as we do, but
+they did not know how to make use of its riches. In truth, their wants
+were so few that they would have had no use for the things that now seem
+so necessary to us. The rich fields about them lay untilled. The gold,
+silver, copper, and iron in the earth remained undiscovered; and the
+animals and birds that we now use in so many ways then served them
+mainly for food.
+
+Since they had no furry coats to keep them warm as do the animals of the
+cold regions, and had not learned to make clothing, their homes must
+have been in the warm parts of the earth. While they were without
+weapons to defend themselves against the lion and tiger, yet they were
+sharp witted and very quick in their movements and thus were usually
+able to escape their more powerful enemies.
+
+Although these early ancestors of ours seemed so much like the other
+animals, they were in reality very different. They had the same keen
+senses of sight, hearing, and smell, but they were more intelligent.
+
+When the dog and cat have had enough to eat, they lie down perfectly
+happy and contented. But when early men had had enough to eat, they were
+often not satisfied. They had other longings which finally led them to
+make discoveries about the uses of things around them and how to make
+their lives more comfortable.
+
+The little bear cub, for example, as it grows up learns from its mother
+just what it should do on all occasions. It learns what its mother knows
+and that is all. But among the early people of whom we are speaking the
+children not only learned all that their parents knew, but a little
+more. In this way each generation of children came to know more about
+the world.
+
+Thus after many years had passed people came to understand something of
+the wonderful world in which they lived. They were no longer at the
+mercy of wild animals, storms, heat, cold, hunger, and disease.
+
+The first people, like the other animals, used only their hands and
+teeth in hunting and in fighting their enemies. Finally some of the
+brighter ones discovered that a stick or club served better than the
+bare hands.
+
+The use of flint knives may have been brought about through some one
+cutting himself accidentally upon a piece of flint sticking out of the
+ground. If he happened to be very bright, he would at once see the value
+of such a piece of stone tied on the end of an arrow or club. By such
+means, perhaps, implements of wood, bone, and stone came into use.
+
+We have discovered the sites of many of the villages as well as the
+caves in which the ancient inhabitants of the earth lived. The
+implements of bone and stone which we have dug up in such places enable
+us to learn a great deal about their lives.
+
+There was a time when people did not know the use of fire. What a
+fearful thing fire must have seemed to them, at first. Their knowledge
+of it probably came from lightning or from hot lava flowing from a
+volcano. After they had learned to control fire, and to make it by
+rubbing two sticks together, they must have felt rich indeed. The
+discovery of fire was one of their greatest triumphs. It kept the cold,
+damp cave warm and dry, even though it filled their eyes with smoke. It
+was a means of keeping them safe from the dangerous wild beasts when
+they had to sleep out in the open. It was useful in cooking their food,
+and by and by it was to prove valuable in still other ways, when they
+began to _make_ things as well as to _find_ things.
+
+They began, by and by, to build rude shelters,--huts and wigwams, low
+houses of dried mud, and dugouts in the hillside. They learned to weave
+simple coverings out of the fibers of certain plants, or hair or wool,
+to protect their bodies against the cold and the wet. They learned,
+somehow, to tan the skins of animals, so that they would not first
+stretch and grow slippery. They learned to hold things together by
+sewing, using sharp bones for needles and the sinews of animals or
+fibers of plants for thread.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The Laplander of the far North uses the reindeer to pull his sled, its
+  flesh for food, its skin for clothing, and its horns for various
+  purposes.]
+
+How did men discover that they could travel on the water? Some one may
+at first have made use of a log to cross a river and, afterwards, have
+tied several logs together, making a raft. When they had learned how to
+make a canoe out of a log, by burning or hewing it out with rude axes,
+they could then take long journeys on the water to new lands. Since
+paddling was very tiresome, some one, brighter than the rest, probably
+thought of making a sail of bark or skins and so letting the wind push
+the canoe along.
+
+We do not know how the metals were discovered. Perhaps fire melted some
+of the copper in a vein of ore. Perhaps pure copper was found, for
+Nature sometimes leaves it in this form. Copper could be easily hammered
+into various useful articles, but it was too soft for many needs. After
+tin was discovered, it was learned that by melting it and copper
+together a new and very hard metal, known as _bronze_, was formed. Next,
+we think, came the discovery of iron, which has become so important that
+we could not get along without it. Think what this must have meant for
+them! To get firewood, to make rude boats and simple houses, to fight
+wild animals, now became easier. After iron they discovered gold and
+silver, and began to take an interest in making beautiful as well as
+useful things.
+
+It is easy to see how, once these new ways of using the earth were
+found, men could move into other regions than the belt where it was
+always warm. They could store up food for the winter, they could build
+warm shelters and get warm clothing, and they could sit by a fire.
+
+Sometimes when the first people were out hunting, instead of killing the
+young animals that they caught, they took them home and cared for them.
+So the little creatures became quite tame and grew up about the camps.
+The wild jungle fowls were the ancestors of the domestic hens which we
+find so useful. The wild cow was tamed in like manner, and made to
+supply milk in addition to food and clothing. The colts of wild horses
+and donkeys were captured and used for carrying loads. Sheep and goats
+were tamed in the same manner, and became the most valued possessions of
+some of the ancient peoples as they are of some peoples today. When they
+had learned to weave the wool of these animals into clothing and
+blankets, they had taken another step upon the long road which leads
+from ancient times down to us.
+
+Did these early people live entirely upon meat? If they had done so, we
+should never have had the wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables
+that we now enjoy so much. We must not suppose that Nature grew these
+things wild just as they are found in our gardens today. Our ancestors
+grew them for many generations, gradually improving their size and
+flavor. By selecting the best and carefully cultivating them, we are
+still continuing to make them better.
+
+The horse, donkey, cow, and camel proved valuable in another way to the
+people who were learning to cultivate the ground. When harnessed to a
+crooked and sharpened stick they aided in breaking up the ground in
+which the young plants were growing.
+
+And so the long years passed while the early people were discovering and
+making use of the things around them. They came to building better and
+more permanent homes, because they did not have to move from place to
+place in search of food. Where there were forests, wood served for their
+buildings. Where there were few trees, stone or mud bricks were used.
+
+The brighter people learned to understand Nature more quickly than those
+who were dull. Each discovery of some new way of doing things aided them
+in making others, and in this way people finally came to have all the
+comforts of today. Those people less quick to learn the secrets of
+Nature, or those who lived in countries to which Nature had given
+little, gained few comforts and even now remain savage.
+
+After our ancestors had learned to cultivate the soil, to use the
+minerals and the forests, and had tamed the animals and birds, they were
+still unsatisfied. They attempted to make the forces of Nature work for
+them. For a long time people made flour by crushing grain in a mortar.
+Next, two flat stones were used, one being made to turn upon the other
+by a handle. After that some animal, such as an ox or a horse, was
+harnessed to larger stones which, as they slowly turned, ground the
+grain. This was a great deal of work, and so some one thought of making
+the water tumbling over a ledge of rock grind the grain for them. The
+water was made to go over a water wheel. This wheel then made the
+millstones go around. It was a great deal easier.
+
+  [Illustration: The wild home of early men.
+  _H. W. Fairbanks_]
+
+Where there was no water power, wind was made to do the same work. A
+crude windmill gathered the power of the rapidly moving air. After wind
+and water had been forced to serve them, some one who had seen the lid
+of a tea kettle dancing up and down, thought of using steam. Then
+electricity, which in the form of jagged lightning had seemed so fearful
+a thing to the early people, was harnessed and made the greatest servant
+of all the forces of Nature.
+
+The discovery of powder led to the making of guns so destructive that
+dozens of birds could be killed at one shot.
+
+Some people became greedy and used all these wonderful discoveries to
+rob Nature. It seemed as if in some places all the wild life would be
+destroyed. Fires were allowed to burn the forest unhindered. The soil
+was made to produce crops until it grew poor.
+
+If we become selfish and indifferent and neglect to care for the
+treasures which Nature has placed in our hands, very serious things will
+happen to us, as they have happened to other people. How to use the
+storehouse of Nature without wasting or destroying these treasures is
+what we mean by _conservation_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+HOW OUR NEEDS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF THE FIRST MEN
+
+
+We have seen that the first men, like the other animals, depended upon
+the food that Nature supplied them, and when this was lacking they went
+hungry. When men had learned the use of fire they took the first step in
+making Nature serve them better than she did the lower animals. Today
+she works for us in so many ways that we can hardly name them all.
+
+After the use of fire the next thing that men learned was to make better
+homes, to tame some of the wild animals, and to raise a part of their
+food supplies, instead of depending entirely upon what they could pick
+up here and there.
+
+As the number of people increased, the question of securing food became
+more and more important. Would it not seem pretty hard to have to go out
+and hunt for your breakfast in the woods, or fields, or along the water?
+If you were alone you might find enough to eat, but if there were
+thousands of other people doing the same thing, you would probably go
+hungry. For this reason people began to cultivate berries, fruits,
+roots, and grains, and to take better care of their herds.
+
+Living as they did, in those parts of the world where the climate was
+warm, they usually found an abundance of food. But when these places
+became too crowded, and some of them had to move to new regions, they
+often found less food and a climate not always comfortable.
+
+In this way people spread into the colder and drier parts of the earth.
+The need for things which they did not have there sharpened the wits of
+these people. It led to one discovery after another. New needs were felt
+and new ways of satisfying them were sought. They kept finding out more
+about Nature and how she works. After many years they knew much more and
+were also far more comfortable than those people who continued to live
+where Nature supplied everything.
+
+There are now so many more people on the earth than there were long ago
+that to furnish them all with food is a very great task. Besides, there
+are now many people engaged in work other than farming, hunting, and
+fishing. All such people have to be provided for by those whose business
+it is to get food. People of the great cities are dependent upon those
+in the country for all that they eat! We can picture to ourselves the
+suffering that would follow if for only one week every one had to get
+his own food.
+
+We need many things that the first people thought nothing about, because
+their manner of life was so much simpler than ours. Let us see now what
+they are.
+
+We live in tightly closed houses, and so have less trouble in keeping
+warm and dry. But we do not always get the supply of fresh air that we
+need. Many of us are sickly and weak because of this. Our ancestors
+lived in the open air, which is always pure and fresh. A supply of pure
+air, then, is one of the things that we must now provide for.
+
+People once gave no thought to the purity of the water that they drank.
+When there were few people, water did not easily become impure. One
+could drink water wherever one found it and there was small risk of
+harm. Now in many places there are so many thousands of people gathered
+together that they have to take the greatest care about drinking water,
+in order to keep in good health. To get pure water it is often necessary
+to bring it many miles from mountainous regions where no one lives.
+
+Clothing is another thing that concerns us very much. Our ancestors were
+not troubled about their clothing. In the warm countries they went
+almost naked. Where it was cold the skins of animals served very well.
+Changes of fashion did not disturb them and cause them to throw away
+warm covering. To supply ourselves now with clothing we call upon Nature
+for many things. As she cannot, without our help, furnish what we need,
+we have to keep a great number of flocks, for their wool and skins, and
+cultivate vast fields of cotton and flax.
+
+When Nature raised in her own way the berries, grains, and roots that
+the first men ate, no thought was given to the soil in which these
+things grew. In truth, it was not necessary to pay any attention to the
+soil. Nature is very careful in her way and never makes the soil poor by
+growing more plants than it can support. In her own gardens she always
+renews the foods in the soil which the plants require as fast as they
+take them away.
+
+The needs of men have increased so fast that the soil has often been
+forced to grow more than it ought. Men have been a long time in learning
+that they cannot keep on growing the same crops on the same soil year
+after year without supplying to the soil extra foods, or _fertilizers_,
+as we call them. The care of the soil is another thing to which we have
+to give attention, but which did not worry our ancestors.
+
+Nature clothes the earth with a carpet of grasses, bushes, or trees.
+When the rain falls on the ground, their roots hold the soil so firmly
+that it usually washes away only very slowly. When men first began to
+cultivate the soil, they paid no attention to the fact that water washes
+away the loose earth very easily. In this loose earth at the top of the
+ground is stored most of the food which the plants require. Care of the
+surface of the ground is, then, another thing which we have to keep in
+mind.
+
+Men at first made shelters for themselves from anything that was at
+hand, such as bark, skins, rock, or earth. When they learned to make
+sharp-edged tools, they began to use trees. Where it is cold, much wood
+is required to build warm houses. As the numbers of men increased, they
+used greater and greater quantities of wood. Wood also proved to be most
+useful for many other purposes than house building. In order to plant
+larger fields the trees were cut down or burned off, without thought of
+doing any harm. In time trees became scarce in many parts of the world
+and men began to realize that care must be used or the supply of wood
+might fail them.
+
+Coal was finally discovered and men said, "Now we have something that
+will last always, for there must be an inexhaustible amount in the earth
+beneath our feet. All that we shall have to do is to dig it out." When
+men grew wiser they learned that coal must not be used carelessly any
+more than the other gifts of Nature; otherwise the supply may give out
+and leave them with nothing to take its place.
+
+Hunting and fishing continued to be the business of many. They invented
+destructive weapons with which they were able to kill such large numbers
+of wild creatures that some kinds disappeared entirely. Fish, also, of
+which people thought the sea and the rivers contained a never failing
+supply, became scarcer. They did not know that fish live mostly in the
+shallow waters along shores, and that the great ocean depths contain
+very few.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Sierra junipers above Tuolumne Meadows, near the Yosemite Valley,
+  showing how roots will force their way in apparently most unfavorable
+  places.]
+
+Thus, as the earth became thickly settled with men and their wants
+increased, they discovered that they had to treat Nature in a very
+different way from that of their early ancestors.
+
+Because of our great numbers we have to be careful not to use the earth
+in such a way as to lessen its fertility and productiveness. Where
+people have been careless, famine has often resulted. Poverty and
+suffering have come to many parts of the earth, as we shall learn
+farther along in this little book.
+
+THE CITY ON THE PLAIN
+
+  Strange indeed were the sounds I heard
+      One day, on the side of the mountain:
+  Hushed was the stream and silent the bird,
+  The restless wind seemed to hold its breath,
+  And all things there were as still as death,
+      Save the hoarse-voiced god of the mountain.
+
+  Through the tangled growth, with a hurried stride,
+      I saw him pass on the mountain,
+  Thrusting the briers and bushes aside,
+  Crackling the sticks and spurning the stones,
+  And talking in loud and angry tones
+      On the side of the ancient mountain.
+
+  The tips of his goatlike ears were red,
+      Though the day was cool on the mountain,
+  And they lay close-drawn to his horned head;
+  His bushy brows o'er his small eyes curled,
+  And he stamped his hoofs,--for all the world
+      Like Pan in a rage on the mountain.
+
+  "Where are my beautiful trees," he cried,
+      "That grew on the side of the mountain?
+  The stately pines that were once my pride,
+  My shadowy, droop-limbed junipers:
+  And my dewy, softly whispering firs,
+      'Mid their emerald glooms on the mountain?
+
+  "They are all ravished away," he said,
+      "And torn from the arms of the mountain,
+  Away from the haunts of cooling shade,
+  From the cloisters green which flourished here--
+  My lodging for many a joyous year
+      On the side of the pleasant mountain.
+
+  "The songbird is bereft of its nest,
+      And voiceless now is the mountain.
+  My murmurous bees once took their rest,
+  At shut of day, and knew no fear,
+  In the trees whose trunks lie rotting here
+      On the side of the ruined mountain.
+
+  "Man has let in the passionate sun
+      To suck the life-blood of the mountain,
+  And drink up its fountains one by one:
+  And out of the immortal freshness made
+  A thing of barter, and sold in trade
+      The sons of the mother mountain.
+
+  "Down in the valley I see a town,
+      Built of his spoils from my mountain--
+  A jewel torn from a monarch's crown,
+  A grave for the lordly groves of Pan:
+  And for this, on the head of vandal man,
+      I hurl a curse from the mountain.
+
+  "His palpitant streams shall all go dry
+      Henceforth on the side of the mountain,
+  And his verdant plains as a desert lie
+  Until he plants again the forest fold
+  And restores to me my kingdom old,
+      As in former days on the mountain.
+
+  "Long shall the spirit of silence brood
+      On the side of the wasted mountain,
+  E'er out of the sylvan solitude
+  To lift the curse from off the plain,
+  The crystal streams pour forth again
+      From the gladdened heart of the mountain."
+
+MILLARD F. HUDSON, in _American Forestry_, XIV. 42
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  "'Where are my beautiful trees,' he cried,
+    'That grew on the side of the mountain?'"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF CIVILIZED MEN
+
+  For ages, on the silent forest here,
+    Thy beams did fall before the red man came
+  To dwell beneath them; in their shade the deer
+    Fed, and feared not the arrow's deadly aim.
+  Nor tree was felled, in all that world of woods,
+  Save by the beaver's tooth, or winds, or rush of floods.
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, _A Walk at Sunset_
+
+
+The earth has not always been as it is now. Those parts now possessed by
+the more civilized peoples have been very greatly changed. If we could
+look back and see some of the countries as they were long ago, we should
+hardly know them. In certain lands the forests have been cut down, the
+wild creatures driven away, and the soil so carelessly cultivated that
+it has become poor. In other lands Nature's gifts have been carefully
+used; even the barren deserts have been turned into green fields and
+blooming gardens for hundreds of miles.
+
+Let us try to picture to ourselves how our own country looked when white
+men first found and explored it. A few hundred years ago it was the home
+of wild animals and Indians only. We have been given our freedom in one
+of the richest of Nature's gardens, and, like so many children, have
+tried to see who could gather the most treasures from it. We have given
+little attention to keeping up the garden.
+
+If you have been in some part of the country that is still wild and
+unsettled, it will help you to form a picture of how the entire land
+once looked. If you have been in one of our great natural parks, this
+will be a better help. In these parks everything remains just as Nature
+made it. There the animals, birds, and plants are free to live their
+lives unmolested. Is it not a good thing that our government has been
+wise enough to have large tracts of land left in just the condition in
+which the whole country was when our ancestors first came?
+
+We will think of our whole land, then, as a great wild park, rich in all
+kinds of animal and plant life. It was not an altogether happy family
+that lived in this park, for all were struggling for food, drink, and
+sunshine. But as none were possessed of such deadly weapons as those of
+civilized man, no one kind of animal was able to kill off all of any
+other kind.
+
+Neither the Indians in their wigwams, nor the wild animals in their
+lairs, nor the birds singing in the trees, nor the ducks quacking in the
+marshes dreamed of the change that was coming to their homes. They did
+not dream of civilized man with his terrible weapons and his many needs,
+who was to change the whole appearance of the country and nearly or
+quite exterminate many of them.
+
+The life of the Indians was almost as simple as that of the lower
+animals. Their clothing required little care. Their homes were easily
+made. Some of them had learned to cultivate the soil, but they depended
+mainly upon food obtained by hunting, and such roots, berries, and nuts
+as the women could collect. If we could have looked down on our land as
+the bird does, we should have seen little sign of human inhabitants.
+There were no roads or bridges, and only indistinct trails led from one
+village to another.
+
+In the far Southwest there were people quite different from those of
+whom we have been speaking. They were called the Pueblo Indians. In
+Mexico there were similar people called the Aztecs. All these Indians
+still live in permanent stone villages, as they did a thousand years
+ago. They learned more about Nature than the wandering Indians, but we
+do not believe they would ever become civilized if left to themselves.
+
+The only animal that the Indians had tamed was the wolf. They made
+little use of the wolf-dog except in the far North, where it drew their
+sleds over the snow.
+
+Some of the Indians of our country once knew of the use of copper, but
+it had been forgotten when white men first came.
+
+All about the Indians was the same world that surrounds us. In truth, it
+was a richer world in some ways, for since then many of its treasures
+have been lost through greed and waste.
+
+The rich soil of the valleys was almost undisturbed. The forests were
+uncut save for an occasional tree used in making a canoe or a rude
+cabin. The forests suffered only at the hands of the insects, storms,
+and fires. The flowers that covered the ground in spring went
+ungathered. The vast grassy prairies were disturbed only by the feeding
+of such animals as the buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope.
+
+A single great forest spread over all the mountains and valleys of the
+eastern part of our country. Now you can travel for many miles in the
+more thickly settled portions of this region and see not a single tree
+of the original forest.
+
+To the west of the forest came the prairies and plains. Still farther
+west came lofty mountains and desert valleys. On these Western mountains
+were other forests with trees of wonderful size.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The elk once roamed the valleys.]
+
+This great natural park, with its long seacoasts, rivers, lakes,
+marshes, dense woods, and open plains, was a paradise for wild creatures
+of every description, and the Indian was contented to leave it so.
+
+Grizzly and black bears roamed the thickets. Elk wandered through the
+mountains and valleys. Deer were abundant everywhere. The antelope raced
+over the plains, mountain goats and sheep lived among the rocks, and
+moose filled the Northern woods. Great herds of buffalo darkened the
+surface of the plains. When the first railroad was built across the
+plains, less than fifty years ago, the trains were sometimes stopped by
+herds of buffalo crossing the track.
+
+Most of the songbirds that filled the country then are still with us,
+for they were of little commercial value to the hunter. No other land
+has richer bird music than ours. Many of the birds that are valuable
+for food are, however, nearly extinct. Now we have laws for their
+protection, but these laws went into effect too late to save some
+species. The passenger pigeon is one of our greatest losses.
+
+The cutting down of the vast forests that once covered the Eastern
+states, and the cultivation of fields, has helped to drive many of the
+wild creatures away. We are just beginning to learn how poor our country
+would be if we lost them all. Refuges are being established in many
+places, where those birds and animals most in danger of extinction may
+live safe from the hunter.
+
+The coast waters, lakes, and streams of our country were once alive with
+fish. The Indians made use of them, but their rude traps did not catch
+enough to affect the number seriously. We have fished with every kind of
+trap that the brightest fisherman could think of. Many important food
+fishes are now very much reduced in numbers. The fur seal and sea otter
+are so nearly gone that only the most watchful protection will save them
+from extinction.
+
+The land, as the Indian knew it, was beautiful, and was filled with
+everything that one could wish. But the Indian did not know how to use
+it. He lived a poor life, suffering from cold and hunger.
+
+We came into the possession of a land unspoiled by its primitive
+inhabitants. It was just as Nature made it. In a few short years we have
+almost exterminated the Indian. We have swept away a large part of the
+forests. We have almost destroyed many of the species of animals and
+birds. We have robbed the soil and injured the flow of the rivers. Some
+of this loss we could not help, for when many millions of people occupy
+a land there must be many changes. But for the losses that we have
+needlessly and carelessly caused we shall sometime be sorry.
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  "Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and
+  the soft green moss."]
+
+Do you not think we are wise in seeking how to take better care of this
+land of ours?
+
+IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS
+
+  Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods!
+    Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss;
+  Such love of the birds in the solitudes,
+    Where the swift winds glance and the treetops toss;
+  Spaces of silence swept with song,
+    Which nobody hears but the God above;
+  Spaces where myriad creatures throng,
+    Sunning themselves in his guarding love.
+
+  Such safety and peace in the heart of the woods!
+    Far from the city's dust and din,
+  Where passion nor hate nor man intrudes,
+    Nor fashion nor folly has entered in.
+  Deeper than hunter's trail hath gone
+    Glimmers the tarn where the wild deer drink;
+  And fearless and free comes the gentle fawn,
+    To peep at herself o'er the grassy brink.
+
+  Such pledges of love in the heart of the woods!
+    For the Maker of all things keeps the feast,
+  And over the tiny flowers broods
+    With care that for ages has never ceased.
+  If he cares for this, will he not for thee--
+    Thee, wherever thou art today?
+  Child of an infinite Father, see;
+    And safe in such gentlest keeping stay.
+
+MARGARET E. SANGSTER, in _American Forestry_, XIV
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS
+
+
+Pure, fresh air is free to all of us, for, like an ocean, it surrounds
+the whole earth. We need pure water just as much as we do pure air, but
+it is not always easy to get. A large part of the earth is buried
+beneath water so salt that we cannot use it. Other parts of the earth
+are so dry that if we venture into them we may die of thirst. The solid
+land on which we make our homes is not all of the same value. Thousands
+of square miles are so rocky or so cold or so dry that they support no
+living thing. Other thousands of miles of the earth have been so favored
+by Nature that they are fairly alive with every sort of creature.
+
+We say that a country is rich in natural resources when it has an
+abundance of those things that men need or can make use of for their
+pleasure and comfort. A country is poor when it has few of these things.
+
+The first men were poor, although they lived in a rich part of the
+earth. They did not know how to make use of what lay around them. If
+civilized men are poor now, it is because they have wasted Nature's
+gifts or because they live in a country upon which she has bestowed
+little.
+
+When we say that the far North where the Eskimos live is a dreary,
+desolate region, we mean that it lacks most of those things necessary to
+make men comfortable and happy. When we read of the life of the
+wandering Arabs in the desert of Arabia, we think of a country to which
+Nature has not given its share.
+
+When we speak of Spain as poor, we have in mind a country once favored
+by Nature, but no longer prosperous because its resources have been
+wasted. Our own land is now rich and prosperous because of the abundance
+of its natural resources. We should guard these well lest we meet a fate
+similar to that of the people of Spain.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Where Nature has supplied little rain; desert sand dunes.]
+
+If we journey over our own land, we shall discover that Nature has been
+very partial to certain parts, giving them more than they need. Other
+parts have been left with little. We shall also discover what wonderful
+things men are doing to make up for the failures of Nature, and to make
+habitable many of those places which she left uninhabitable.
+
+The forests of the eastern half of the country have been thinned out.
+West of the Mississippi River there are thousands of square miles of
+prairies where there are almost no trees. In such places the first
+settlers had difficulty in getting firewood, and had to build their
+houses of earth or stone.
+
+Upon the northwest coast there is fog and rain and little sunshine.
+There the forests grow so dense that it is difficult to travel through
+them. In the deserts of the Southwest the sun shines out of a cloudless
+sky almost every day in the year. The ground becomes very dry and the
+living things found there have strange and curious habits.
+
+In the Central and Eastern states there is much coal; and because of
+this, millions of people have gathered there to engage in manufacturing.
+In California coal is scarce and has to be brought from other parts of
+the earth.
+
+The vast prairies of the Mississippi Valley are covered with fields of
+waving grain, much of which is shipped to distant regions. In New
+England much of the soil is rocky and not enough grain is raised there
+to supply the needs of the population.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Office of Farm Management (J. S. Cotton)_
+  A farming scene in the fertile valley of the Missouri River.]
+
+The work that people do in different places is determined by the way in
+which Nature has distributed her resources. The farmers are mostly found
+in the valleys where the soil is best. Cattle are pastured on those
+lands not suited to farming. The miners go to the mountains, where they
+can more easily find the minerals they are after. The lumberman finds
+his work where the climate favors the growth of forest trees. The
+manufacturer seeks the waterfalls, where there is power to turn his
+mills.
+
+Now let us try to discover in how far we can change Nature's plan and
+make habitable those places which she left uninhabitable. There are some
+things which we cannot do. We cannot make the air warmer or colder. We
+cannot cause rain to fall even though the fields are parched with
+drought. We cannot stop the rain falling, and we cannot stop the winds
+blowing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The prickly pear in its desert home.]
+
+While we cannot stop the water falling from the clouds, we can drain the
+lowlands and marshes and so make them fit for the farmer. We can raise
+great dikes or embankments along the rivers and so shut out the flood
+waters. The people of Holland have saved thousands of acres from the sea
+by building dikes and pumping out the water from the inclosed fields.
+
+While we cannot make it rain where not enough rain falls, we can do that
+which is just as good or better: we can carry water by ditches and pipes
+to the land that needs it. Much of the soil of the great deserts in the
+southwestern part of our country is rich in plant food. All that it
+lacks is water.
+
+The Indian roamed over the rich lands of the great delta of the Colorado
+River. He often went hungry and thirsty. He did not think of taking the
+water out of the river in a ditch and allowing it to flow over and wet
+the rich soil. The white man came and turned the river out of its
+channel and spread the water over hundreds of square miles of the
+richest land on the earth. Now, where once you would have died of thirst
+and hunger, there are green fields and growing crops as far as you can
+see.
+
+  [Illustration: The Owens River aqueduct, through which water is carried
+  to Los Angeles from a source more than two hundred miles distant.]
+
+The city of Los Angeles is situated in a dry region where there is not
+water enough for the needs of a great city. There has now been completed
+a great aqueduct which brings a river of water through deserts and
+mountains from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, over two hundred miles away.
+There is now sufficient water for hundreds of thousands of people.
+
+When it rains too much, many rivers rise and overflow their banks. The
+farmer's crops are destroyed, his cattle drowned, and his buildings
+washed away. We can lessen the danger from these floods, which are very
+bad in such river basins as those of the Ohio and Mississippi, by
+building reservoirs in the highlands where the rivers take their start.
+If when summer comes these rivers are too shallow for safe navigation,
+the reservoirs can be opened and the streams supplied with this stored
+water.
+
+The lack of trees upon the prairies was once a serious matter for the
+settler. We must not think, however, that because Nature placed no trees
+on the prairies that trees will not grow there. She may not have had
+handy the seed of the kind suitable for such dry lands. Our government
+has found in the dry regions of other countries trees that will grow
+upon our prairies. In their own home these trees had become used to a
+dry climate like that of our prairies.
+
+Steep cañons and cliffs of rock once kept people, living on the opposite
+sides of mountain ranges, from becoming acquainted with one another. Our
+ancestors were afraid to venture out on the boundless oceans with their
+small, frail boats. Because of this the continent that we live on long
+remained unknown. Those who first found it, the ancestors of the present
+Indians, came here by accident. Storms probably blew their boats across
+the North Pacific Ocean, and thus they found a new home. Now railroads
+enable us to cross the deserts in perfect comfort. Tunnels have been
+made through the mountains, so that we can go easily from one valley to
+another. Boats of giant size carry us safely and quickly across the
+stormy oceans. Nature did not intend us to fly through the air or swim
+beneath the water, but we are learning so much about her laws that we
+shall soon be almost as much at home in the air and the sea as the birds
+and fish are.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE
+
+  My squandered forests, hacked and hewed,
+    Are gone; my rivers fail;
+  My stricken hillsides, stark and nude,
+    Stand shivering in the gale.
+  Down to the sea my teeming soil
+    In yellow torrents goes;
+  The guerdon of the farmer's toil
+    With each year lesser grows.
+
+ROBERT M. REESE, _The Spendthrift_; quoted in _American Forestry_,
+XIV. 269
+
+
+This is the story of a land of plenty that became almost a desert. Long
+ago there dwelt in this land a people wise in all the things that
+concerned their home. Through many hard years of toil and struggle they
+had learned to take the very best care of what Nature had given them.
+Although Nature seemed to them to be wasteful, she punished waste in her
+children. As long as they obeyed, they had comfortable homes, fertile
+fields, and sleek herds.
+
+The country of which we are speaking was very beautiful. There were
+lofty mountains and broad, fertile valleys. Many streams, fed by clear,
+cool springs, flowed through the land. There were also green meadows and
+deep, dark forests.
+
+The forests contained many wild animals, for in the forests the animals
+found both food and protection. Birds of every sort abounded, and their
+music filled the air. Trees overhung the streams, shading them from the
+hot sun, so that they did not dry up in the summer. The springs never
+failed, for the carpet of leaves and decaying vegetation underneath the
+trees of the forests held much of the rainwater from running away, so
+that it sank into the ground. Instead of making floods in the rivers, it
+fed the springs gradually and steadily through the long, dry summers.
+
+The people of this land had learned the secrets of the growing plants
+and how these plants could be made better by cultivation. They had also
+learned to tame the wild animals and make them useful. The farms were
+managed with great care so that they never grew poor. The soil never
+refused to grow their crops. The people had learned during their earlier
+years of struggle that they must not clear the forests from the
+hillsides, for, if they did, the soil would begin to wash away. They had
+learned that they must leave the forests on the mountains in order to
+save the springs.
+
+Rain did not always come when it was needed for the crops, and at other
+times it rained too much. Reservoirs were built to hold the surplus
+water for use in time of drought. Canals were dug to carry it to the
+fields.
+
+The wild animals and birds bothered the crops, and the first thought of
+the people was to kill them. But it was soon discovered that this was
+not wise. Those who destroyed the wild creatures about their farms began
+to suffer from rats, mice, rabbits, and a multitude of little insects
+that all but devoured the crops.
+
+It did not take these people long to learn that Nature was not to be
+trifled with. If they took too much from the earth one year, she made
+them pay for it the next. They not only became wise enough to take care
+of every good thing that Nature had given them, but improved upon many
+things that she had left unsuited to their use.
+
+Thus the land was kept beautiful and fertile. The inhabitants became
+rich, and, instead of fearing Nature as they once did, they came to love
+the rocks, the woods, the streams, and the wild creatures.
+
+Let us now leave this rich and fertile land and come back to it after
+hundreds of years have passed. We find a new people living there and the
+country so changed that we can hardly believe it is the same land.
+
+Yet it must be the same, for there are the very mountains that were
+there long ago. To be sure, they do not look just as they did. When we
+last saw them they were covered with forests, but now they are barren
+and scarred with many gulches. Here is the same river, but it also looks
+different. While it was once overhung with trees and its waters were so
+clear that we could see the fish in the bottom, it now has a broad,
+sandy bed; the trees are gone, and the water is shallow and muddy.
+
+The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and discouraged
+appearance. They have a hard struggle to get enough to eat. The soil is
+rocky, and it takes much labor to raise the scanty crops. They never
+seem able to gather all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes
+away and new ones are constantly uncovered.
+
+Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in their stead only a
+few stunted trees and bushes. There is little grass and almost no
+flowers, even in spring. Sheep and cattle wander far for their forage
+and do not have the sleek appearance they once did.
+
+There are few wild creatures of any sort, for since there are no woods
+there are few hiding places. Neither do we see any birds, and we listen
+in vain for a song or note of any kind.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The women carry home the fuel.]
+
+The houses are made of mud or stone and look cold and cheerless. The
+people must suffer from cold in winter. The only wood they have is small
+brush which the women and children gather upon the far hills and bring
+home in huge bundles upon their backs.
+
+In the towns of this country the only fuel now to be had is charcoal.
+This is brought upon the backs of burros from the distant mountains,
+where the few remaining trees give work to charcoal burners. The
+charcoal is peddled through the streets and sold in tiny quantities at
+each door. The people are too poor to buy much at a time and are very
+careful in its use. It is burned in a metal or earthen dish called a
+brazier, and a double handful may last a family a whole day.
+
+Rains still fall in this country of the Poor People, as they did long
+ago. But the waters gather quickly upon the unprotected slopes and run
+off in muddy torrents, taking along some of the soil. Thus each
+succeeding year there is less plant food for the crops.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rocky land of the poor people.]
+
+How did this country, once rich and fruitful, become so barren? We are
+sure from what we know of Nature's ways that she is not the cause of the
+trouble. Through greed and ignorance of how to take care of their land
+the present inhabitants have wasted and squandered its wealth until it
+has become almost a desert.
+
+We can do things with Nature, and direct many of her forces so that they
+will work for our good. We cannot, however, as we have learned, change
+the amount of rain that falls, nor can we make it warmer or colder.
+
+How, then, are these poor people to blame for the condition of their
+country? The troubles which overtook them came from two things. In the
+first place they did not know how to take care of their rich land, and
+in the second place they were greedy and wanted to become wealthy faster
+than they ought.
+
+Why does the rain, which once made this country fruitful, now wash away
+the soil and make it barren? It is because in those earlier times much
+of the land was covered with cool forests. The rain then fell more
+gently because of the forests. More of it soaked into the ground and the
+springs were larger. Now the rains are delayed by the hot air of the
+thirsty land until, when they finally do come, the water falls in
+torrents. Such rains or cloudbursts, as we often call them, carry away
+the unprotected soil faster than Nature can renew it.
+
+  [Illustration: _Bailey Willis_
+  The shallow, rock-filled river along whose banks the trees have been
+  destroyed.]
+
+The strangers in the land, under whose rule it became poor, thought they
+knew better than Nature. They did not look upon her as the great wise
+mother of them all. Soon after these people came into possession of the
+land, they found that in other places there was a demand for their
+grain, cattle, and wool. They began to increase their fields and herds.
+To do this it was necessary to cut down the forests which had stood so
+long. It seemed to them too bad to leave valuable land covered only with
+trees.
+
+The people began to look askance at the birds, for they thought they
+were eating too much grain. Because they did not know what good the
+little creatures were doing, they killed them. Since most of the birds
+nested in trees, they got rid of them faster by cutting down the trees.
+
+The steep hillsides were finally cleared of trees and the soil began to
+wash, and the rocks soon appeared. No plant food was given to the soil
+to replace that taken by the growing plants, and the crops soon began to
+show the effect of starvation. The cattle began to suffer for lack of
+food. They ate the grass down so closely that much of it was killed.
+
+The rainwater, instead of feeding the springs, now ran swiftly away. The
+clear, steady rivers turned to muddy floods during the rainy season.
+They swept through the valleys, washing away houses and crops. In the
+summer they dried up so that the fish died.
+
+When these people at last discovered their mistake, they strove by hard
+labor to repair the damage which they had done through years of
+ignorance and greed. This was such slow, difficult work that the land
+still remains a dreary place in which to live. It is known as the Land
+of the Poor People.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY
+
+
+Would you like to know something about what I am doing? Would you like
+to know why my waters are yellow with mud? I am accused of being a
+noisy, roistering fellow, of robbing people of their wealth and of doing
+all sorts of wicked deeds. But, worst of all, I am accused of carrying
+away the tiny particles of soil in which the plants find their food and
+of dropping them in the depths of the sea.
+
+Perhaps, when you really understand my work, you will say that I have no
+evil intentions at all. I am only one of Nature's servants. Each one of
+us has a work to do. Sometimes we have to do things that seem to be bad,
+but that is because some one on the earth has broken Nature's laws.
+
+Nature has many servants. To each one of us is given a different kind of
+work. I am the great leveler of the land. No mountain is too great or
+too high for me to tear down. I can carry it all away grain by grain and
+leave it in the lowlands or in the sea. Many mountains I have destroyed
+so completely that you would hardly believe they ever existed. Long
+before there were any animals and men on the earth I was busy, and I
+shall be busy when they are all gone.
+
+The farmer believes me his enemy, but if I do injure his fields it is
+because I cannot help it. The work that has been given me to do is the
+carrying away of the loose earth wherever I can find it. If the farmer
+does not want his hillsides made poor, he should take care of them.
+
+The farmer does not know that he has me to thank for the richest of his
+lands, those lands where the soil is deep and dark, and filled with
+plant food. I and my brother rivulets have been thousands of years in
+collecting the soil which forms the fertile lowlands in the valleys
+through which we flow. We all unite to form the mighty river which
+finally ends in the sea.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Because some farmer was careless, a rivulet has nearly destroyed this
+  rich valley.]
+
+Upon all the slopes which drain toward the river we rivulets are at
+work. Other servants of Nature are working here. Some of them are making
+the rocks soften and fall apart. Others are bringing seeds of the
+grasses and trees that they may take root in the crumbling rock. It is
+their business to make a carpet of plants over the earth and thus stop
+my work. But wherever the slopes are steep we rivulets have our way. We
+pick up and carry away the particles of sand and clay so that only the
+bare, hard rocks remain.
+
+When the steep slopes become gentle, and we can no longer carry away all
+the particles of crumbled rock, then the carpet of plants spreads over
+the surface. Now our waters become clear. We seem like different
+beings. Once in a while, when the rains fall very heavily, some of us
+break through the protecting carpet and dig great hollows and gullies
+into the earth.
+
+Would you like to know how we rivulets get rid of the load we carry from
+the mountain slopes? When we are muddy and swollen with the heavy rains,
+we turn the river into a flood. The river then breaks its banks and
+spreads out over all the lowlands along its course. Now the river flows
+more slowly and drops a part of the sand and mud which we rivulets
+brought to it. Finally, when the storm is over and the river goes back
+into its channel, there is left on the surface of the valleys a layer of
+earth rich in plant food. We brought the river the finest of the rock
+particles, together with the leaves and stems of plants that lay in our
+way.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rivulets have united to form the broad, shallow river loaded with
+  the soil from the farms along its upper course.]
+
+As year after year we made the river overflow, the soil of the lowlands
+grew deeper and deeper until it became as you see it today. Now the
+slopes about the head of the river are not so steep as they were once.
+Our waters do not run away so rapidly and the river seldom overflows.
+Thus the farmer can use the land for his crops, which grow so
+luxuriantly that he is envied by his less fortunate neighbors who live
+upon the hills.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Office of Farm Management_
+  The soil of this valley has been washed to its present location by flood
+  waters.]
+
+Upon the slopes about the valleys we rivulets did not leave so much
+soil. The farther one goes up the slopes the thinner one finds the soil,
+until at the top the bare rock may appear.
+
+But our work, says the muddy rivulet, was not finished with the making
+of the fertile valley lands. We carried a part of our load of sand and
+mud on to the mouth of the river. Here in the bay into which the river
+empties we began another great task. It seemed hopeless at first to try
+to turn the bay into dry land, but year after year we kept at work,
+through a time so long that I have forgotten when we began. At last we
+succeeded in bringing so much material to the bay that the waters
+became shallow. Then the soft mud began to show itself when the water
+was low. At last the water was replaced by dry land, which appeared much
+like the lowlands which we had made along the river.
+
+Now you who think we muddy rivulets do only harm see what we have
+accomplished. We have built a great delta of the richest land that
+extends away on every hand as level as a floor and almost as far as you
+can see. The soil of the delta is hundreds of feet deep and the richest
+to be found on the whole earth. It is on such river deltas that the
+first civilized men made their homes, and became rich and powerful.
+
+Now I have told you what Nature has appointed the muddy rivulets to do.
+Is not the good that we do far greater than the harm? When we do harm it
+is because people have not learned how, or have not tried, to obey
+Nature's laws. If we make people poor, it is their own fault.
+
+We still find much to do upon the earth. Nature is still making
+mountains which we have to tear down. We are still building deltas which
+will sometime be inhabited by rich and prosperous people. We do not
+willingly spoil the lands of the farmers on the hills and make them
+labor hard for a living.
+
+In those happy lands where people understand Nature we rivulets have a
+different kind of work to do. We become pure and clear. We furnish a
+home for the fish, drink for the thirsty flocks, and a never-failing
+power to turn the mill wheels. Our waters are of service to every living
+thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+HOW FAR WILL NATURE RESTORE HER WASTED GIFTS?
+
+
+The natural wealth of our country is its soil, water, forests, minerals,
+animal and bird life, and, finally, its climate and scenery.
+
+Of all these, _climate_ and _scenery_ are the only ones which we can use
+and enjoy as much as we like without any danger of their ever failing
+us. The sun will shine through the blue sky, the winds will blow, and
+the storms will come just the same, no matter what we may do.
+
+Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to make the wonderful
+world in which we live, and place upon it the mountains and valleys,
+lakes and oceans? Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to
+make the rocks and store away in them gold, silver, copper, and iron?
+Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to cover the rocks with
+soil, and spread over the surface the flowers and trees and to stock it
+with uncounted numbers of animals and birds?
+
+Nature usually works very slowly, but she never rests. The earth and all
+things on its surface, have always been changing, but changing so slowly
+that we do not ordinarily notice what is going on. When there is an
+earthquake, or a slide of rock on a mountain side, or an eruption of a
+volcano, we are astonished and often terrified.
+
+Stories that have come down to us from the distant past tell us that the
+earth looked then much the same as it does now. If we could look away
+back to a time long before the first men lived, when even the animals
+and plants were different from those around us, we should discover that
+the surface of the earth was quite different from that of today. We
+should then see mountains and hills where now we find valleys, and dry
+land where now lies the blue ocean.
+
+Nature has been such a long time making the beautiful world in which we
+live, that we ought to treat it with great consideration. It is also a
+wise thing for us to be heedful of her requests, for, if we will work
+with her, the earth with all its treasures will be at our command.
+
+Shall we not now seek to learn which of the natural resources of our
+land will never be replaced if we squander them? Let us also learn which
+may be made good again by Nature, if we are willing to wait long enough,
+as well as to assist her in her slow work.
+
+Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It
+is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the
+fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water
+to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be
+our lot for many years.
+
+Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks
+will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a
+foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even,
+for a new and fertile soil to come again.
+
+During the early years of placer mining in California thousands of acres
+of rich lands in the foothills were destroyed. Only boulders were left.
+Now fifty years have passed and a new soil is being formed, but it will
+be a long time yet before it will be as good as it was in the first
+place.
+
+Upon the Western prairies only grain has been raised for so many years
+that in many places the soil will scarcely grow a crop worth gathering.
+Many farmers have never thought of this, but the wise ones understand
+that they must frequently add plant food to the soil to replace that
+taken by crops. They understand also that it is a good thing to change
+the crops grown upon any particular field from year to year, since
+different plants take different substances from the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The miner in his search for gold ruins the beautiful valley, leaving it
+  a mass of boulders.]
+
+Water goes through a ceaseless round. It rises from the sea and lakes to
+form the clouds, falls as rain or snow, and then flows back down the
+slopes to the sea. Although we have learned that we cannot change the
+quantity of rain that falls in any place, we can influence the way in
+which it runs back to the sea. This in turn affects the lives of people.
+We can store water in reservoirs, and by building canals have it to use
+on the land during the summer. We can also keep it from flowing back to
+the sea as rapidly as it otherwise would, by leaving uninjured the
+covering of vegetation which has been spread over the mountain slopes.
+The water will run from bare rocks and bare soil much more quickly than
+it will from soil that is covered with leaf mold and held by plant
+roots. Do you not see, then, that we have almost as much control over
+water and its distribution as though we could increase or decrease the
+rainfall?
+
+What about the forests? If we cut them down, will they ever come back?
+All through the eastern part of our country and in the mountains of the
+West are lands once forested which have been cleared and turned into
+farms. Many of these farms, when abandoned, have in a few years been
+covered with a growth of young trees. The scattering trees that had been
+left in the vicinity of the clearings furnished the seed. The winds and
+the birds carried the seed to the open fields and so the forests began
+again.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  But Nature, after a lapse of fifty years, has spread a new carpet of
+  soil over the valley.]
+
+It will be hundreds of years before the trees are as large and
+valuable as those of the first forest. The "big trees" of the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains are found nowhere else in the world, for they are the
+last of their race. Some of these trees are more than 4000 years old.
+They stood here when our forefathers were still savages and lived in
+trees or caves. Much of the region where these trees are found has now
+been reserved as a park. If the lumberman had been allowed to get at
+them, they would have soon been gone forever.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Uncle Sam has preserved both forests and water power.]
+
+It is far more difficult to destroy completely most of the species of
+forest trees than it is to destroy the species of animals and birds. We
+can cut down the trees and in some cases they will grow again from
+sprouts. Many will hide away in remote places and furnish seed for new
+forests.
+
+The animals as well as the plants have had a long history. They have had
+a harder struggle than the plants, because many of them prey upon one
+another. We often dig up the skeletons of strange animals unlike any now
+living. These must have all been killed long ago. Each species or kind
+of animal now living must have come off victorious in the struggle with
+its enemies.
+
+Does it not seem a heartless thing for us, who call ourselves civilized,
+to destroy so completely any species of animal or plant that not one of
+its kind remains alive? No species which we destroy will ever come back
+again, and its place will always remain empty. There are a few predatory
+animals and birds that destroy vast numbers of useful ones. We should
+keep these in check by every means in our power, but for our thoughtless
+destruction of the valuable ones the world will always be poorer.
+
+What of the mineral treasures hidden away in the earth? Will these be
+replaced when once they have all been used up? It took Nature a very
+long time to make coal out of the vegetation which had gathered in some
+ancient swamp. It took her fully as long to make the oil and gas from
+the bodies of the little organisms that once lived in the sea.
+
+The bodies of the little creatures from which oil is made are still
+gathering upon the bottom of the sea, and there are many swamps where we
+find vegetation and peat accumulating. But it is a long story from these
+substances to oil and coal. I am afraid we should get tired of waiting
+for Nature to make a new supply.
+
+Gold, silver, copper, and other minerals, so useful to us, are found in
+very small quantities scattered throughout most of the solid rocks of
+the earth. It would be impossible for us to obtain these from rocks,
+because there is so little in any one place. But Nature has collected a
+part of them in veins in the rocks. We sink shafts upon these veins and
+mine the ores. It will be a long time before we shall have mined all
+there is of these minerals. Because they are so hard to get we are not
+likely to waste them. But it is quite certain that there is a limit to
+the supply of mineral treasures, and equally certain that they can be
+renewed either very, very slowly, or not at all. Shall we cause our
+remote descendants to suffer for our carelessness?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+THE SOIL--THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE
+
+
+An ancient story tells us that men were made from the dust of the earth.
+This dust under our feet, which soils our shoes, this dust which the
+wind sometimes sweeps along in blinding clouds, is indeed precious. The
+delicate tissues of our bodies are made from the food we eat. If it be
+plant food, it comes directly from the soil. If it be meat or eggs or
+milk, it comes from animals which live upon the plants, that in turn got
+their nourishment from the soil.
+
+This soft, dark substance which covers the rocky skeleton of the earth
+we call the _soil_. How common and cheap it looks when it is placed by
+the side of a piece of gold! But how much more wonderful it would seem
+if we could know all about it. The soil is far more necessary to our
+comfort and prosperity than gold. Gold, silver, or precious stones
+cannot keep us alive. They are of little worth to us compared with food
+and clothing. The soil, then, is the real wealth of the world. The
+farmer, who tills the soil, is the one worker we could not possibly do
+without. All the wealth of the world, all the comforts which we have,
+all the luxuries brought from far corners of the earth, come in the
+first place from the soil.
+
+We do not have to journey far over the earth to learn that there are
+many lands where the fields are not fruitful, and yet such lands are
+often rich and prosperous. How can this be if the soil is so necessary?
+Let us go to New England and ask the people living there if they can
+tell us why rich people sometimes inhabit lands which do not raise
+enough for them to eat.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  These jagged rocks are formed of once molten lava. By and by they will
+  crumble and be covered with a layer of soil.]
+
+Much of New England is hilly and has a poor, rocky soil. The farmers who
+first settled there toiled hard, working early and late, and yet got few
+of the comforts of life. Most of the farmers did not know how to improve
+the soil or even to keep it in as good condition as it was when they
+first cleared away the forests and began cultivating it; so many left
+their farms to seek a living elsewhere. There are now many abandoned
+farms that are growing up to forests again.
+
+In spite of this poor land, the New England states form one of the most
+wealthy and prosperous parts of our country. There are many great cities
+containing hundreds of thousands of people in this territory. The
+inhabitants enjoy luxuries of every kind sent from all parts of the
+world. The farmers of New England certainly do not produce this wealth
+from their rocky soil. Where, then, does it come from?
+
+Industries of almost every sort except farming are carried on in the
+cities of New England. All these people have to be fed and the farms of
+this region would hardly support them even if the soil were very
+productive. So much food is needed every day that if the supply were cut
+off for only a short time, there would be great suffering.
+
+Somewhere there must be farmers at work raising food supplies for the
+people of the great cities. The many beautiful and wonderful things made
+by the workers in the cities must be exchanged with the farmers for the
+real necessities of life.
+
+Somewhere there must be vast fertile fields which produce much more than
+their owners require. We will journey westward to the prairies of the
+Mississippi Valley. Here for hundreds of miles we can see hardly
+anything but fields of waving wheat and corn. Here are hundreds of
+granaries and flour mills. Upon the rivers and lakes there are many
+boats, and upon the land railroads, all carrying flour and other farm
+products to feed the people of New England. Here are great stock ranches
+with thousands of cattle and hogs, which, when fattened upon the grain,
+are also shipped to New England to help feed the people there.
+
+  [Illustration: A field of wheat on one of the Western prairies.]
+
+We must conclude, then, that if it were not for the vast fields with
+their deep, rich soil, where the farmers are able to grow much more than
+they need for themselves, it would not be possible for the people of New
+England to become wealthy by working at other things than farming. The
+articles which they are making add to their own comfort and pleasure as
+well as to that of the farmers, but they have to have the products of
+the soil to keep alive.
+
+If the farmers of the Mississippi Valley and of all the other valleys
+that help support the city people are careful of their soil and keep up
+its fertility, our country will remain prosperous. But we are sorry to
+say that the farmers have not always been careful. Many have wanted to
+make more than they should from their lands. The plant food with which
+Nature has filled the soil has been taken away year after year faster
+than she has been able to renew it. Many fields do not produce the crops
+they once did. The smaller the yield becomes, the higher the prices the
+produce brings. This makes it more difficult for the workers in the
+cities to live comfortably. The less abundant the supply of food
+becomes, the less prosperous is the country.
+
+There are countries, such as England, that have neglected agriculture
+but have, in spite of this, become rich and powerful through devoting
+their time to manufacturing articles to sell to other people. But those
+who work in the factories of England have to be fed, and so they must
+depend upon other countries to supply much of their food. If, for any
+reason, they were cut off from trade with these countries, not only
+would their manufacturing be ruined, but they would be in danger of
+starvation.
+
+To the first men, who lived entirely upon hunting and fishing, the soil
+was of little consequence. Now things are different. The wild game has
+mostly gone and we have to depend upon the products of the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  At the top of the bank we see a layer of dark, rich soil.]
+
+The people of those lands where the climate is unfavorable and the soil
+poor and rocky lack most of the comforts of life, unless they are able
+to obtain them through trade. It does not follow, however, that people
+living in lands favored by Nature are always happy and prosperous.
+
+You must remember that when the first men increased in numbers over the
+earth, the soil was fresh from the hand of Nature. Although they had
+everything about them that could be asked for, yet they were poor. There
+are men living today on the rich deltas that we have learned about who
+have few of the comforts that we have. This is because they are lazy and
+ignorant, and do not make proper use of this valuable gift, the rich
+soil.
+
+We conclude, then, that the soil forms the real wealth of the world. All
+our comforts and luxuries come in the first place, as we have seen, from
+the soil. The more crowded people become upon the earth, and the greater
+the number that engage in manufacturing and trade, the more important
+becomes the care and cultivation of the soil. If we do not take the best
+of care of the soil, there may come a time when there will not be food
+enough for us all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+THINGS OF WHICH SOIL IS MADE
+
+
+Let us take a spadeful of soft, dark earth from the garden and see if we
+can find of what it is made.
+
+We will first put the earth in a dish of water and stir it thoroughly.
+We notice that the water at once becomes muddy and that little particles
+of a dark substance rise to the surface. These particles appear to be
+pieces of stems and leaves.
+
+This crumbling vegetation is _peat_, a substance which fills many swamps
+and, when cut into blocks and dried, is used for fuel. When scattered
+through the earth peat has a very different use. As the leaves and stems
+of plants die and slowly mingle with the earth, they give it the dark
+color, which usually extends down for two or three feet. As this
+vegetation changes, or decays, as we usually say, it furnishes a number
+of substances which supply food to the roots of growing plants. One of
+the most important of these is _nitrogen_, an invisible gas.
+
+The decaying vegetation which we find mixed with the soil has other
+uses. It holds water and so helps to keep the soil moist. It makes the
+soil loose and more easy to cultivate. It absorbs heat from the sun and
+so helps to warm the soil. This vegetable matter, when it is completely
+decayed, we call _humus_. Soils that are rich in humus are usually very
+fertile.
+
+We will now turn the muddy water into another dish, pour more clear
+water upon the material that remains in the bottom of the dish, and wash
+it again, repeating the work until the water is no longer muddied. We
+will set aside the dish containing the muddy water and examine what
+remains in the bottom of the dish that once contained the earth or soil.
+This is mostly sand, but with it are rough fragments of rock which can
+be crumbled in the hand. The greater number of the little sand grains
+are _quartz_. Some of them are clear like glass, others are reddish. In
+this quartz sand are a few grains of _iron_ which the magnet picks out,
+and a number of scales of yellow _mica_.
+
+After standing a few hours the muddy water has become clear, and a
+deposit of a yellowish substance has collected in the bottom of the
+dish. We will carefully pour off the water and examine what remains.
+This fine soft mud we call _clay_. As it dries and becomes hard it
+shrinks and cracks, and thus breaks up into little pieces. Clay forms a
+greater or lesser part of all soil. Clay soil is very sticky when it is
+wet, as you will be sure to remember if you have tried to walk over it.
+When soil is formed largely of clay we speak of it as a _heavy soil_. In
+the West it is called _adobe_ and is sometimes used in making houses.
+When adobe soil dries, great cracks form in it. These cracks are
+sometimes large enough for small animals to fall into. When there is a
+large amount of sand, we speak of the soil as _light_ or _sandy_. A soil
+composed of sand and clay is sometimes called _loam_. If it is nearly
+all clay it is a _clay loam_; if there is much sand it is a _sandy
+loam_.
+
+Soils found in low, swampy places are sometimes formed almost wholly of
+decaying vegetable matter. Such soils are known as _peat soils_. They
+are usually very fertile.
+
+We have now learned about three things that the soil contains that are
+bulky and easy to discover: decaying vegetation, sand, and clay. These
+are, however, far from being all that compose the soil. There are still
+many other things, some of which are invisible to the unaided eye and
+difficult to find.
+
+We will next take the clear water that remained after the mud settled.
+We will pour it into a dish, place the dish over a fire, and let the
+water boil slowly until it has all evaporated. There will remain in the
+bottom of the dish a thin white coating. Moisten this with a drop of
+vinegar or other weak acid and it will disappear in a mass of little
+bubbles. Such behavior teaches us that the white substance is probably a
+mixture of _lime_ and _soda_. Besides these there are tiny particles of
+_potash_ and _phosphorus_, which we cannot distinguish by the means we
+have used.
+
+Some soils contain a great deal of lime, and because they have been
+formed from limestone, are called _limestone soils_. Plants need a
+little soda, but when there is much in the soil it will kill them. Soils
+rich in soda are known as _alkali soils_. They were formed in the bottom
+of lakes the waters of which contained soda. Salt is another harmful
+thing found in the soil. You can sometimes see faint whitish deposits of
+soda and other salts on the soil in flower pots.
+
+There is one more thing that the soil contains that we must not forget,
+for it is one of the most important of them all. This is a living
+organism so small that we cannot see it with the unaided eye. Many
+thousands of these organisms are contained in a bit of earth such as you
+could take up on the point of a small knife blade. We have named them
+_bacteria_.
+
+Plants cannot make use of most of the substances in the soil without the
+aid of these organisms. The bacteria live upon the materials of the
+soil and change them into such form that plants can digest them.
+
+Soil may be supplied with all kinds of plant food in just the right
+amount and yet, if it is packed hard and is not watered, no living thing
+can take root in it and grow. Plants drink their food and so we must
+supply water. They also require oxygen, as do other living things. For
+this reason we must leave the soil loose, so that the air can enter it
+and the roots get the oxygen which it contains.
+
+Thus we learn how wonderfully the soil is made. We learn that it
+contains many things required by plants. In order that the plants may be
+thrifty, there must be enough but not too much of these different
+things.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+HOW THE SOIL IS MADE
+
+
+The substances which we found in the soil teach us that it was formed
+from the rocks. If we could take the sand, clay, potash, soda, lime, and
+iron that we found in the soil and put them together as Nature knows how
+to do, we should have rock again.
+
+But if we should take a piece of rock and crush it to a fine sand, that
+would not be soil, because soil cannot be made in that way. It takes
+Nature many, many years, as the rocks slowly crumble and decay, to
+change the materials of which they are composed into true soil with its
+swarms of bacteria and its plant food.
+
+If we should dig down through the soft earth under our feet, we would at
+last come to solid rock. This is the rough and jagged crust of the earth
+on which rests the carpet of soil. In the mountains where the slopes are
+steep the rocks stick up through the soil. The outer parts of this solid
+rock are, however, always crumbling. Little particles, as soon as they
+become loosened, either fall by their own weight or are washed away.
+Some of the rock fragments collect upon the gentler slopes and finally
+turn to soil. This soil is not rich and it dries out quickly, because it
+is shallow. The soil in the valleys, as we have already learned from the
+muddy rivulet, is deep and rich.
+
+Nature is slowly spreading her mantle of soil over the earth. In some
+parts of the earth one can travel for hundreds of miles and see no
+rocks. One might think that in time Nature's work would be finished. But
+before the mountains in one place have crumbled and been washed away,
+she raises up new ones somewhere else so that the tearing-down work
+begins again.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Little by little the great rocks break in pieces and crumble finally to
+  form soil.]
+
+Let us, in imagination, sit down by the side of a rock, prepared to stay
+there many years, that we may learn just how Nature makes the soil. It
+will be a long, long time before we can see any change in the rock. Each
+bright day the sun warms the cold rock and makes it expand a very
+little. At night the rock grows cold and shrinks. In this way minute
+crevices are finally formed between the grains of the different minerals
+that make up the rock.
+
+When it rains, water creeps into the tiny crevices. The water carries
+with it a little carbonic acid which the raindrops took from the air.
+This substance aids in dissolving some of the rock materials. If the
+nights are very cold, the water in the crevices freezes and opens them a
+little wider, for ice, as you know, takes up a little more room than it
+did when it was water.
+
+Plants also aid in breaking the rock. Often seeds are dropped by the
+wind, and the rootlets of some of these seeds, when they sprout, may
+find a crevice large enough and deep enough for them to push their way
+into the rock. In these crevices they find a little food and slowly grow
+larger and stronger. By and by some of the roots are strong enough to
+push apart large pieces of rock.
+
+If the rock which we are studying is granite, we shall after a time be
+able to pick out the different minerals of which it is composed. We can
+tell the grains of quartz, because they look glassy and remain very
+hard. Other grains, which we call _feldspar_, soften and change into
+clay, which makes the water muddy as it runs over the rocks. We see also
+little scales of yellow mica, sometimes called "fool's gold," and a few
+grains of iron. There are tiny quantities of other things which we shall
+not be able to see, for the rainwater dissolves them and carries them
+away.
+
+As the rock slowly crumbles to sand and clay, the bacteria begin to make
+their home in it. Hardy plants, that are not particular about what they
+grow in, get a foothold, and when they die their stems and leaves decay
+and mix with the rock particles until at last this material begins to
+look like soil. It has become dark in color and rich in plant food.
+Then, many other plants that require a good soil take root there. The
+rock has at last completely disappeared under the layer of soil and its
+carpet of vegetation.
+
+Suppose, now, that we dig down and find how deep the soil is and what
+lies below it. When we have gone down two feet the soil is harder and of
+a lighter color, for there are fewer plant remains in it. This poorer,
+lighter-colored soil we call _subsoil_. If we dig a little deeper, we
+shall find pieces of rock in the subsoil. Below these we come to soft,
+crumbling rock and last of all the solid rock.
+
+The soil that is found resting on the rocks from which it was formed is
+known as _residual soil_. This name is given to such soil, because it is
+what remains after long years of rock decay during which the rains have
+washed away a part of the finer material.
+
+What has become of the soft earth that the water washed away? The muddy
+rivulet has already told us its interesting story. We have learned that
+a part of this earth (or soil) is borne to the distant ocean. There it
+is forever lost unless the sea bottom should some day become dry land.
+Stranger things than that have happened on this ancient earth of ours.
+The part of the soil which the water carried away to form the rich
+valley lands and deltas is known as _alluvial soil_.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Department of Agriculture_
+  A flood plain, where alluvial soil has been deposited by the river.]
+
+Long ago the northern part of our country was covered with a sheet of
+ice. This ice crept slowly southward, and as it moved along it tore off
+all the soil and loose rocks on the surface of the earth over which it
+passed. When it melted it left them spread roughly over the country.
+Such material forms _glacial soil_. It is often deep but not very rich.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Geological Survey_
+  Soil brought by a glacier and deposited as the ice melted.]
+
+There is another kind of soil, formed by the wind. If you have ever been
+in a dust storm you have seen the fine, powdery substance that settles
+over everything and creeps into the smallest cracks. In some countries
+where there are strong winds and not much rain there is little
+vegetation on the surface to hold the soil. Year after year the winds
+pick up particles of the dusty soil, whirl them high in the air, and do
+not let them down again until they have been carried many miles. In some
+far-off land where the winds go down the dust particles settle again to
+the earth. After a long, long time, enough dust collects to form a
+thick layer of the richest soil. This is called æolian soil, from the
+word _Æolus_, meaning the "wind."
+
+There is one more kind of soil which we ought to know about; that is
+_peat soil_. It is found in marshy or swampy lowlands and is formed
+largely of plant remains. When lands with such soil are drained, they
+prove very rich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+HOW VEGETATION HOLDS THE SOIL
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  What the rivulets did to the hillside pastures where the grass was
+  destroyed.]
+
+
+A walk up the mountains on a rainy day is not a pleasant one. There are
+mud and water under our feet, and overhead are the dripping branches
+which, if touched, send down a shower of drops. But if we keep our eyes
+open we shall learn something which will be of great value to us. We
+shall learn how it is that Nature holds the soil on the slopes--the
+wonderful soil which it takes her so long a time to make and which is
+the source of all our wealth.
+
+Our way up the mountains is by a winding road. We first pass the
+foothills upon which there are scattered oaks. The rain is steadily
+pouring down and rivulets loaded with mud are eating little gullies all
+over the slopes. Along the roadside, where they have united, the
+rivulets form a torrent which is making a deep ditch that threatens to
+render the road impassable.
+
+These slopes were once covered with grass and the rivulets ran down them
+without doing any harm. But so many sheep were pastured here that the
+grass was killed. The roots, which once formed a thick protecting sod,
+are now decaying. How quickly the rivulets have taken advantage of the
+unprotected slopes!
+
+The road leads still upward until it brings us to where there were once
+pine forests. The lumbermen cut off all the trees, and then fire came
+and burned the decaying vegetation which once lay spread over the
+ground. Now all that remains is bare earth and blackened stumps.
+
+What are the raindrops doing here? They gather in rivulets just as they
+do on the once grassy hillside; but because there are so many roots
+still remaining in the ground they have not done much work. They are not
+loitering, however, and by and by, when the roots have rotted, they will
+seize their chance and begin tearing away the soil from the mountain
+side.
+
+But this is not the end of the road. Farther up we come to the primeval
+forests, where the giant trees stand just as they did before men came.
+Here we can see how the slopes are protected, for in making the road the
+workmen cut deep into the hillside. They first removed a layer of pine
+needles and decaying branches. Then they cut through a layer of soil
+about two feet thick which was completely filled with little roots of
+trees and bushes. Below this they came to the soft subsoil, which
+contained only a few roots, and at the bottom they reached the solid
+rock.
+
+The layer of roots and soil at the top of the bank, you can see from the
+picture, now overhangs the road, because the raindrops which beat
+against the bank have washed away all that they could reach of the
+unprotected earth at the bottom. How plainly we can see the network of
+roots. What a hard task it must be for the water to get at the soil in
+which these roots are growing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The layer of roots holds the soil on the mountain side.]
+
+We will now leave the road and, although it is still raining hard, we
+will walk a distance through the forest and see if there is anything
+more that we can learn. We are soon in the deep woods where, perhaps, no
+one has ever been before. Around us are trees of all ages and sizes,
+from little seedlings to great giants six feet through. Among them are
+the crumbling stumps of trees long dead. Their trunks lie on the ground,
+and many are so soft and rotten that we can kick them to pieces with our
+feet.
+
+As we walk our feet never touch the real earth. It is always on the
+soft, yielding leaves and crumbling branches that we step. These leaves
+and branches form a thick layer completely hiding the soil. But the
+strangest thing is that, although the rain is still falling, we can
+discover no rivulets. What, then, becomes of the water? The soft,
+decaying vegetation on which we are walking and the rotting stumps and
+logs act like a great sponge. As long as this sponge can take up the
+falling drops, none have a chance to run away. If it rains a very long
+time and the sponge becomes saturated, the drops that creep away and
+finally unite in rivulets in the hollows do no harm to the soil, for
+they cannot get at it.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The roots of the tree grip the soil like the fingers of a great hand.]
+
+Long after the storm has passed, the earth underneath the trees remains
+wet, while the ground out in the open has become dry. A part of the
+water held by the decaying vegetation evaporates. Another part creeps
+down through the earth to the crevices in the rocks and feeds the
+springs.
+
+Let us now put aside our storm clothes and journey, in imagination, far
+away to where it seldom rains--to that land which we call the desert.
+Here the bare rocks of the mountain slopes are burned brown by the hot
+sun. Here there is little soil and only a few little bushes that somehow
+manage to live. Why does not the soil gather over the rocks as it does
+in other places? The rocks are surely crumbling, for we can crush some
+of the pieces in our hands.
+
+Once in a long time it rains in this desert. Then the drops descend
+furiously. The water gathers in rivulets and these turn to torrents
+which sweep down the slopes. They carry away the particles of sand and
+clay which would in time, if there were plant roots to hold them, turn
+to soil.
+
+The winds also help keep the desert rocks bare and free of soil. Have
+you ever been in a dust storm or have you read of caravans caught in
+such storms in the Sahara Desert? The fierce wind picks up the particles
+of sand and clay from the bare earth and sweeps them along as it does
+the snow in winter, or it whirls them in clouds high in the air. The
+dust clouds are often so dense that they hide the sun and all landmarks
+by which the traveler can guide his way. But have any of us ever seen
+the winds pick up much dust from the green fields where the vegetation
+protects the surface?
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The vegetation prevents the wind from blowing the sand away, so that
+  wherever the roots obtain a hold there a little mound is formed.]
+
+If we turn now to a very wet country, such as that upon our northwest
+coast, where often nearly eight feet of rain falls in a year, we shall
+find the vegetation so dense that it hides both soil and rocks. Here
+water can do little in wearing away the soil, even upon the steepest
+slopes, while the wind cannot get a peep at the earth.
+
+Does it not seem strange that where little rain falls the earth washes a
+great deal faster than where it rains very heavily? The reason is that
+the more it rains the more dense becomes the carpet of vegetation. If we
+wish to preserve the soil, we must preserve the natural growth on the
+hillsides.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE IS NO PROTECTING CARPET OF VEGETATION
+
+
+Not all of the muddy streams are due to the carelessness of men. It is
+the business of some of the servants of Nature, as we have already
+learned, to tear down the mountains and fill up the hollows in the
+earth. It is the business of others to spread a carpet of vegetation
+over the surface, and wherever they have already succeeded in their work
+the waters run clear most of the time.
+
+Where it is dry so much of the time that few plants can live, the
+destructive servants have their own way when the occasional rains come.
+Where there is a warm sun and frequent rains, a green carpet is spread
+over all the slopes. But when men destroy the carpet and take no care of
+the soil underneath, the raindrops are able to do as much damage as they
+do during the cloudbursts in the deserts.
+
+The Colorado is one of those rivers in the basin of which few people
+live. Much of its journey is through a land in which there is little
+vegetation. Here, the waters from the melting snows upon the lofty
+mountains about the basin and those of the occasional heavy rains have
+things their own way. They are always yellow with mud. The amount of mud
+which this river carries has been measured. You will hardly believe me
+when I tell you that it amounts to sixty-one million tons every year.
+This is enough to cover 164 square miles one foot deep. We might call
+this the cream of the soil from all the slopes of the great basin of the
+Colorado River.
+
+In other parts of our land, where abundant rains fall, the streams tell
+a different story. Before men came the water of these streams was clear
+throughout the greater part of the year. It was only when the rains were
+very heavy that the soil washed away, for the vegetation held it well.
+Now the gullies on the hillsides and along the roads tell us as plainly
+as though they could speak that our country is losing wealth here.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The roots of the tree form a wonderful network underground from which
+  the water cannot tear the soil.]
+
+The soil is our most valuable possession. The people of many lands are
+suffering from poverty today because their forefathers did not take care
+of the soil as they should. In such lands the people who live on the
+mountain sides are poor, because the best of their soil has been washed
+away. Those who live in the valleys are often poor because of the sands
+and gravels which floods have spread over their fertile fields.
+
+While it is raining, let us fill a bottle from some muddy stream and
+allow it to stand until the water settles. In the bottom will then
+appear a layer of fine mud, or _silt_ as it is usually called. How much
+soil do you suppose the rivulets washed from my garden and from yours
+during the last severe storm? How much do you suppose all the rivulets
+which make up the rivers of your state washed from all the gardens and
+fields during the same storm? Make a guess and then multiply your answer
+by the number of storms in one year and that by fifty years, and you
+will get a quantity greater than you would believe possible.
+
+This is the way Nature takes her toll for our carelessness. So quietly
+does she do it that often the farmer does not have any idea of what is
+happening. She is like a thief that comes and steals his goods while he
+is sleeping.
+
+  [Illustration: _Bailey Willis_
+  The soil on the hillsides of China is being washed away because of the
+  thoughtlessness of the people.]
+
+When the farmer finally awakes and begins to wonder why his crops grow
+smaller each year, he has already lost the cream of his soil. He must
+at once stop plowing the steep hillsides and leaving the ground bare for
+the winter rains to wash it away. To save the slopes he can either
+terrace them or he can sow grass or clover, which will form a sod and
+hold the soil. If the farmer can get peas, beans, alfalfa, or clover to
+grow upon his wasted lands, they will make it fertile again, for these
+plants have the wonderful power of taking nitrogen from the air and
+storing it in the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The farmer who owns this land will soon be made poor because of his
+  carelessness in destroying the covering of the soil.]
+
+More earth has been washed from the hillsides of our country during the
+last fifty years than during thousands of years before white people
+came. The farm lands have been injured, the bays have been made
+shallower, and many river channels have been so filled up that it is
+more difficult to navigate them now than it was in the early days.
+
+The farmer, the stockman, the lumberman, and the miner has each been
+selfishly doing his share in the destruction of the soil. Each one has
+thought only of how he could make the most money in the shortest time.
+It has not occurred to them that they are making it difficult for their
+children and grandchildren to live.
+
+In the Southern states thousands of acres are being gullied by the
+rains, and the soil destroyed. The floods of spring have become worse in
+late years, because of the destruction of the forest cover in the
+Appalachian Mountains. Buildings and bridges are frequently carried
+away, and gravel and boulders are washed over the rich bottom lands.
+
+In the mountains of far-away Italy the soil is poor, and so are the
+people. They have cut down nearly all the trees and for hundreds of
+years the brush and grass have been eaten so closely by the sheep and
+goats that few roots remain to hold the soil. It does not need to rain
+heavily there to cause the rivers to become muddy and swollen. The soil
+which once covered the slopes has been carried to the bays, and now
+there is land where ships floated two thousand years ago.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Forest Service_
+  Terraces of rock built by natives of China to aid in holding the soil.]
+
+In Spain so much of the best soil has been lost that the people now do
+not raise enough food to support themselves, and much has to be imported
+from other lands.
+
+France is a rich country still, in spite of the cutting of so much of
+the forest and the careless pasturing of the mountain slopes. The people
+are industrious and hard working and thus make a living in spite of the
+loss which they are suffering.
+
+The Montenegrins are among the bravest people of Europe, but their land
+is barren and they enjoy few luxuries. Their country consists largely of
+limestone mountains, from which they have been cutting the trees for
+hundreds of years. There is but little soil and that is to be found in
+the hollows of the rocks. This soil is so precious that every bit, be it
+ever so small, is carefully cultivated.
+
+In the mountains of Palestine and Syria the people have so completely
+destroyed the trees and grasses which Nature once planted there that it
+is difficult for them to raise enough to live upon. The rivers are muddy
+after every rain, and even the water from the melting snows picks up
+some of the soil and flows away with a dirty, yellow color.
+
+When we reach China and Korea, we find that there the people have been
+most severely punished for their carelessness. The mountain sides have
+been torn by the rains and deeply gullied. The once smooth slopes upon
+which grew trees and grasses are now a mass of sharp ridges and deep
+hollows of bare earth. The water falling upon these mountains runs off
+in torrents, carrying even large boulders as it does in our Western
+deserts. Here and there the natives have built terraces of rock to aid
+in holding the soil, but many parts of the country are almost wholly
+deserted. The waters run off the mountains so quickly that they often
+form vast floods which spread over the lower valleys and plains. The
+floods destroy the crops and drown the people.
+
+Eastward of China there is an arm of the Pacific Ocean known as the
+Yellow Sea. Why do you suppose this name was given to the sea? One of
+the great rivers of China, the Yangste-kiang, empties into it. The river
+rises in the barren mountains of which we have just been speaking, and
+it is continually bringing so much mud and sand that a whole sea is
+being filled. Long before a ship comes within sight of the land the
+waters are seen to be of a muddy, yellow color.
+
+In the smaller valleys of Korea the natives build dikes along the rivers
+to keep the mountain floods from spreading sand and gravel over their
+rice fields. Every year they have to make the dikes higher as the river
+beds fill up.
+
+Thus we see that all over the world people are suffering because they
+have not obeyed the laws which Nature has made for the protection of the
+soil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+THE USE AND CARE OF WATER
+
+
+The ocean is the home of the water. The water would always remain in the
+ocean if it could, but the sun and air are continually at work stealing
+little particles away and sending them on long journeys.
+
+The water particles are so small as they rise from the ocean that we
+cannot see them. By and by they crowd together and make the clouds that
+float across the sky. As soon as the clouds meet colder air, the little
+water particles rush together and thus become larger and larger until
+they grow so heavy that they can no longer float in the air, but must
+fall. Some of them fall into the ocean again, but others drop upon the
+land.
+
+The raindrops that reach the land have many sorts of stories to tell
+before they again get back to the ocean. Some of them are at once
+snatched up again and are started upon another journey. The thirsty air,
+whether over the ocean or over the land, is ever in search of water
+particles.
+
+If the air is very cold, the clouds turn to snow instead of rain. The
+feathery flakes fall slowly through the air and form a soft white mantle
+over the earth. Those that fall on lofty mountains form great banks
+which may not entirely melt and turn to water until late in the summer.
+
+The raindrops that fall where the slopes are steep, where Nature has
+grown little vegetation, or where men have destroyed the earth cover,
+have little to detain them and are soon on their way back to their home.
+In their hasty journey they do much damage to the unprotected soil.
+
+If the drops fall upon gentle slopes, or where there are marshes and
+lakes, or upon the forest with its decaying vegetation, or upon deep
+beds of gravel and sand, they are a long time getting back to the ocean.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  The cool and shady stream before men came and cut the trees away so that
+  the hot sun could get at it.]
+
+We can in no way change the amount of rain that falls upon any part of
+the earth. We cannot call up a storm when we wish it, nor can we send it
+away when there has been rain enough. But there are many ways in which
+we can hasten or delay the return of the water to the ocean. Nature
+shows us some of these. The spongelike carpet underneath the forest
+holds the water until it has had time to soak into the earth from which
+it later emerges as springs. Nature forms basins on the heads of the
+rivers where a part of the water, instead of immediately flowing away,
+collects in the form of lakes. From these lakes the water runs away
+slowly instead of in torrential floods.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rotting tree trunks take up the rainwater like a sponge.]
+
+Only a few places in our country have more rain than is really needed.
+One of these is the region about the mouth of the Mississippi River
+upon the Gulf of Mexico. Another is upon the Northwest coast. Throughout
+the central part of the country the summer rains are sometimes too light
+to afford a full harvest. The rainfall upon the plains and valleys of
+the Southwest is so small that the only plants that can live there are
+those strange and curious forms that have become used to desert
+conditions. The only way in which these lands can be made useful to the
+farmer is by means of irrigation. To obtain water for irrigation we have
+either to go to the distant mountains and build reservoirs to collect
+the rains which fall there and then dig canals to carry the water to the
+desert valleys, or to make use of some river flowing through them, if
+they are fortunate enough to have such a river. Can you think of any
+rivers that are used in this way?
+
+  [Illustration: _Brown Brothers_
+  The great Roosevelt Dam, in the Salt River irrigation project,
+  Arizona.]
+
+Although water sometimes seems the greatest blessing that we have, yet
+it may prove a curse if it is not looked after. If you give the water a
+chance to make gullies in your fields, you lose not only the water but
+the best of the soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most
+of the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise farmer you
+know also that cultivation of the soil helps to hold the water, for it
+cannot escape through loose soil as it can through compact soil. Thus if
+you know how to handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a
+little rain, accomplish a great deal.
+
+  [Illustration: Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield,
+  Idaho, showing a field irrigated by means of canals and ditches.]
+
+We can, then, hold or _conserve_ the water, first, by leaving the
+steeper slopes covered with vegetation; second, by keeping the soil
+loose; and, third, by building reservoirs to hold the floods. We can
+make use of the conserved water by carrying it in pipes or ditches to
+those regions where it is needed. We can get rid of too much water by
+draining the swamps, and building dikes to protect lowlands from river
+floods.
+
+Let us now learn something of the different uses of water. Every one of
+our homes has its water supply. In the city the water comes through
+pipes from some distant reservoir. In the country the homes are so far
+apart that it is difficult to supply them in this way. The water in the
+streams is often not suitable for drinking, and if there are no springs
+near by it has to be obtained by some other means. Nearly everywhere in
+the earth under our feet water can be found by digging or boring a well.
+Sometimes we have to go only a few feet, at other times many hundreds of
+feet. This water in the earth, or _ground water_, is of very great
+importance. It enables us to build our homes where we wish. Spring water
+is that which finds its way to the surface through some tiny crack or
+fissure in the rocks. How delicious is the pure, cold water that comes
+out of the shady hollow in the hills! You can form in your minds a
+picture of the rain falling on some distant mountain, of its soaking
+into the ground and finally reaching the little crevices in the rocks.
+Along these crevices it may have crept for days and perhaps years until
+at last it found an outlet in some spring.
+
+The great river flows by so quietly that we often forget in how many
+ways it is serving us. It serves not only those upon its banks but those
+who live hundreds of miles away and who, perhaps, have never seen it. It
+was the first and easiest means of travel used by our forefathers before
+there were any roads or railroads through the wilderness. It now aids
+in carrying on trade between different regions. If large and deep
+enough, it permits boats from all parts of the world to reach the very
+heart of our country.
+
+Canals might be called artificial rivers. They serve an important
+purpose in nearly level countries where Nature has placed no navigable
+river. Although canal boats usually move slowly, yet they can carry
+goods cheaper than railroads can. The Erie Canal, in connection with the
+Great Lakes and the Hudson River, makes it possible for us to go all the
+way by water from the heart of the continent to New York City. The Erie
+Canal has helped make New York City the greatest city in our country.
+The canal across the Isthmus of Panama saves ships a journey of many
+thousand miles around South America.
+
+Rivers serve us in yet another way by affording water for irrigation. A
+great river like the Colorado flows through regions of many different
+climates. Some rivers become so small in the summer that it is necessary
+to build great reservoirs at their headwaters in order to insure a
+supply when the crops need it. But in the case of the Colorado this is
+not necessary. The headwaters of this river are among lofty mountains,
+where the melting snows and summer showers make the waters of the river
+higher in the early summer than at any other season of the year. Thus
+its great delta, the Colorado Desert, has become the home of many
+thousands of people.
+
+Another use which we make of rivers is by putting the water to turning
+mill wheels. If you will turn to your geographies, you will find that
+nearly all the great manufacturing cities of our country have grown up
+around rapids or waterfalls, where some river tumbles over a ledge of
+rocks.
+
+Once we had to build our mills close to the rivers to use the water
+power, but this is no longer necessary. Now we build electric-power
+plants by the rivers and carry electric energy more than a hundred miles
+to any place where we wish to use it. Electricity made from the distant
+mountain waterfall will do any kind of work for us wherever we carry it.
+Thus we see that the river works for us in more than one way. After it
+has created power for our factories, it can be turned on to the thirsty
+fields, where it will serve us equally well.
+
+  [Illustration: _Great Western Power Company of California_
+  Electric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for
+  generating electricity which is carried to distant places.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?
+
+
+We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we
+could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than
+Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the
+steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the
+springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and
+she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter
+and a home.
+
+It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only
+useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors
+may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild
+people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth
+stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of
+the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.
+
+We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few
+articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance
+at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than
+the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no
+communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood,
+however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their
+shores.
+
+From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than
+his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of
+purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making
+their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their
+rude homes.
+
+The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving
+baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes
+that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to
+another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or
+burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier
+than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians
+learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in
+making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap
+of the maple until it turned to sugar.
+
+The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came
+as natural to early men as it does to the other animals. They shared
+with the birds the wild fruits, and divided with the squirrels the many
+kinds of nuts. So highly do the Italians still value the wild chestnut
+that this tree, almost alone of all the forest trees that once covered
+their country, has been saved.
+
+The most important uses of trees in our country are for lumber, for
+fuel, and for the edible fruits and nuts which they bear. There are
+several purposes to which logs are put without being sawed into lumber,
+such as for telegraph poles and for piling for the support of great
+buildings and for wharves. Long ago nearly all our houses were made of
+logs. There was then an abundance of clear, straight trees but very few
+sawmills. It was easy to cut the logs, peel and notch them at the ends,
+and then lay them up in a house of just the size that was wanted. From
+the logs that split easily rough boards and shingles were made, as well
+as chairs and tables. Blocks of wood were set in the openings cut for
+windows, because of the scarcity of glass.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada
+  Mountains.]
+
+Our forefathers had all the wood they wanted just for the cutting, and
+so they warmed their houses by means of fireplaces large enough to hold
+great logs. They made of wood every tool and household convenience for
+which this substance could be used. Indeed, they had more wood than they
+wanted. Trees covered so much of the land that the ground could not be
+cultivated until they had been cut away. Now we wish that we had the
+oak, hickory, black walnut, and other kinds of trees, that the pioneers
+of our country burned in order to get them out of the way, for they have
+become very valuable.
+
+Now, partly because wood is becoming scarce, and partly because our
+large buildings must be made very strong and safe from fire, we are
+using other materials for them. Stone, brick, and concrete, when tied
+together with iron beams, are more suitable material for great
+buildings. Our land now contains so many people, and so many new homes
+are needed every year, that the lumber required for houses alone is
+almost more than we can believe.
+
+The forests are now disappearing so fast that unless we use wood more
+carefully we may have to give up our attractive wooden homes and cheery
+fireplaces and live in houses of stone or concrete. In many parts of the
+world people have so completely destroyed the forests that they have not
+only to make their homes of mud bricks or stone, but have little wood
+left for fuel and other purposes.
+
+We cannot mention all the purposes to which wood is put in our homes and
+in our industries. It would take a whole page in this book merely to
+make a list of them. What we ought to remember, however, is that it is
+not so much the amount of wood that we actually _use_ as it is the wood
+that is _wasted_ that is likely to bring us to want. Two thirds of the
+wood of the trees cut throughout our country is wasted in its
+manufacture into lumber and other objects. Besides this, as much wood is
+burned every year in needless forest fires as is cut by the lumberman.
+The waste of trees that are cut merely for their bark which is used in
+tanning leather is a wrong for which Nature will sometime call us to
+account.
+
+In Switzerland, where the forests are given the care that we bestow upon
+a garden, not a particle of wood is allowed to go to waste. The branches
+are all picked up and saved. Even the sawdust is made use of in the
+manufacture of wood alcohol, which has an important use as fuel.
+
+There are many kinds of trees the sap of which has great value. If care
+is used in tapping the trees, they are not greatly injured and will live
+for years. Sap of the maple affords delicious maple sugar. The sticky
+sap of the coniferous trees is obtained by making a cut in the bark.
+Canada balsam, thus obtained, is a clear liquid from a fir tree of the
+same name. It is the finest of all the turpentines and is used for many
+purposes in the arts. Enormous quantities of turpentine are obtained
+from the yellow pines. The pine forests of the Southern states supply
+nearly all our turpentine. From this by a process of distillation is
+obtained resin and spirits of turpentine.
+
+The rubber tree found in the tropical forests has become one of the most
+necessary of trees. Rubber made from the sap of this tree is now used
+for many purposes for which we have been able to find no other material.
+
+We sometimes forget how valuable trees are for various substances used
+in medicine. Our lives may depend on having such medicines within
+reach. Quinine made from the bark of the cinchona tree is perhaps the
+most important. Camphor gum is furnished by another tropical tree. The
+acacia supplies gum arabic. The poison, strychna, comes from a nut tree.
+The eucalyptus, birch, and other trees too numerous to name, supply
+various other medicinal products.
+
+  [Illustration: _Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"_
+  When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only
+  about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine
+  trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quantities of
+  resin, and other products.]
+
+While we are trying to find other substances to replace wood as far as
+is possible, so as to keep the forests from being used up, we are
+requiring more and more for the manufacture of paper. The spruce forests
+are fast disappearing in pulp mills, from which the blocks of wood
+emerge as sheets of paper. Perhaps after a time we shall find something
+to take the place of wood in the manufacture of paper.
+
+The one use to which we put the trees, which does not destroy or injure
+them in the slightest, is growing them for their fruit and nuts. We take
+great care of such trees, selecting the best varieties and cultivating,
+trimming, and spraying them in order to keep them healthy and strong.
+The better the care that we give them, the finer and larger become their
+fruits.
+
+Trees are valuable to us in so many ways and appeal so deeply to our
+love of the beautiful things in Nature that we should all be interested
+in them. If we give the trees a chance, they will do their share toward
+making our lives comfortable and happy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?
+
+
+Our forefathers who came across the water to America found forests
+stretching away from the water's edge into an unknown wilderness. The
+settlements spread very slowly into the pathless woods, for there lurked
+danger from the Indians and wild animals. The Allegheny Mountains also
+held the settlers back for a long time.
+
+The pioneers found the country, as far as the Ohio River and beyond,
+still forest covered; but by and by openings or _prairies_ began to
+appear. By the time they had crossed the Great River the forests had
+been left behind, except for fringes of trees upon the lowlands along
+the streams.
+
+From this point westward the open prairies stretched away to the
+horizon. Antelope, deer, and buffalo were often seen feeding on the rich
+grasses. The adventurous pioneers pushed on across the fertile prairies,
+coming at last to a drier and higher region which we have called the
+_Great Plains_. On these plains the Rocky Mountains came in sight. These
+mountains gradually became higher as the travelers approached, until
+they rose before them like a mighty wall. Here they again met vast
+forests, which covered all the higher slopes.
+
+Beyond the Rocky Mountains they crossed a broad land of deserts where
+little rain fell. The vegetation was so scanty and springs so far apart
+that many of their horses and cattle died. The dreary and barren deserts
+were followed by another lofty range of mountains. Entering these
+mountains, the pioneers came upon the most magnificent forest that had
+yet been seen upon our continent. After traveling for some days over
+rugged mountains, they at last emerged from the forests upon the Great
+Valley of California.
+
+  [Illustration: A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite
+  Valley.]
+
+Scattered over portions of the valley were oak trees, giving it the
+appearance of a park. When the valley had been passed the pioneers
+climbed the last mountain range, and from this range looked down upon
+the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here they found forests again, some of
+the trees being of enormous size. Thus we see that the eastern part of
+the continent was nearly all forested, but that in the West the forests
+grew chiefly on the mountains, because there is not enough rainfall upon
+the plains and in the valleys.
+
+The trees that make up most of the forests of our country are of two
+very different kinds. There is one kind that has narrow or needle-like
+leaves which they keep through the winter. These we commonly call
+_narrow-leaved_ trees or _conifers_. The most important of the
+narrow-leaved trees are the pines, firs, spruces, and hemlock. Such
+trees form the forests of the greater part of the highlands of the
+northern and northeastern parts of our country. The pines also find a
+congenial home upon the lowlands of the Southern states. Trees of the
+second kind have broad leaves, and usually their wood is rather hard.
+Hence we call them _broad-leaved_ or _hardwood_ trees. Since most of
+these trees drop their leaves in winter, we often speak of them as
+_deciduous_ trees. By far the larger part of the lands of the Eastern
+states that are now cultivated were found by the first settlers to be
+covered with hardwood trees. We are familiar with many of the hardwoods
+through their use in furniture and various household utensils and farm
+implements. The most important varieties are the walnut, hickory,
+chestnut, beech, maple, ash, oak, elm, locust, and linden.
+
+There are not many broad-leaved trees in the forests of the West. The
+children of the West miss all the nut trees that the boys and girls of
+the East enjoy. But to make up for this lack there are some in the West
+that are not found in the East. The sugar pine, the piñon pine, and the
+digger pine afford delicious nuts which once formed an important article
+of food for the Indians. In the West the broad-leaved trees do not form
+dense forests. They are scattered among the pines on the lower mountain
+slopes, in the valleys, and along the streams. The most important of
+these trees are oaks of many kinds, soft maple, alder, cottonwood,
+sycamore, and laurel.
+
+The dense forests of the Western mountains consist almost wholly of
+narrow-leaved trees. Among them are the pines and firs of different
+kinds, spruce, cedar, redwood, and "big trees." The redwoods and "big
+trees" are both known as sequoias; they grow to an immense size upon the
+mountains of California. The coniferous forests of which these trees
+form a part are among the most wonderful and interesting ones on the
+earth.
+
+If you will take a forest map of our country and place it beside a
+rainfall map, you will quickly discover why the forests are found where
+they are. You will see that the forests are found where there is more
+than thirty inches of rain each year, except in the far North, where it
+is very cold. You can say, then, that the climate is the chief thing
+that determines where the forests shall grow.
+
+If the climate is warm and the rainfall heavy, the forest vegetation
+is so dense and rank that you can hardly travel through it. Such forests
+are found in the tropical parts of the country. Where little rain falls
+there is scanty vegetation, as upon the deserts of the Southwest. But
+where it is very cold, even if there is much snow or rain, you will find
+no trees.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Mountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all
+  conifers.]
+
+We must not forget that there is another thing that affects the growth
+of trees, and that is the soil. Pines like a sandy soil, while most
+other trees do not. Certain cedars and cypresses like swampy places
+where no other trees will grow. Many beautiful meadows and prairies have
+no trees, because the soil is not well drained.
+
+It is very easy to understand why trees cannot grow where it is dry, but
+how shall we learn of the effect of cold upon them? Shall we have to
+take a journey of thousands of miles into the far North, until we
+finally come to the land called the _Barren Lands_ or _tundras_, where
+the trees become stunted and at last disappear--a land where they cannot
+longer fight against the cold and live?
+
+Fortunately such a long journey is not necessary. All we have to do is
+to climb a great mountain range, like the Sierra Nevadas, to pass
+through all the different climates which we would experience on a long
+journey to the arctic regions.
+
+It is only a few miles from the hot San Joaquin Valley, at the base of
+the Sierras, where it is so dry that irrigation is necessary, to the
+summit of the range, where the winter climate is as cold as it is in the
+arctic regions.
+
+In going up the mountains we first come to the foothills, where there is
+a little more rain than in the valley. Here we find oak trees growing.
+Farther up there is still more rain and we come to the pines. Soon we
+reach the most wonderful coniferous forest in all the world. Here not
+only is there a great variety of trees, but because of the favorable
+climate they grow to a great size. As we approach the summit of the
+mountains the trees become smaller, and at an elevation of about two
+miles they shrink to the size of little bushes and finally disappear.
+They can no longer stand the fierce winds and cold storms of this arctic
+region.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  East Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we
+  approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.]
+
+We have learned now that the trees do not grow haphazard over our
+country, but that the rain, the temperature, and the soil determine
+where they can live.
+
+Within the heart of the forest the trees will come again if we cut them
+down, but upon its borders, where the air is drier, it is more difficult
+for them to spring up anew. If we cut them down carelessly and allow
+fires to burn over the surface, and the water to wash away the soil,
+they may never come back.
+
+It is important, then, that we understand why trees grow in some places
+and not in others, in order that we may know how to take care of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE TREES?
+
+
+Every living thing is engaged in a struggle for air to breathe and for
+something to eat. Those that make their homes on the land also have to
+struggle for water. The stronger rob the weaker; for, among all of them
+except man, might always makes right. Men are learning that
+unselfishness is the better way, although they do not always practice
+it.
+
+In this struggle the animals have an advantage over the plants, for if
+food fails in one place they can move to another. Among the animals also
+the mother tries to protect her children; and, in the case of some,--the
+wolf, for example,--a number will hunt together for the common good.
+
+It is quite different with the plants. They must grow where the seeds
+take root. If there is little sunlight or water or the soil is poor,
+they must make the best of what they have.
+
+The plants have to struggle not only with such enemies as insects,
+winds, fire, and browsing animals, but with each other, for every tree
+is the real or possible enemy of every other tree. Brother seeds
+sprouting under the same parent maple struggle with each other for the
+food and moisture in the soil and for the best place in the sunlight.
+The one that gets the most of these will grow the faster and choke some
+of its weaker brothers.
+
+  [Illustration: _Edward S. Curtis_
+  Trees that struggle with cold and storm.]
+
+In yonder grove of pines there are trees of all ages and sizes. The
+older ones have much the advantage and take a part of the food and
+sunlight that the smaller ones require. How the little ones stretch
+up and grow tall and slender in their attempt to get the sunlight!
+But in spite of all their efforts some of them must die.
+
+Some kinds of trees grow faster than others. Where a number are
+springing up together, the slow-growing ones will stand less chance of
+ever becoming great trees. In this way the yellow pine sometimes chokes
+out the cedar, and the fir gets the advantage of the sugar pine.
+
+The bright, warm sun is the enemy of the tree that loves the shady
+hillsides. The swamp is the enemy of the tree that must have loose, dry
+soil. The cold is the enemy of the tree that is used to a hot climate.
+Is it not strange that what is good for one tree is an enemy of another?
+
+Many kinds of trees have their own particular insect enemies which
+attack them and no others. Some of these insects live upon the leaves,
+others eat the sapwood under the bark, while a few attack the roots.
+Certain insects burrow in and eat the heartwood. Although this does not
+always kill the tree, it weakens it and makes the wood unfit for use.
+The cedar and the hickory are among the trees injured in this manner.
+
+The foliage of the broad-leaved trees is the delight of many insects.
+They sometimes eat the leaves so closely that the tree is killed; for
+the trees breathe through their leaves and can no more do without them
+than they can without their roots.
+
+The gypsy moth, which did no great harm in its European home, was
+brought to this country and accidentally set free. It at once began to
+attack the leaves of the elm, that beautiful tree of the old New England
+villages. Now it is destroying other trees and, notwithstanding the
+fight which we have made against it, we have not yet been able to
+exterminate it.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  Insects are destroying the trees of this forest.]
+
+The chestnut tree, which every Eastern child loves for its nuts, is now
+being destroyed by a fungus which may kill every one of these trees in
+the country.
+
+The white-pine blister, also brought over from Europe, is now
+threatening all the white pines and the related trees of our country.
+This disease has already such a start in the East that we may not be
+able to stop it.
+
+The dainty mistletoe, about which there are so many pretty Christmas
+legends, is a deadly enemy of many trees. The seed of this fungus is
+carried, by the birds or by the wind, from one tree to another. When it
+sprouts, tiny roots go down through the bark to the sap, on which it
+feeds until the tree is killed.
+
+All our fruit trees have their deadly enemies which cause a loss of
+many millions of dollars every year. Among the worst of these is the San
+José scale, which was carelessly brought into the country from China.
+
+ [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+ A dwarf white pine which has found a foothold in the rocks on a
+ mountain top.]
+
+The pear blight has destroyed whole orchards of pear trees in the
+Western states. The citrus canker is now threatening the orange orchards
+of the Southern states.
+
+For years we have been searching over the world for new and better
+varieties of fruit trees. With the shipments of such trees we have
+brought some of the worst of the diseases that we have just mentioned.
+We should have all foreign trees most carefully inspected before
+admitting them to the country. We should also be very careful about
+shipping fruit or other trees from one part of our country to another.
+Diseases are often carried in this way into places which otherwise they
+could not reach.
+
+Field mice, gophers, and rabbits eat the bark of young fruit trees and
+kill those which are not carefully protected. In some parts of our
+country the apple and peach tree borers are a serious menace to young
+orchards. Grasshoppers occasionally come in dense swarms and eat the
+leaves from every tree or plant in their path.
+
+The valuable sugar pine of the Western mountains is not seeding itself
+as rapidly as it should, and we fear it will become extinct. The
+beautiful silver-gray squirrel loves the nuts of this pine, and it is
+said that he eats so many that few are left to sprout and make new
+trees. For this reason some people would like to make it lawful to kill
+all the gray squirrels that one wished. This would be too bad, for we do
+not believe the gray squirrel is the cause of the trouble. It is more
+likely that the lack of young sugar pines is due partly to its struggle
+in the forest with more rapidly growing trees and partly to the less
+frequent occurrence of forest fires to burn off the humus on the ground.
+We know that the seeds of certain trees find difficulty in sending their
+roots down through the humus to the soil beneath.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  An avalanche has passed through this forest.]
+
+The narrow-leaved or cone-bearing trees, which are the main source of
+our lumber, also have other enemies. The most destructive of these are
+the little pine beetles which lay their eggs in the bark of the yellow
+pine, sugar pine, and tamarack pine. From these eggs there hatch worms
+which burrow under the bark until they cut off the flow of the sap. This
+kills the trees. The trees that are young and strong are sometimes able
+to pour out enough sap into the wounds to drown the insects, but many
+thousands of trees in the Western mountains are destroyed every year by
+these insects.
+
+Wind and lightning are both enemies of the forests. Hundreds of forest
+fires are set every summer by thunder storms, but the rangers usually
+discover such fires soon enough to put them out before they have done
+much harm.
+
+The pasturing of forests by stock does great injury, because of the
+browsing and trampling underfoot of the young trees. Sheep and goats are
+the worst of all the animals and should be kept out of those forests
+where the surface particularly needs protection and where the young
+trees require all the encouragement that Nature can give them in order
+to make a successful start in life.
+
+We have learned something about the many enemies of the trees, but the
+worst one has not yet been mentioned. Can you guess what it is? This
+terrible enemy is man,--not savage man or Indian, but civilized man.
+Although man has more need for forest trees than has any other animal,
+he is at the same time more ruthless in his treatment of them. Man
+destroys more trees every year, as a result of fires which he sets and
+of his wasteful methods of lumbering, than all the other enemies of the
+trees put together.
+
+The forest area of the world is constantly growing smaller, and we must
+soon learn to treat the trees with more care or they may, like many of
+the wild creatures, nearly disappear from parts of the earth where they
+are most needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+HOW THE FORESTS ARE WASTED
+
+  O forest home in which the songbirds dwell!
+  The squirrel and the stag shall miss the spell
+  Of thy cool depths when summer's sun assails,
+  Nor more find shelter in thy shadowed vales.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  All will be silent; echo will be dead;
+  A field will lie where shifting shadows fled
+  Across the ground. The mattock and the plow
+  Will take the place of Pan and Satyr now.
+  The timid deer, the spotted fawns at play,
+  From thy retreats will all be driven away.
+
+  Farewell, old forest; sacred crowns, farewell!
+  Revered in letters and in art as well;
+  Thy place becomes the scorn of every one,
+  Doomed now to burn beneath the summer sun.
+  All cry out insults as they pass thee by,
+  Upon the men who caused thee thus to die!
+
+  Farewell, old oaks that once were wont to crown
+  Our deeds of valor and of great renown!
+  O trees of Jupiter, Dordona's grove,
+  How ingrate man repays thy treasure trove
+  That first gave food that humankind might eat,
+  And furnished shelter from the storm and heat.
+
+PIERRE DE RONSARD, translated by BRISTOW ADAMS; _American Forestry_,
+XVI. 244
+
+
+When our grandfathers came to America they found the country so covered
+with forests that they had to cut and burn the trees in order to obtain
+the ground on which to raise their crops. The Eastern states could not
+have been settled without clearing the land, and we cannot blame the
+pioneers for doing under those circumstances that which today would be
+very wrong.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The farmer wastes the trees by girdling them and then allowing them to
+  rot.]
+
+There is now enough land so that it is no longer necessary to destroy
+the trees in order to raise our food supplies. The forests constitute
+one of the great natural resources of our country and men should not be
+allowed to waste them for private gain.
+
+Although the need for more land has long passed, the habit of reckless
+tree cutting still continues. There are now parts of the East where none
+of the primeval forest remains and very little of the second growth.
+Firewood is expensive and many a farmer has to buy coal, who, if he and
+his ancestors had been careful, might have a woodlot to supply not only
+fuel, but lumber for his buildings.
+
+Many of the lands once cleared were found not suited to farming and have
+been left to grow up to brush. If the farmer were wise he would replant
+some of these lands with such trees as spruce, hickory, walnut, or
+maple. Although his ancestors toiled early and late to get these trees
+out of the way, a few acres of them now would be a fortune.
+
+There are parts of our country, particularly in the South and West,
+where the settlers are still cutting the trees to get them out of their
+way. In distant mountain valleys where there is no market for lumber,
+men are chopping down the great pines. They would make fine lumber, for
+they are tall and straight, but instead of being put to some useful end
+their fate is the bonfire. It makes no difference to these men that they
+are wasting what it has taken Nature hundreds of years to produce nor
+that in other parts of the country timber is scarce and expensive.
+
+In Germany and Switzerland the forest resources are carefully looked
+after. As fast as the grown trees are cut from a field, young trees are
+planted in their places. The keeping of a certain part of the land in
+forest is held to be of advantage to all the people. For this reason men
+are not allowed to cut trees upon their own land without permission from
+the forest officer.
+
+Many years ago, when lumbering became an important industry and the
+mills began to turn out immense quantities of boards and beams of every
+sort needed by the growing population of our new country, it was
+believed that the supply would never be used up. Only the best and
+clearest logs were sawed into lumber, and a large part of each tree was
+left on the ground to rot or to feed the first fire that occurred. Now
+lumber is scarce and expensive; and the poorer grades also are in much
+demand.
+
+Have you ever seen the giant sugar pines on the slopes of the Western
+mountains? Next to the sequoias they are the largest of our American
+trees. A single tree has furnished lumber enough for a house. Sugar
+pine has now become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes
+as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of
+these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut
+and wasted in the most reckless fashion.
+
+If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds
+and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting.
+This is the work of the shake or shingle maker. He has been as
+thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of
+years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up
+and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker must have material
+which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At
+most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does
+not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to
+rot.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is
+  wasted.]
+
+The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our
+eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests.
+On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is
+actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the
+various processes through which it passes before it reaches our hands.
+
+In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of
+the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not
+care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the
+trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way
+possible.
+
+Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or
+mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen
+usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less
+valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and
+bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the
+ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least
+possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young
+trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open spaces between the large
+ones, rests our hope of a future forest.
+
+When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the
+sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to
+our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches
+and fragments of the trunks lie scattered about, while above the ruin
+rise those trees not considered worth cutting. The once beautiful and
+majestic forest is now ready for fire. Some passer-by may drop a
+lighted match or cigarette, and you can easily form a picture in your
+mind of what happens.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has
+  been a thousand years in growing.]
+
+In the countries of Europe lumbermen are very careful; not a particle of
+the cut tree goes to waste. The logs are sawed without removing what we
+call "slabs." The sawdust is saved and used in the manufacture of wood
+alcohol. If we saved all the present waste in the logging and milling of
+our pines, we could make all the turpentine needed in our country. If we
+saved what is now wasted of the poplar and spruce, we should have
+material enough to make all the paper we use.
+
+There are still large and valuable forests in the Southern Appalachian
+Mountains, in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, and
+the Coast Ranges. These regions were settled later than the Eastern
+states, and parts of them are yet remote from markets.
+
+Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut
+over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop.
+Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we
+give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for
+those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except
+that it cannot be cut every year.
+
+Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest.
+Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in
+part on how the forests are managed.
+
+If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood
+famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams
+will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a
+water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES
+
+  He who wantonly kills a tree,
+  All in a night of God-sent dream,
+  He shall travel a desert waste
+  Of pitiless glare, and never a stream,
+  Nor a blade of grass, nor an inch of shade--
+  All in a wilderness he has made.
+  O, forlorn without trees!
+
+  He who tenderly saves a tree,
+  All in a night of God-sent dream,
+  He shall list to a hermit thrush
+  Deep in the forest by mountain stream,
+  With friendly branches that lead and shade,
+  All in a woodland that he has made.
+  O, the peace of the trees!
+
+  He who passionately loves a tree,
+  Growth and power shall understand;
+  Everywhere he shall find a friend.
+  Listen! They greet him from every land,
+  English Oak and the Ash and Thorn,
+  Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall,
+  Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine,
+  Flowering branches by orchard wall--
+  Sunshine, shadow, and sweetness of glade--
+  All in a Paradise he has made.
+  O, the joy of the trees!
+
+_The Dryad's Message_
+
+
+Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the
+flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up
+the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with
+a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is
+like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and with
+suffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The forest fire sweeps everything in its path.]
+
+It is no wonder that those whose homes are in the forest gather quickly
+to fight the fire, for if they cannot control it, they may lose
+everything that they possess. If there is a wind blowing, the fire will
+probably sweep over many miles of country. At night, though, when the
+air becomes cooler and more quiet, the men can get the advantage of it.
+
+You can understand, of course, that it is impossible to use water
+against such a fire, for water is not to be had throughout most parts of
+the forests. Instead of using water, the men fight fire with fire.
+Taking shovels, hoes, and rakes to a suitable place some distance ahead
+of the fire, they rake away the dead litter on the ground, making a
+broad, clean path through the forest. Then they set "back-fires" along
+that side of this clean path which lies toward the coming fire. These
+back-fires burn slowly toward the main fire, and when they meet both
+must die out for lack of fuel.
+
+For many years forest fires have caused as much damage as the lumbermen;
+but now most of the forests are patrolled by rangers during the summer,
+and there are fewer serious fires.
+
+How do the fires start in the forest? It is supposed that long ago the
+Indians set many fires to keep the woods open for their hunting.
+Lightning has always been a frequent cause of forest fires. As many as a
+dozen fires are known to have started during a single thunderstorm. But
+such fires are not as serious as they once were, because the rangers are
+on the watch for them and put them out before they get well started.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Fires destroyed the forest that once covered this region and its place
+  is now mostly occupied by small bushes.]
+
+Aside from those due to lightning, most forest fires are now either set
+purposely or come from engine sparks or from somebody's carelessness.
+Many fires are set purposely by stockmen who think by this means to
+clear away the brush and thus obtain better feed for their cattle and
+sheep. These men often care nothing for the forests or for the
+preservation of the summer water flow. They would, indeed, be pleased to
+see all the forests burned away if by that means they could increase
+their feed. If you could travel through some of the mountainous portions
+of the Southwest, you would see how much harm has been done in this way
+to the trees, the streams, and the soil.
+
+It is a hot summer day and two men are riding along a mountain road. One
+of them thoughtlessly throws away a lighted cigarette, which falls upon
+some dry pine needles. In a few moments the pine needles are ablaze. The
+fire spreads with incredible rapidity and a great column of smoke rises
+above the treetops. Before any one can reach it, the fire is sweeping up
+the mountain side, and it may not be stopped before it has destroyed
+thousands of acres of valuable timber. All this terrible loss is due to
+one careless man who, in the first place, should not have been smoking
+cigarettes, and in the second place should have known better than to
+throw a spark into the forest powder magazine.
+
+Some campers, enjoying the summer in the mountains, go away leaving
+their fire burning. By and by a stick burns outward until the fire
+reaches the leaves, or a gust of wind comes along and carries a spark to
+them. In the hot sun the leaves and needles are almost as easy to ignite
+as powder, and in a few moments another fire is making headway into the
+surrounding forest.
+
+A farmer clearing land thinks he can get rid of the brush and young
+trees more easily by burning. But the undergrowth is drier than he
+thought, and, the wind coming up unexpectedly, the fire is soon beyond
+his control. It may destroy his own fences and buildings and, sweeping
+on, ruin those of his neighbors also.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The dead stubs of a once beautiful forest.]
+
+Few people have perished from fires in the West, for there the forest
+regions are generally thinly inhabited, but in some of the Eastern and
+Northern states there have been terrible fires that have destroyed whole
+villages together with their inhabitants.
+
+In many mountain regions of our country there are large areas now
+covered with useless brush where there were once valuable forests. In
+regions where the lumbermen have not utterly destroyed the forests, but
+have left some seed trees, the forests will come back again, but in
+these large burned areas conditions are not favorable. The destruction
+of the humus as well as the trees has been so complete that the seeding
+of a new forest is slow work. It may be hundreds of years before the
+trees will spread over and again take possession of the waste land.
+
+A single fire often destroys more timber than would be destroyed by a
+whole camp of loggers working for years. In the Northwest there are many
+sad and desolate pictures of the destruction caused by forest fires. We
+may travel for miles through forests of tall, dead stubs, the remains of
+once noble trees. Where they have fallen the trunks lie piled many feet
+high and trails had to be cut through an almost solid mass of timber.
+
+Here is wood enough to supply thousands of people with pleasant winter
+fires. But there are, alas, no people living near these vast woodpiles
+and often no road to them. The logs must lie there and rot.
+
+Now let us see if we can state the chief reasons why we should be
+exceedingly careful about setting fires in the woods:
+
+1. Fires destroy an enormous amount of valuable timber every year.
+
+2. Between fires and lumbermen our forests are disappearing faster than
+they are growing.
+
+3. Fires destroy the young trees, and if they happen often enough will
+keep them from growing up to replace the mature trees.
+
+4. Fires do not permanently help the cattle ranges, but injure them by
+burning the humus and grass seeds.
+
+5. Fires leave the ground bare, so that it will dry out quickly.
+
+6. Fires leave the soil unprotected, so that it will wash away quickly.
+
+7. Fires destroy property and endanger lives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS
+
+
+We have already learned something about the poverty of the people in
+those lands where the forests have been destroyed. This poverty is due
+not so much to lack of wood for fuel and other purposes, but to a whole
+series of troubles which the removal of the forests has brought upon
+them.
+
+The burning of the humus, when a fire sweeps the forest, is the next
+greatest loss to that of the timber itself. Where there has been no
+fire, the ground under the trees is covered with decaying leaves and
+stems which are slowly mixing with the soil and becoming a part of it.
+The more there is of this humus in the soil, the more thriftily plants
+will grow.
+
+Many people purposely burn over their pasture lands in the fall,
+believing that this will make the grass better the following year. They
+should know that every time this is done the soil is made poorer, and
+that it kills the seeds lying on the ground ready to sprout when the
+warm spring days come. Instead of a better pasture there is more likely
+to be a crop of almost worthless weeds. The ground is full of worthless
+seeds which are always ready to take the place of the grasses when they
+have a chance.
+
+Before the fire came, the roots of trees, bushes, and grasses kept the
+earth from washing; and the humus helped to hold the rainwater from
+running away rapidly, so that more of it had time to soak into the
+ground. How well this is shown on yonder hills which were once covered
+with brush. A fire swept over these hills and burned every living thing.
+What a barren appearance they presented after the heavy winter storms!
+The slopes were completely covered with little furrows and gullies where
+the rainwater had done its work. It will be a long time before
+vegetation will again gain a foothold there and stop the washing of the
+earth.
+
+When a fire occurs in the dense forests of the Cascade Range, all the
+trees are killed and the thick layer of decaying vegetation underneath
+is burned. The spruce, which is one of the most important lumber trees
+of this region, does not at once spring up again. Its seeds may be
+scattered there, but the soil is not now in a condition to nourish them.
+In its place springs up the tamarack pine, which, because it can grow in
+poor soil, has the whole burned area to itself.
+
+If we should return to the same place perhaps one hundred years after
+the fire, we should find that the tamarack pines had formed a thick
+forest. The lumbermen have little use for the tamarack and so have
+passed it by. In looking carefully through the tamarack forest, we find
+that other trees are now springing up. They are already struggling for
+the food, the moisture, and the sunlight which the tamaracks are making
+use of.
+
+During the many years that have passed since the fire swept this region,
+decaying vegetation has been slowly accumulating and forming humus
+again. Now at last the seeds of the spruce find the soil rich enough
+again to sprout and grow. Here and there are thrifty young trees which
+will in a few years grow up and choke out the tamarack. Thus the
+tamarack, though of so little value itself, has done a great work in
+preparing the soil for a new growth of the valuable spruce.
+
+Upon the drier slopes of the Western mountains shrubs, such as the
+manzanita and chaparral, spring up and cover the surface after a forest
+fire. Nature does not seem to want the surface left bare and usually has
+something at hand, even though it be nothing better than brush, with
+which to clothe it again. As the years pass humus begins to collect upon
+the ground and finally restores it to much the same condition it had
+before the fire. Now, if by any means seeds can reach such places,
+scattering trees will first spring up in favored spots and, after a
+time, the trees will become thick enough and large enough to shade the
+ground and the brush will be killed out.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry_
+  The work of the water where the forest has been cut away.]
+
+The cutting of the forests, especially from the steeper mountain slopes,
+has in many parts of the world changed water, one of Nature's most
+valuable gifts, into an agent of destruction. Throughout the Eastern and
+Southern states the floods are higher in spring and lower in summer than
+they used to be, because of the removal of so large a part of the
+forests that once covered this whole region.
+
+In the West it is even more necessary that the forest cover be disturbed
+as little as possible. One reason is that the greater part of the
+forests are found upon the lofty mountains in which the streams rise. If
+we deforest these steep slopes, water is going to injure them much more
+than it would the gentler slopes of the lower lands, if they had been
+deforested. Another reason is that since little rain falls in the summer
+in this region, we must do nothing to lessen the summer flow of the
+streams, which is so much needed for irrigation.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  This beautiful valley in the Southern Appalachian Mountains has been
+  ruined by the floods due to cutting off of the forests upon the
+  headwaters of the river.]
+
+The more water that can be held back in the mountains of the West for
+summer use, the more prosperous the farmers are. There is nothing that
+helps to hold the water better than the forests. They help to equalize
+the flow of the streams so that the floods are not so high in the spring
+nor the water so low in the summer as they would be if there were no
+forests.
+
+One of the first questions asked by a man who is thinking of buying a
+farm is about the water supply. He wants to know whether there are
+wells, springs, or living streams on the place. Almost everything
+depends upon the water supply. If there is an abundance, the farmer is
+likely to be prosperous. When he is prosperous all the rest of us are
+prosperous, no matter what our business is.
+
+Are you not ready now to say that the Swiss are right in not permitting
+tree cutting upon any land except under the supervision of a forester?
+The careless removal of the forests from the mountain slopes may affect
+the farmer in the valley fifty miles away. Do you not think that this
+farmer is very much interested in the management of the forest, although
+he does not own a foot of it?
+
+Trouble always follows the destruction of the forests on the headwaters
+of the streams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS
+
+  As long as the forest shall live,
+     The streams shall flow onward, still singing
+     Sweet songs of the woodland, and bringing
+  The bright, living waters that give
+     New life to all mortals who thirst.
+     But the races of men shall be cursed.
+
+  Yea, the hour of destruction shall come
+     To the children of men in that day
+     When the forest shall pass away;
+  When the low woodland voices are dumb;
+     And death's devastation and dearth
+     Shall be spread o'er the face of the earth.
+
+  Avenging the death of the wood,
+     The turbulent streams shall outpour
+     Their vials of wrath, and no more
+  Shall their banks hold back the high flood,
+     Which shall rush o'er the harvests of men;
+     As swiftly receding again.
+
+  Lo! after the flood shall be dearth,
+     And the rain no longer shall fall
+     On the parching fields; and a pall,
+  As of ashes, shall cover the earth;
+     And dust-clouds shall darken the sky;
+     And the deep water wells shall be dry.
+
+  And the rivers shall sink in the ground,
+     And every man cover his mouth
+     From the thickening dust, in that drouth;
+  Fierce famine shall come; and no sound
+     Shall be borne on the desolate air.
+     But a murmur of death and despair.
+
+ALEXANDER BLAIR THAW, _The Passing of the Forest_; in _Century
+Magazine_, June, 1907
+
+
+For many years it was thought the forests were inexhaustible and needed
+no special care. The national government encouraged people to acquire
+forest land and practically gave away 160 acres to every one who would
+build a cabin upon the land and live there for a short time.
+
+Suddenly some of the wise people among us awoke to a realization of what
+was going on. They discovered that the forests were going very fast and
+that soon we should have none if something were not done. Between the
+fires that swept them every year and the wasteful lumbering, the forests
+were in a fair way to leave us as they had the wasteful and careless
+peoples of other parts of the world.
+
+How fortunate it is that some of us did look ahead before it was too
+late; for, although the Eastern forests have largely disappeared, there
+still remain millions of acres of government-owned forests in the West.
+These forests have now been withdrawn from sale and are to be held for
+the use and benefit of all. They are not to be permitted to pass into
+the hands of a few, to be cut and sold for private gain.
+
+Our government is acting like a wise father who is interested in the
+welfare of his children, and who understands the need of taking care of
+their treasures until they are wise enough to manage them for
+themselves.
+
+We are all concerned in many ways in the welfare of the forests. Whether
+we own any forest land or not, we are affected by the way in which the
+trees are managed. Because we are all dependent more or less upon the
+forests, they should be regarded as the property of us all, just as the
+air and water are. But because some of us do not yet know how, or do not
+care, to protect them, it is best that the government should do so for
+us.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  These men are replanting a mountain slope from which fire once swept the
+  forest.]
+
+It may be that you live in a brick, or stone house and burn coal in your
+stoves. You think that it makes no difference to you whether or not
+there are any forests. But stop and think a moment. Are you sure that
+you are really independent of them? How many things do you use every day
+that are made of wood? The list is surely a long one. If wood is rare
+and expensive, the articles which are made of it add to your cost of
+living and allow you less money for other things.
+
+Let us suppose for a moment that you have no use for wood in any form.
+Will this take away all interest that you may have in the forests? In
+any event you are dependent upon the fertility of your fields for the
+food that you require. Now, if there is a lumber company stripping the
+mountains at the head of the river upon which your home is situated, and
+as a result of clearing the timber from the slopes the floods become
+worse, your garden is buried beneath gravel and sand, and your orchard
+washed away, will you not think it _does_ make a difference to you in
+what way the forests are treated?
+
+The timbered lands which the government is holding and caring for are
+known as National Forests. About two thirds of the forests yet remaining
+in the West are included in them. These lands are mostly mountainous and
+not suited to agriculture.
+
+In the East the government has no lands except those which it buys.
+Because of the great damage which is being done to the streams and
+valleys of the Appalachian Mountains by careless lumbering, a great
+tract of land is being acquired by purchase. This is called the
+Appalachian Forest. The timber in this region will be carefully cut and
+those areas from which it has been stripped will be replanted.
+
+In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, with Mt. Washington as the
+center, is a remnant of a once beautiful forest, which has been acquired
+by the government. This is known as the White Mountain Forest. It will
+be enlarged as the years pass and carefully guarded. It will serve for
+all time as a beautiful pleasure and camping ground.
+
+It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain
+unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest
+permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been
+placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their
+duties are of many kinds.
+
+The rangers supervise the sale and cutting of the mature or ripe trees
+as they are needed for lumber, mining timbers, or posts. They see that
+the waste parts of the cut trees are piled so as to lessen the danger
+from chance fires.
+
+During the long summers the forests become as dry as tinder and the loss
+from fire amounts to millions of dollars every year. It is the chief
+duty of the rangers at this time to patrol the roads and trails leading
+through the forests and keep a sharp lookout for fires.
+
+Stations have been established upon high points from which there is a
+view over a wide extent of country. In each of these stations there is a
+man constantly on watch for columns of smoke which indicate the
+beginning of a forest fire. When smoke is seen a message is telephoned
+to the ranger station nearest the fire, and from this station men are
+sent as quickly as possible with the object of putting out the fire
+before it spreads beyond the power of control. The forests are now
+watched so carefully that hundreds of fires are thus stopped before
+there has been any serious loss of timber.
+
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  | STOP                                                              |
+  | Forest Fires                                                      |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  They are a Curse to the People                                   |
+  |  of Pennsylvania                                                  |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  FOREST       Existing Forests                                    |
+  |  FIRES        Possibility of Future Forests                       |
+  |  DESTROY      Possibility of Labor                                |
+  |               Beauty of a Region                                  |
+  |               Comfort                                             |
+  |               Homes                                               |
+  |               Lives                                               |
+  |               Prosperity                                          |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Protected Forests Increase in Value                              |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  They Furnish Labor, Promote Industry, Afford Recreation and      |
+  |  Sport, Make a Region Beautiful, Make Home Safe and Comfortable,  |
+  |  Make Life Worth Living, and a Prosperous State                   |
+  |  Inhabited by a Contented and Industrious People.                 |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Which Would You Rather Have                                      |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  FOREST FIRES }    { GREEN FORESTS                                |
+  |  FLOODS       }    { PURE WATER                                   |
+  |  DISEASE      } OR { HEALTH                                       |
+  |  DESTRUCTION  }    { THRIVING INDUSTRIES                          |
+  |  DEVASTATION  }    { PROSPERITY                                   |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  For Information Respecting Pennsylvania Forests and              |
+  |  Tree Planting, write to                                          |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY,                                        |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania                                         |
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+  [Illustration: This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches,
+  has been of excellent service in Pennsylvania.]
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry_
+  The seed trees left by the lumberman are giving rise to a new forest.]
+
+In convenient places the rangers store boxes of tools, which include
+axes, picks, shovels, and rakes to be used in fighting any near-by fire.
+They also have at hand provisions and camp outfits, so as to be able to
+live anywhere in the woods.
+
+In some parts where there is a great deal of small timber and brush,
+"fire lines" are cut along the ridges where it is easiest to stop a
+fire, should one occur. Our forests are so vast that it is not possible
+to remove the dead wood as is done in Europe and thus lessen the danger
+of fire.
+
+The forest rangers also wage a warfare against insect pests. In regions
+where the bark beetles carry on their destructive work among the pines,
+the rangers sometimes cut down and burn thousands of trees. Another duty
+of the rangers is that of replanting burned or logged-off areas. In this
+way many thousands of acres which would otherwise remain waste land for
+years, not being suitable for agriculture, are made in a short time to
+produce a new forest.
+
+A limited number of cattle and sheep are allowed in those forests which
+can be pastured without doing injury to the young trees or affecting the
+flow of the streams. The rangers have charge of this work and collect
+the rent. A part of the money derived from the sale of timber and for
+pasturage rights is expended in the improvement of the roads and trails
+in the forests and in making the forests more safe from fire.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A beautiful grassy meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.]
+
+The National Forests are open to all for pleasure and recreation, but
+under strict regulations about the cutting of trees and the care of camp
+fires. Violators of these rules are severely punished. Visitors to the
+forests are expected to take care in the selection of places for their
+camp fires so that there will be no danger of the fire spreading. When
+the camp is left, the fire must be put out with water or covered with
+earth.
+
+Many states have forest services of their own, and some have
+conservation commissions. It is the business of these organizations to
+look after various natural resources, including the forests, water,
+soil, minerals, and wild game. All forest rangers as well as state fire
+wardens are authorized to aid in the enforcement of the game laws.
+
+We should assist the foresters and wardens in every way possible. Most
+of these men love the woods, the birds, and the animals. They are doing
+their best to protect the forest and its wild life for the good and
+happiness of us all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+    He plants the friend of sun and sky;
+  He plants the flag of breezes free;
+    The shaft of beauty, towering high;
+    He plants a home to heaven anigh
+       For song and mother-croon of bird
+       In hushed and happy twilight heard--
+    The treble of heaven's harmony--
+    These things he plants who plants a tree.
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+    He plants cool shade and tender rain,
+  And seed and bud of days to be,
+    And years that fade and flush again;
+    He plants the glory of the plain;
+       He plants the forest's heritage;
+       The harvest of a coming age;
+    The joy that unborn eyes shall see--
+    These things he plants who plants a tree.
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+     He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
+  In love of home and loyalty
+     And far-cast thought of civic good--
+     His blessing on the neighborhood
+        Who in the hollow of His hand
+        Holds all the growth of all our land--
+     A nation's growth from sea to sea
+     Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
+
+H. C. BUNNER, _The Heart of the Tree_; in _Century Magazine_, April, 1893
+
+
+Our National Parks and Forests form the grandest summer playgrounds that
+any people have ever had. The National Forests, we have learned, were
+set aside for the direct purpose of preserving the timber supply and
+regulating the flow of the mountain streams. The National Parks were
+created for the purpose of preserving for all time the most beautiful
+and attractive scenic features of our country. Among the most important
+of these are the Yellowstone, Grand Cañon, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater
+Lake parks. They include many thousands of square miles of forested
+mountains, cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers, which are open to all
+of us with no restrictions except that we do not injure them.
+
+How delightful it is to have these wild and picturesque parts of our
+country left unspoiled and just as Nature made them, and to be able to
+wander through them at will! In the parks we can become acquainted with
+the flowers, trees, birds, and animals as they were before the country
+was discovered and settled by white men. Here the wild creatures are
+protected from the hunters. The deer no longer fear the sight of men,
+and the mother grouse can raise her brood in safety from them.
+
+When summer comes we feel a strange and mysterious longing to get out of
+doors and live in the forests with the wild creatures. The parks offer
+just the opportunity to satisfy this longing, for in them we can get
+away from the worries and perplexities of our everyday life.
+
+We feel the "call of the wild," perhaps, because long ago our savage
+ancestors dwelt in the forests among the hills. They were a part of
+Nature and lived much as the animals do in caves in the hillsides, or in
+homes of the rudest sort made of the bark of trees or the skins of
+animals.
+
+Our ancestors spent nearly all of their time out of doors in the pure,
+fresh air. Their eyes and ears were trained to every sign of the forest,
+for upon the sharpness of their senses their very lives depended.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  A forest playground on Virginia Creek in the Yosemite country,
+  California, in one of Uncle Sam's forest reserves.]
+
+We have lived in houses so long, where the air is often close and impure
+and where we have no need of sharp senses for protection, that we have
+lost some of the strength and sturdy self-reliance of our wild
+ancestors.
+
+We have become partly dulled to the beauty out of doors, because we have
+been so constantly employed by the business of making a living. But the
+forest playgrounds are calling us to return for a little time each year
+to the wilds that were once our home, and to renew our acquaintance with
+the trees, the streams and the rocks, and with the wild creatures that
+live among them. To be able to make our beds on the leaves under the
+trees, and to build a fire of sticks and cook our own food, seems quite
+natural and like old and familiar times.
+
+The stories and legends that have come down to us about the forests and
+the imaginary people who lived in them were believed to be true by the
+people of long ago. The deep, dark woods once covered nearly all Europe
+where our ancestors lived. To be lost in the woods was to be in danger
+of meeting the strange and mysterious people who were thought to live in
+their depths. Among these beings, some of whom were good and others bad,
+were fairies, nymphs, gnomes, and ogres. When people ceased to believe
+so much in these stories, they began to lose their fear of the woods.
+Among some of these people there grew up a love and fascination for the
+trees which they believed were the dwelling places of spirits or
+divinities.
+
+If in our great forest playgrounds we can lead this out-of-door life for
+a few weeks each year, it will make us healthier, stronger, and happier.
+We no longer fear any mysterious creatures in the woods or the forces of
+Nature as shown in the lightning, the winds, and the waterfalls; but
+year by year we are finding more to love and admire in the wild scenery
+of the woods and mountains and in their animal and plant inhabitants.
+
+The wild woods call many of us on jaunts and picnics when, if it were
+not for them, we should stay at home shut up in stuffy rooms. In time
+may not the love of the forest wilds come back to us all? May not the
+time come when each one of us shall be able to look at a beautiful tree
+and not think only of how much lumber it would make? May not the time
+come when we may hear the grouse drumming its call and not feel the
+desire to kill and eat it?
+
+If the time does come in which we think as much of our beautiful
+mountains as the people of Europe do of the Alps, we shall then guard
+them with far more jealous care than we do today. In spite of the fact
+that the Alps are wet and cold and that no one thinks of sleeping out of
+doors there, yet the people of Europe love their mountains almost
+passionately.
+
+Our mountains are much more attractive summer playgrounds than the Alps.
+We can wander at will over a far greater number of untrodden ways than
+Europeans can in the Alps. We can make our beds under the trees with
+rarely a thought of the weather. The air is always balmy and the skies
+are almost always blue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+
+WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS
+
+
+How eagerly we have looked forward to the coming of spring, and now it
+is here! The sun is shining brighter and warmer each day. The birds are
+returning from their winter home in the South. The buds on the trees are
+swelling and, in the warm nooks, some of the wild flowers have already
+opened their delicate petals. Who will find the first _spring beauty_ in
+the Eastern woods? Who will find the first of the _purple trilliums_
+that open their dark flowers in the shady groves, or the _golden
+poppies_ on the warm hillsides of the West?
+
+The spring air affects us as it does the plants and wild creatures. We
+long to get away from school, and taking our lunches, to spend the
+delightful days wandering through the fields and woods. There is no
+place like the open country when all Nature is waking. We feel like
+running and frisking as the young lambs do.
+
+Can it be wrong to gather all that we wish of the beautiful flowers with
+which the earth is carpeted? Has not Nature grown them in her great
+garden in such abundance that all we pick will make no difference to
+her? Let us go with the children on their rambles after flowers and
+learn if Nature does take any account of their innocent raids on her
+treasures.
+
+Here is a party of children chasing across the fields. Each one is
+searching for the flowers that have bloomed since last they were out,
+and each is trying to get more than his companions. The children have
+learned that some kinds of flowers grow in the woods, others in the
+marshy places, and still others on the dry hillsides. They know where
+to go for each kind, and not a spot escapes their sharp search.
+
+Here they find a patch of violets, and all are quickly picked. There are
+some baby-blue-eyes, and yonder dry field is brilliant with the colors
+of many others. In the gathering of the flowers some of them are pulled
+up by the roots, but the children do not think of the harm this does.
+They wander on and on until many have more in their hands than they can
+carry. Some of those picked first are already wilted, and, to make their
+burdens lighter, the children throw these away. At last a tired but
+happy band turns toward home.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.]
+
+What will be done with all the flowers that have been picked? In each
+home the vases are filled and the tables decorated. There is no room for
+all of them and some are thrown out. These flowers, once so fresh and
+bright as they nodded in the breeze, now lie crushed and wilted on the
+ground.
+
+Another spring returns and the children are out again looking in the
+familiar places for the flowers they know so well. But there seems to be
+something wrong, for there are not so many as there used to be. The
+children have to go farther and search more carefully to get their arms
+full.
+
+Still a third spring comes and the children are just as ready for the
+happy excursions and just as anxious to get the flowers. They hunt the
+fields over, but in the places where the flowers used to be so thick
+there are only a few scattering ones. They cannot understand what is
+wrong, but Nature could tell them if they would ask her. The year before
+she was short of seed, but this year it is much worse, for she had
+hardly any to plant in her garden. She is short of bulbs also, and of
+many other plants that grow from year to year, for the children
+carelessly pulled these up.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Wild asters cover the mountain meadows.]
+
+The children do not want to go home with only a few flowers, and so they
+wander farther into the country than they have ever been before. Here
+they find them as abundant as they used to be near home.
+
+The children do not stop to think that at the base of the bright,
+fragrant blossoms grow the seed that will make the flowers of the next
+year. Nature can spare the seed of a part of the blossoms, for she grows
+many more than she needs; but if we pick them all, what can she do for
+the coming year?
+
+The wild flowers are living things struggling for a place in the world,
+just as are the animals and birds. We cannot abuse and destroy too many
+of them if we would have them stay and add to the beauty of our homes.
+Should we not take just as much pleasure in gathering the flowers if we
+did not bring home more than we needed? Would it not be better to be
+satisfied with smaller bouquets and leave enough in the fields to go to
+seed and gladden us next year?
+
+The reckless gathering of wild flowers has gone on so long and they have
+been picked so closely about many of our towns and cities, that they are
+disappearing. When there are no longer wild flowers within reach of the
+children who live in the cities, they will have lost a great joy out of
+their lives.
+
+There are besides the flowers of which we have been speaking other low
+plants of beautiful foliage with which we love to decorate our homes. We
+must take care that these are not gathered too closely or they also will
+become scarce. We cannot go out into the woods and pull up ferns by the
+roots year after year and expect Nature to keep up the supply.
+
+The huckleberry is one of the many beautiful shrubs which we admire
+for its delicate leaves and colors. It is cut and brought in from the
+country in huge bundles to supply the florists. The time will come when
+these decorations can no longer be had if the men are allowed to cut all
+they can find. Just as in the case of the flowers, seekers for them will
+be obliged to go farther each year and by and by the shrubs will be so
+scarce and high priced that we shall be obliged to do without them.
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy
+  too many of them.]
+
+We hunt far and wide for the beautiful "holly berries" with which to
+decorate our homes at Christmas. When we have found a berry-laden bush,
+we eagerly break off the branches and bear them home in triumph. The
+bush, once so gay with berries, is a sad-looking thing when we are
+through with it. The branches are broken so far back that next year it
+will bear few berries and we shall have to seek another.
+
+We treat the beautiful earth on which we have been placed in a most
+thoughtless manner. We think only of what we want _now_, and forget that
+another year is coming in which also we shall want some of the earth's
+treasures. If we take only the surplus which each year produces, there
+will always be enough for us and for the people who live after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+
+NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS
+
+
+Nature seems very prodigal in her ways. She is continually creating on
+the earth a great multitude of living things, far more than there is
+room for. Each one of these, if it would live, must have a certain
+amount of air, sunshine, and food. As there is not enough of these
+things to supply every one, there arises a struggle. Those that are
+weakest die, because they are not able to get what they need. To us this
+seems hard, but it is Nature's way.
+
+And further, since many of the animals feed on the flesh of other
+animals, the latter have, in addition to the struggle for their food, to
+watch constantly for their lives. Every organism is in one sense the
+enemy of every other one. We do not mean that they often try to kill
+each other because of hate, as men do, but that they are after food to
+satisfy their hunger. Some of the higher animals as well as men fight
+for mastery, in addition to struggling for food. We hope that among men
+the unnecessary fighting will sometime cease, and that kindness and
+unselfishness will rule.
+
+The struggle for life is ceaselessly going on around us, but so quiet is
+it that we are not often aware of the countless tragedies that take
+place. This struggle extends from the plants and animals in the pond, so
+small that we cannot see them with the unaided eye, upward through all
+the larger animals.
+
+The struggle among all living things helps us to understand the
+necessity for Nature's prodigality. If the plants and animals that serve
+as food for others were not produced in great numbers, they would soon
+become extinct. It is seldom that any one kind of plant or animal,
+because of its many enemies, has an opportunity to spread and obtain
+more than its share of food and sunshine. According to Nature's
+arrangements, each organism does its share in keeping down the numbers
+of the others. This we call the "balance of Nature."
+
+Sometimes the balance of Nature is disturbed and one particular kind of
+animal gets the start of its enemies and increases until it becomes a
+_plague_. This may be caused by a favorable season or by the decrease of
+its enemies on account of disease among them. We have read of the
+plagues of grasshoppers which have sometimes visited the Western states
+and eaten up every green thing. Plagues of rats and field mice have been
+known to do a great deal of damage. In such cases their natural enemies,
+the hawks, owls, and coyotes, may be attracted to the region from far
+around, because of the extra food supply. After a time they may succeed
+in reducing the numbers of these pests.
+
+This balance among the animals, which comes from one living upon
+another, is a strange and wonderful thing. No one kind can long overrun
+its fellows. If one does get a start and increases until it becomes a
+pest or plague, some enemy is sure sooner or later to spring up to
+destroy it. We use this method in fighting some of the insect pests
+which are injuring our trees. Men have searched in various parts of the
+world from which such pests as the gypsy moth and the San José scale
+have come to find some of their enemies and bring them to this country
+to feed on these insects.
+
+When men came upon the earth, they soon began to upset Nature's
+arrangements, and from that time until now matters of this kind have
+been growing worse. We have killed large numbers of the beneficial
+animals and birds that kept the harmful ones in check. We have carried
+others from the homes given them by Nature, where they were doing little
+harm, to new homes where they have become terrible plagues.
+
+The killing of large numbers of hawks and owls, all the species of which
+many people have wrongfully thought to be harmful, has been followed by
+a great increase in the numbers of rats and mice. We have killed off
+most of the coyotes, the chief food of which was rabbits and ground
+squirrels. The two latter animals have now become a serious pest. They
+do enormous damage to the crops, and we spend thousands of dollars
+fighting them.
+
+The common rabbit has in most parts of its native country so many
+enemies which are always on the lookout for a good meal, that it cannot
+increase enough to do much harm. Years ago a number of rabbits were
+taken to Australia, where there were none. Here they found a favorable
+climate and few enemies. They have now increased so that they overrun
+much of the continent and are a terrible pest which the farmers are
+unable to control.
+
+Some years ago the gypsy moth and the browntail moth were introduced by
+accident into the New England states. Finding there a congenial climate
+and few enemies, they increased rapidly. They soon began to strip the
+leaves from the beautiful elms which make the streets and parks of this
+region so attractive. Now these moths have turned their attention to the
+white pine and are doing an ever-increasing amount of damage; and
+although they are being fought by every means in our power, we are not
+certain that we can ever control them.
+
+The codling moth, whose larva is the little apple worm, causes an
+immense loss in our fruit orchards. The cotton-boll weevil, which
+destroys so much of the cotton, is, like the codling moth, an insect
+imported from another country. The San José scale reached California
+from China and has now spread throughout our country. It has a special
+fondness for the sap of fruit trees, and, being so small, was not
+noticed until it had got beyond control. This scale causes more loss
+than any other of the tree insects.
+
+The Hessian fly, introduced from Europe more than one hundred years ago,
+causes during certain seasons a very great loss to the wheat crop. The
+Argentine ant has been brought to us from South America and is proving a
+most destructive pest. The Norway rat was brought to our country on
+sailing vessels and causes more loss than most of us realize. The
+English sparrow has spread over much of the country and is driving many
+of the native birds from their homes, because of its quarrelsome
+disposition. It makes itself a nuisance on all our city streets.
+
+The mongoose, in its home in India, is a great rat killer, but does not
+there increase so as to do much harm. Wherever it has been carried for
+the purpose of using it as a rat killer, this little four-footed animal
+has become a terrible scourge. After it destroys the rats it goes after
+the snakes. Then it attacks the other small animals and birds. Finally
+it begins upon the chickens, and even the vegetables in the garden are
+not safe from its voracious appetite.
+
+Men are now watching at every port to see that no more dangerous insects
+and animals are brought into the country. They are particularly on the
+watch for the Mediterranean fruit fly and for the mongoose.
+
+When we upset the balance of Nature, we start a whole chain of troubles.
+What can we do to escape the consequences of our ignorance and
+carelessness? In the first place we can protect the birds, for they eat
+enormous quantities of the harmful insects. In the second place we can
+see that no more of these dangerous pests are allowed to land on our
+shores. In the third place we shall have to fight, by every means that
+we can discover, those that are already here.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+
+WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE COAL, OIL, AND GAS ARE GONE?
+
+
+If coal, oil, and gas were suddenly taken away, all the nations would
+become poor and many of their industries would cease. Just think for a
+moment of the amount of work these things do for us and what an effort
+there would be made to find something to take their place!
+
+Wood once formed the chief fuel. It was used only to cook our food or to
+keep us warm. Now fuel is required for so many different purposes that
+with the decrease of the forests wood has been found insufficient.
+
+Peat is one of those substances that has been used in parts of Europe to
+take the place of wood, but it is used so little in our own country that
+many have never seen it.
+
+Peat is dug from bogs or marshes. We might say that a peat marsh is the
+beginning of a coal bed. Peat is the partly decayed vegetation which has
+slowly accumulated in wet places. In the colder countries it is formed
+largely of moss and similar water-loving plants, but where the climate
+is warm other kinds of marsh vegetation, and even trees, aid in forming
+peat. Sometimes floods bring earth and deposit it in the marshes, in
+which case the peat is less suitable for fuel, but forms a rich and
+productive soil instead.
+
+In many of the vast swamps of long ago, when there were no men nor even
+the higher animals upon the earth, vegetation grew very rank. It is
+believed that at that remote time the air contained more carbonic acid,
+a substance which promotes the growth of plants. Thus the plants in the
+warm, moist parts of the earth grew more densely and luxuriantly than
+they usually do today.
+
+In the decay of this vegetation deposits similar to the peat marshes
+were formed, but they differed in being much thicker and more extensive.
+If the story of these ancient peat marshes had stopped here, we should
+never have had any coal. Fortunately it did not, for some of the swamps
+sank beneath the water of a lake or ocean and thick beds of gravel,
+sand, or clay were deposited over them. While buried deep in the earth,
+the decaying vegetation was heated and pressed together by the great
+weight of the earth above, and was finally changed to shining, black
+coal.
+
+After the coal was made, but before men came to the earth, parts of the
+sea bottom with its buried treasures were raised to form hills and
+mountains. Then the rainwater began its work upon the slopes, and after
+a time washed away so much of the overlying material that the coal was
+exposed at the surface. At last through some accident, such as lightning
+perhaps, men learned that this black substance would burn. Coal was
+little used, however, as long as there was an abundance of wood and the
+needs of people were few.
+
+As manufacturing and the use of the steam engine increased, coal grew in
+value. The business of mining coal finally became one of the great
+industries. The mining operations were carried on as carelessly as
+though the supply in the interior of the earth were inexhaustible. In
+the underground working it is customary to leave about one quarter of
+the coal in the form of pillars for the purpose of supporting the roof.
+At a little more expense other materials could be substituted for these
+pillars and all the coal could be taken out.
+
+In using the coal we waste about another quarter. Stoves and furnaces
+are usually built so poorly that a large part of the value of the coal
+escapes as gas and smoke. In large cities and manufacturing districts
+the smoke becomes a great nuisance. In the making of coke from coal,
+enormous quantities of coal tar and gas have been lost. Most engines
+consume a far greater amount of coal than they should in doing a given
+amount of work. Most of us do not know how to use coal economically in
+our homes, and thus aid not only in wasting the coal supplies but in
+making the cost of living higher than it should be. All together, in the
+handling of coal we lose fully half of it. The coal supply of the earth
+is disappearing very fast, and at the rate at which its use is now
+increasing it may not last more than one hundred years.
+
+If we cannot use coal without wasting so much, would it not be wiser for
+us to turn our attention more fully to the sources of power in the
+streams which are flowing down all our mountain sides? The use of this
+power when turned into electricity would enable us to save a large part
+of the coal, oil, and gas that are now used, and so make them last
+longer.
+
+It is far easier to waste oil and gas than coal, for, when we have
+drilled holes in the earth, unless we are very careful the gas will
+escape into the air and the oil will become mixed with water, so that it
+will be difficult for us to get it.
+
+Oil and gas are confined under great pressure hundreds and often
+thousands of feet below the surface. To make clear how easy it is to
+waste them, we might compare them to the compressed air in an
+automobile tire. If the tire is punctured by a nail, the air issues
+suddenly with a sharp, whistling sound until the pressure inside is gone
+and no more will come out.
+
+For many years we have been puncturing the crust of the earth, where oil
+has been discovered, and letting the oil and gas escape. We have saved
+most of the oil, but nearly all the gas has been wasted. The gas will
+finally stop coming out when the pressure is gone, just as the air did
+in the automobile tire.
+
+On the opposite page is a picture of a "gusher" in the Sunset oil field,
+California, which tells the story of how we are permitting the valuable
+substances within the earth to be wasted. In drilling this well the oil
+men suddenly struck a deposit of oil and gas under great pressure. The
+drilling tools were blown out of the well and a column of oil and gas
+shot up 150 feet. For a time the well flowed forty thousand barrels of
+oil each day, and an unknown quantity of gas. Much of the oil was
+scattered around the surrounding country, and all the gas was lost. Men
+worked for weeks making reservoirs of earth in an attempt to save the
+river of oil.
+
+Another well a few miles distant struck an enormous quantity of gas. It
+blew off for days with a roar like that of the steam from a giant
+engine. Then it took fire, and the column of flame at night was a
+fearful sight. There was gas enough lost from this one well to light a
+city for months.
+
+Gas has been escaping during many years from hundreds of wells in the
+Pennsylvania, Ohio Valley, Oklahoma, Texas, and California oil fields.
+The gas from all these wells together has been estimated to be equal
+in value to a river of oil flowing several hundred thousand barrels each
+day. In many districts the gas was nearly gone before people discovered
+its great value. It is impossible for us to realize the waste which this
+represents.
+
+  [Illustration: _Myrl's Studio, Bakersfield, California_
+  A "gusher" in a California oil field wasting great quantities of oil and
+  gas.]
+
+It has taken Nature a long time to make the oil and gas which we are
+losing. When she began this work, the oil regions which have been
+mentioned were beneath the sea. In its waters lived countless numbers of
+minute organisms, as well as fish of many kinds. As they died, their
+bodies accumulated in beds which finally became thousands of feet thick.
+Then the currents of the water changed and sand and mud were washed over
+these beds, burying them deeply.
+
+Finally the bottom of the sea was lifted and became dry land. The
+movement squeezed and folded the rocky layers made of the skeletons of
+the animals and plants. The soft parts of their bodies held in these
+rocky layers produced a greenish or brownish oil and gas. The gas tried
+to escape from the rocks, for they were hot and it wanted more room. In
+some places it found openings through the rocks and escaped to the
+surface, usually bringing some of the oil with it. The gas was lost, but
+a part of the oil remained, forming deposits of tar. In other places the
+oil and gas could not reach the surface, but found porous, sandy rocks
+into which they went and remained until the oil driller found them.
+
+The tar springs, or "seepages," indicate to the oil prospector where
+deposits of oil may possibly be found. He examines the country about
+and, selecting a favorable place, drills a well. If he is successful, he
+will strike oil-bearing rocks. The oil may be a few hundred feet below
+the surface, or it may be a mile below. In the latter case it takes
+months to drill the well.
+
+If a robber came and attempted to take by force the coal, oil, and gas
+which we are daily losing through our carelessness and indifference,
+even though he might put it to better use than we put it, there would at
+once go up a great cry. We would raise an army and fight for our
+property, and perhaps suffer great loss in defending it. But, day by
+day, without making any serious objection, we are letting these natural
+resources go to waste.
+
+Perhaps in some far distant future, after we have used up the stores of
+fuel in the earth, we may discover something to take its place; but wise
+and thoughtful people should make the most of what they have.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+
+NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER
+
+
+Perhaps you think it is absurd to talk about caring for the creatures
+that live in the water, since they can so easily hide away in its depths
+where we cannot follow. Perhaps you think that because the ocean is so
+great it would be impossible ever to catch all the fish that live in it.
+It is easy to understand how all the fish might be caught out of the
+creeks, rivers, and shallow lakes, since fish are hungry and we put
+before them such attractive bait; but with the ocean it seems different.
+It stretches so many thousands of miles and is so very deep that there
+does not appear to be any danger of exterminating the animals of the
+ocean as we have some of those of the land.
+
+Is it true, however, that all the vast waters of the ocean are full of
+fish, or are they found only in certain parts? The fishermen can tell us
+about this matter. They know where to set the hooks and nets, and where
+they are most likely to get a good catch. They do not go far out where
+the water is deep but seek, instead, the shallow waters near the shore
+or about the reefs and islands. They know that the deep water of the
+ocean contains very few fish and none that are of any value as food.
+
+Each kind of fish has become adapted to certain parts of the ocean, for
+both the food supply and the pressure of the water differ with different
+depths. Fish caught in deep water are often dead before reaching the
+surface, because of the decrease in the water pressure.
+
+One reason why fish are not numerous far out in the ocean is because
+there is little food to be had there. The reason no fish are found in
+the very deep parts of the ocean is because the water there contains no
+air particles. Strange as it may seem, although fish breathe water, they
+cannot live unless it contains oxygen from the air.
+
+The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for food, are
+found only in the shallow waters usually near the shore and in the lakes
+and rivers. Because of this fact it is possible, as we have learned from
+experience, to set so many traps and use so many nets and hooks as
+entirely to destroy certain species.
+
+The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare among them
+just as there is among the land animals. The larger and more powerful
+live upon the smaller ones, but, seemingly to make up for this, Nature
+has given the small fish quickness of movement--which the large fish do
+not possess--to aid them in escaping. They have also the power of
+increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which is the chief food of
+many of the large fish, maintains its countless numbers against all its
+enemies except the fishermen.
+
+The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, could obtain but
+few fish at a time and did not reduce their numbers. But civilized man,
+with his cunningly contrived hooks and nets, has the same advantage over
+the fish that the hunter, with his repeating gun, has over the land
+animals. Nature, not foreseeing how destructive man would be, has armed
+neither the creatures of the land nor the creatures of the water against
+him.
+
+The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the hunter whose
+business it is to supply the market. He seems to think no more about
+the effect upon next season's supply, of his stretching a net across a
+river and catching all the fish going up to spawn, than does the market
+hunter who would, if he could, shoot the last duck. Is it not strange
+that many fishermen will do anything in their power to evade the laws
+governing the catching of fish when by doing so they injure their own
+business?
+
+  [Illustration: _Edward S. Curtis_
+  A rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, used by seals as a sunning place.]
+
+We have already nearly destroyed the mammals that live in the ocean.
+Among them are the whales, which were once numerous in the arctic
+regions. Few whaling ships now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or
+whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than
+that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also
+nearly extinct.
+
+No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal
+mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the
+mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the
+Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so
+reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia,
+Japan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of
+the fur seal for a number of years.
+
+As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used
+by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot
+keep up the supply. For the purpose of assisting her, strict laws have
+been passed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from
+stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the
+passage of the fish when going to their spawning grounds. They also
+prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at
+all of some kinds to be taken for a given time. Our government is now
+doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some
+varieties are still decreasing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  An Indian fish trap.]
+
+The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous
+numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of
+other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase
+rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that
+this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each spawning
+season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number
+hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This
+estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste
+of herring in the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast,
+where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any
+wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?
+
+The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared
+from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised
+artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters
+on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high
+tide? The greatest oyster farms in the world are upon Chesapeake Bay.
+There are also oyster farms in other bays upon the Atlantic seaboard,
+and lately the oyster has been transplanted to the bays upon the Pacific
+Coast.
+
+The lobster was trapped so industriously that it also began to grow
+scarce. Finally the government took up the matter of protecting it. The
+eggs and the young were guarded, and now it is increasing in numbers.
+
+Once the sturgeon was very plentiful in the lakes and rivers of our
+country. For a long time it was thought to be of no value and was thrown
+away when caught in nets set for other fish. Then it was discovered that
+its flesh was delicious, and its eggs, known as _caviar_, became a very
+fashionable dish. After this there followed a period of most destructive
+fishing, and now sturgeon are quite scarce and high priced.
+
+Herring, shad, and salmon are migratory fish. By this we mean that they
+spend a part of their lives in the ocean but enter the bays and streams
+at the spawning season. You can readily understand that if the bays are
+blocked with nets the fish cannot reach the spawning grounds and their
+numbers must decrease. Chesapeake Bay contains such a maze of nets, many
+of them extending out ten miles from the shore, that it is a wonder
+that any fish get past them.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A fish wheel on the Columbia River, in which salmon are caught on their
+  way to the spawning grounds.]
+
+The waters of New England were once filled with striped bass, smelt,
+salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost gone. The shad are
+rapidly decreasing all along the Atlantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie
+extend out sometimes ten miles from shore, and the whitefish as well as
+the sturgeon have been greatly reduced in numbers there.
+
+When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the "salmon run" in the
+Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was a wonderful sight. The waters
+were fairly alive with these huge fish. Hydraulic mining so muddied the
+waters of the Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then came
+the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, so nearly
+blocking the channels that the salmon were rarely seen on their old
+spawning grounds. Now salmon fishing is carefully regulated and salmon
+are increasing.
+
+The shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, the ocean for some miles out
+from shore, and the waters about the islands of Southern California form
+very valuable fishing grounds, which, if they are taken care of, will
+furnish much larger supplies of fish than are now obtained.
+
+The interesting discovery has been made that the waters around the
+islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente form important spawning
+grounds for many food fish, including the great tuna. These waters were
+fished so destructively that many of the fish were found to be
+decreasing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve for
+three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this area no fish are
+allowed to be taken except with a hook and line. Some of the most
+valuable fish, which were almost gone, are now becoming more numerous.
+The fact that the fish stay close about the island where the water is
+shallow makes the establishment of the preserve possible.
+
+The salmon and halibut fisheries of the Alaskan waters have long been
+the source of much profit. This region, owing to the many bays and
+islands, fairly swarms with fish of many kinds. Protection will soon be
+needed here if this great storehouse of fish is to be kept filled.
+
+The cod fisheries of the Newfoundland banks are among the most valuable
+in the world, and are almost the only ones where fishing has long been
+carried on and where the supply is not decreasing. The "banks" are
+formed by a great flat reef four hundred miles long, over which the
+water is shallow enough to offer a fine home for cod.
+
+Hatcheries have been established in many parts of our country for the
+purpose of collecting and hatching fish eggs. These are used for
+restocking those waters that have been fished out. After the eggs have
+hatched and the young fish have reached a certain stage, they are
+shipped to the streams where they are needed. The United States fishery
+on the McCloud River, California, has distributed rainbow trout all over
+the United States. Shad and striped bass have been brought from Eastern
+fisheries and planted in Pacific Coast waters, where they are now
+rapidly increasing.
+
+Thus we learn that valuable food fish live within certain narrow bounds
+instead of being distributed all through the waters of the globe. It is
+as easy, with our many ingenious devices of net and weir, to destroy the
+inhabitants of the water as it is to destroy those of the land with
+guns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+
+MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS
+
+
+We have learned something about the struggle among the plants and
+animals for food and for room on the earth. We must not think, however,
+that this struggle is at all like the war that is carried on between
+different nations. Wars are usually unnecessary and do more harm than
+good, for they result in the loss of the strongest and best men. But the
+struggle among the animals and plants has resulted in good, for it has
+crowded out the weakest and those less fitted to live.
+
+The struggle among all living things for food and a share of the
+sunshine has covered the earth with a far greater variety than there
+would otherwise be. Because so many more are born than there is room
+for, they crowd and elbow each other. Many are forced to make their
+homes in regions which they would not have chosen if they had been free
+to do as they pleased. It is partly because of this crowding that some
+of the animals which once lived on the ground became changed into birds
+and made their homes in the trees. A number of the mammals found more
+freedom in the water and finally became whales, seals, and walruses.
+Many moved into deserts and, in learning to live with very little water,
+developed curious bodies and habits. Some have found a home in the cold
+North, where they have become suited to a climate which would quickly
+kill those which had held their ground in the warm and moist tropical
+regions.
+
+Nature has thus filled the earth with an infinite variety of living
+things, each of which is doing its part in making the world beautiful
+and attractive. Man is Nature's last and most wonderful creation. He has
+learned to fly like the birds, to swim under the sea like the fish, and
+to harness Nature's forces and make them work for him. But man, with all
+his wisdom, has too often forgotten that he is really a brother to the
+lower creatures. The inhabitants of the air, the land, and the water
+could, if they were able to talk, tell the most pitiful tales of man's
+cruel treatment of them.
+
+Of course we have to eat, as do all other living creatures, but for
+thousands of years people have supplied their wants largely from
+agriculture and from the domestic herds. Although very few of us now
+have to hunt for our food, and these few are those who live far out on
+the borders of newly settled regions, yet we have not forgotten the
+hunting instincts of our ancestors.
+
+Our ancestors of long ago, like the savages on the earth today, seldom
+killed game unless they needed it for food. We, who think ourselves far
+better than they, now kill wild life for the pleasure of the chase. The
+professional hunter who seeks the glossy coats of the fur-bearing
+animals or the beautiful plumage of certain birds gives no thought to
+the wasted bodies that he leaves behind.
+
+Since men have become civilized and their needs have become so many,
+Nature's arrangements have been seriously disturbed. She has not armed
+the wild creatures against men, who, with all kinds of marvelous
+weapons, are able to take advantage of them. The wild creatures discover
+very quickly that they can find little protection against this new
+enemy, no matter how quick and sharp their senses are.
+
+The blue jay has only his sharp eyes to help him when he seeks the
+cunningly hidden nest of another bird with the hope of being able to
+dine upon eggs. The breakfast of the wolf depends alone upon his
+quickness in catching a rabbit. The mountain lion depends upon his
+stealthiness when stalking a deer. The Indian relies upon his skill in
+imitating the call or the appearance of an animal when he tries to
+approach near enough to use his bow and arrow. Civilized men have lost
+much of the keenness of sight and hearing they once had, but they have
+far more than made up for this through their ingenuity in making deadly
+weapons.
+
+We depend no longer upon the hunt for each day's supply of food. But the
+instinct to hunt which still remains we use to amuse ourselves while
+upon our camping trips. Some people even made a living by hunting for
+the market, although, fortunately for the wild creatures, little of this
+kind of hunting is now permitted.
+
+The desire to get out of doors and live for a time each year among the
+wild mountains is another instinct which comes to us from our savage
+forefathers. This is a beneficial instinct, for life in the fresh air
+gives us new strength. The hunting instinct is not wrong in itself. It
+is the manner in which we hunt that is wrong. But how much finer it
+would be if, instead of using an outing as an excuse to destroy the wild
+creatures, we should use it to learn about them and their curious ways.
+How much more real pleasure there is in studying the habits of the
+denizens of the woods and fields than there is in killing them!
+
+Many a boy wants to carry a gun, because he has read lurid stories of
+Indians and robbers, or of hunting in the jungles where lions and tigers
+abound. This often leads to the killing of harmless birds for the lack
+of bigger game. Boys should be taught either at home or in school the
+sacredness of life, and a feeling of pity and love for the wild
+creatures that are surrounded by enemies on every side. They should be
+taught that animals have feelings and that they want to live. They
+should be taught how wrong it is to destroy life uselessly. The nest of
+eggs or helpless young left to their fate through the thoughtless
+killing of a mother bird is a sight which must arouse the sympathy of
+every boy who has been taught what it means.
+
+  [Illustration: _Eastman Kodak Company_
+  The only right way to hunt birds' nests--with a camera.]
+
+The killing of the mothers is the surest way to destroy a species. The
+laws in most of our states now regulate hunting during the breeding
+season and limit the number of wild animals or birds that may be taken
+in a given time. Whenever the numbers of any species become so reduced
+that it is in danger of extinction, all hunting of that species should
+be prohibited for a number of years.
+
+We should feel sorry for those men who live in a civilized land and get
+the benefit of its advantages and yet are worse than savages at heart.
+If these men who are so wasteful of wild life could be stripped of their
+destructive weapons and sent into the wilds to make their living as
+savages do, they would soon learn to be more careful.
+
+The animals prey upon each other because it is their nature to do so and
+because their lives depend upon it. Savages hunt because they must have
+food. We do not need to hunt, but, because of our higher intelligence,
+our hunting methods are far more destructive than are those of either
+animals or savages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+
+WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+
+Nature has done more for our land than for almost any other. She has
+given it vast forests, fertile soil, favorable climate, enormous water
+power, many minerals, and a wonderful variety of animal life.
+
+During all the centuries that the Indians lived here before the coming
+of white men, wild game furnished them their chief food, but in spite of
+this, the amount of game was not decreased. When our forefathers landed
+upon this continent, it fairly swarmed with animals and birds. With the
+clearing away of the forests and the settling of the prairies men could
+not help depriving many wild creatures of both their shelter and their
+food, but this was not the chief cause for their rapid decrease in
+numbers. Hunters followed them persistently into the wilder hills and
+mountains, and many, not needed for food, were killed for their furs.
+
+  [Illustration: "There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation
+  or devastation--which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation
+  of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent
+  asset." _Western Wild Life Call_, published by the California Associated
+  Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.]
+
+Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts
+of our country and see very little life of any kind except birds and
+the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a
+deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come
+upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him
+before he is gone.
+
+The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good
+reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some
+species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection
+will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where
+man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.
+
+  [Illustration: _L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont._
+  Why the buffalo have nearly disappeared from the land.]
+
+The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this
+noble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.
+Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other
+thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone,
+people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not
+more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped the hunters were
+placed under protection and now they are slowly increasing.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History_
+  A group of Roosevelt elk.]
+
+The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky
+Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the
+Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in
+California is proud of his great achievement.
+
+Of all the elk which once spread over the western part of our country,
+only a few remain outside of the Yellowstone region. A protected herd
+exists in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and another small herd
+roams through the wilder parts of the northern Coast Ranges. The
+antelope, so common on the plains only a few years ago, are all gone
+except for small, scattered herds in the more remote parts of the West.
+
+Of the many fur-bearing animals which once inhabited the Northwest,
+beavers were the most widespread and abundant. Their pelts were so
+valuable that they were used as money. For many years the trapping of
+these little animals was an important industry, until at last they were
+practically exterminated in every stream throughout the western half of
+the country. A few beaver are known to remain in the Yellowstone Park,
+where they are of course carefully protected. In Oregon a few escaped
+and have been carefully protected for some years. In certain places they
+are now quite abundant. In parts of New England and Canada they are now
+increasing under the protection of the game laws.
+
+The sea otter, now extremely rare, is so highly valued for its fur that
+it soon may become extinct, although completely protected by law.
+
+  [Illustration: _New York Zoölogical Society_
+  A beaver and its lodge.]
+
+The passenger pigeon, whose flights almost covered the sky at times not
+more than forty years ago, and whose numbers seemed so great that no one
+believed it possible of extermination, is now gone forever. The
+extinction of these birds was due chiefly to their being slaughtered at
+their roosting places.
+
+The California condor, one of the largest of birds, is almost extinct.
+The prairie chicken has disappeared from the prairies and plains.
+Certain species of grouse, and especially the sage grouse, mountain
+quail, and others, which inhabit sparsely settled regions, are thought
+to be still holding their ground, but should be more carefully
+protected. The valley quail is, however, much reduced in numbers; while
+ducks, geese, and smaller shore birds are decreasing with each
+succeeding year.
+
+Even in the jungles of far-away Africa, where we would think the animals
+are exposed to little danger of extinction, some of them, such as the
+elephant, are in urgent need of protection. In the far North the great
+polar bear will not long survive unless rigidly protected.
+
+What terrible scourge has so suddenly come upon the birds and animals
+that once adorned our country? How is it that in the short space of
+fifty years many of them have almost disappeared from their ancient
+haunts? We feel like hiding our faces in shame, for it is the same man
+scourge that for many hundreds of years has been destroying the forests,
+the animals, and the birds of many other countries.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A California condor.]
+
+The helplessness of all the wild creatures before man's destructive
+weapons should arouse our sympathy, if nothing else does. Leaving out of
+account a few predatory animals that destroy large numbers of other
+animals, we should most earnestly try to protect those that remain.
+
+The beauty of the birds, their sweet music, the companionship which they
+afford, and, last but not least, their great value to the farmer and
+fruit grower, should arouse our earnest efforts in their behalf.
+
+In our country alone an army of five million men and boys go out to hunt
+wild creatures every year. The animals are so defenseless against man's
+weapons that it is not a fair fight, in which the quicker or sharper
+escape, but a slaughter.
+
+If these hunters were savages armed only with bows and arrows, then the
+wild creatures would have a chance for their lives. Besides, savages do
+not kill for sport, nor do they purposely destroy Nature's most valuable
+gifts to them.
+
+The forest that has been cut down will grow again. The soil that has
+been made poor will, if let alone, sometime become fertile again. But
+those species of birds, animals, and fish which we have completely
+destroyed will never be restored to us.
+
+  [Illustration: _Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies_
+  The sage grouse, which is in danger of extinction.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
+
+THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE
+
+
+Our savage ancestors depended largely for food upon animals, birds, and
+fish which they obtained. They used the skins and furs for clothing and
+the plumes for decorating themselves. They allowed no part of the bodies
+of the animals they killed to go to waste.
+
+We do not now have to depend upon the wild creatures for food, because
+our flocks and herds supply all that we require. But Dame Fashion has
+decreed that furs and feathers are still the proper thing to wear. Thus
+it has come about that those animals that have soft, furry coats and
+those birds that have bright plumage are hunted more eagerly now than
+they were long ago when food was the most important thing.
+
+The demand for furs has always been great and the trapping industry has
+employed thousands of men ever since our land was discovered, but in
+recent years feathers have become almost as important. No region where
+fur-bearing animals have their lairs, or birds of beautiful plumage have
+their nests, is too far away or too difficult for the hunters and
+trappers to go and hunt.
+
+The business of killing wild creatures for money makes beasts out of men
+and has led to most heartless cruelties. The savage, hunting for food,
+kills his prey at once; but the fur trapper with a circuit which takes
+sometimes a week to cover often has to leave his prey, tortured in the
+traps, until it starves to death.
+
+If the wearer of that handsome warm fur coat could know what was,
+perhaps, the story of the wild creature to which it once belonged,
+would she enjoy it so much? Could the wearer of that gay hat, for the
+making of which not only a mother bird, but perhaps a whole family of
+little ones, gave up their lives, take so much pleasure in it if she
+knew the history of its plumes?
+
+It is not the desire for warm furs about our necks or for beautiful
+feathers in our hats that is wrong. It is the needless suffering that
+those who hunt and trap cause the wild creatures that we should be
+ashamed of and insist upon having stopped.
+
+The work of the trapper and hunter is nearly done. These men have
+despoiled for money the life of a whole continent in a few short years.
+The fur-bearing animals, if hunted in moderation, would have continued
+to people the wilds for all time to come. But neither the wearer of furs
+nor the hunter has given one thought to their preservation.
+
+In the getting of bird plumage for millinery purposes we find cruelties
+practiced which are almost beyond our belief. The lowest savage that
+ever lived on the earth could be no worse than many of our bird hunters.
+
+Birds have habits which make them easier to kill than fur-bearing
+animals. Although the modern fashion for feathers began less than fifty
+years ago, the birds that afford bright and graceful plumage have
+already been nearly exterminated. Now most of them are protected in our
+country, and the sale of feathers from other countries is prohibited in
+our markets. But there are some places where the law is not enforced, as
+well as many other countries where there are no laws, and thoughtless
+women still wear plumes. To supply the demands of fashion all the remote
+lands as well as islands of the sea are being searched.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Young great blue herons in their nest.]
+
+The slaughter began with the bright-colored songbirds, terns, gulls,
+herons, egrets, and flamingos. Then it extended to other sea birds,
+including the albatross, to bright-colored tropical birds, and to the
+wonderful birds of paradise. How true is the following statement made in
+a millinery store:
+
+"You had better take the feather for twelve dollars," said the clerk,
+"for it is very cheap at that price. These feathers are becoming scarce
+and very soon we shall not be able to secure them."
+
+Here is milady's beautiful cape glistening with all the colors of the
+rainbow. Of what is this gorgeous thing made? Would you believe it
+possible that it is formed entirely of humming birds' skins, with the
+heads and long, slender bills? Perhaps a thousand of the tiny birds were
+sacrificed that some woman might have a beautiful cape. Does it seem
+possible that any gentlewoman could wear this cape, who had any
+realization of the tragedies that had to take place in humming-bird life
+in order that it might be made? Could she wear this cape if she knew of
+the forsaken nests and the hundreds of dying young ones waiting for the
+mothers that never returned?
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Forster's tern or sea swallow on its nest. The wings and tail of this
+  bird are used for millinery purposes.]
+
+But more terrible, if anything, than the story of the humming-bird cape
+is the story of the delicate egret plumes on yonder hat. They once
+adorned the mother bird at nesting time in some far marsh. The feathers
+are almost perfect at this time, and to get them the bird must be
+killed. Each bunch of egret feathers represents a family tragedy,--a
+nest of little birds left to die, because the mother has been sacrificed
+to satisfy the demands of fashion.
+
+The plume hunters invade the nesting places of the egrets, herons, and
+flamingos, often leaving not a single bird in what were once happy
+colonies, except the starving little ones. Millions of these plumes have
+been obtained along our seacoasts and about the interior lakes and
+marshes. Is it any wonder that the egrets are nearly extinct as a result
+of this merciless slaughter?
+
+Now, when it is almost too late, protection has been given these
+beautiful birds. Bird refuges have been established at different
+favorable points along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the
+Klamath and Malheur Lake regions of Oregon. These refuges are watched
+over by wardens, and we hope that the birds inhabiting them will thus be
+enabled to increase and again fill the almost forsaken marshes.
+
+In our plea for the protection of the birds of attractive plumage, we
+must not forget those of the tropical jungles. Remote as many of these
+jungles are, the plumage hunter is devastating them already. The bird of
+paradise, found in the East India islands, will soon be extinct unless
+protected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
+
+THE COURT OF THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+
+Once upon a time, not very long ago, the birds and animals were brought
+into court to be tried on the charge of committing all sorts of
+misdeeds. Some of their accusers wanted to shoot them for food. Others
+said they did much harm and should be destroyed, while still others
+envied their beautiful coats of fur or feathers. To settle the matter
+fairly, the judge decided that each prisoner should be tried by itself.
+
+The first case called was that of the English sparrow, who made such a
+noisy disturbance that the bailiff had to call for silence. All
+witnesses asserted that the bird was a foreigner and did not belong in
+this country. They further testified that the sparrow was a meddlesome,
+gossiping neighbor, always fighting the other birds and driving them
+away. The sparrow looked around, but not a single friend could he find.
+The court decided that he should be driven out and made the lawful prey
+of every one. He cautioned all present, however, always to be very
+careful to distinguish between the English sparrow and the other
+sparrows. The latter birds must on no account be molested, for they were
+without any exceptions most useful citizens.
+
+In regard to the linnet the judge hardly knew what to say. The bird was
+shown to be a sweet singer, but very destructive of fruit. It was
+finally decided that a census of the linnets must be taken occasionally.
+Whenever their number was found to be so great as to endanger the fruit
+crop in any particular place, the farmers were to be allowed to dispose
+of a certain number.
+
+The bobolink had many friends as well as enemies present. Every one that
+knew the bobolink in its summer home in the North insisted that this
+beautiful singer must be protected. But the people from the South, where
+it spends the winter, wished the privilege of shooting it. They said
+that its flesh formed a delicious morsel and also that in the rice
+fields, where it was known as the "rice bird," it did a great deal of
+harm. The judge refused to listen to the plea of the hunters and said
+that this attractive bird must be protected in both its winter and
+summer homes.
+
+The turn of the blue jay came next. Every one wondered what the charge
+against this bird with the beautiful blue plumage could be. Some thought
+that he was on trial for his discordant screeching, which alarmed all
+the inhabitants of the woods. The charge against the jay was, however,
+far more serious. He had been caught while making his breakfast of some
+baby birds which a mother robin had just hatched. The quail and every
+other small bird present called for vengeance on this ruthless destroyer
+of their homes. The gardener also added that the bird ate his cherries
+and apples.
+
+The jay now presented a strong defense, saying that most of his food was
+made up of harmful insects and worms. He proved that he did almost as
+much good as harm. The judge, knowing what a wise bird the jay was, told
+him to go but that he must thereafter look out for himself.
+
+The family of hawks was next examined. There were many witnesses who
+declared that they were the most destructive of neighbors and lived
+entirely upon small birds and chickens. The songbirds all raised their
+voices against hawks, saying that when they left their nests to hunt
+for food for their children, they were never sure of finding them alive
+upon their return. The judge inquired carefully as to the truth of these
+complaints, but found that only a few of the hawks were guilty as
+claimed. These included the peregrine falcon, sharp-shinned hawk, and
+Cooper's hawk. The other hawks proved that they were the farmers' best
+friends, for they waged endless war upon mice, rats, ground squirrels,
+gophers, and rabbits, and only occasionally caught other birds. They had
+evidence also that in those places where their numbers had been much
+reduced by the hunters, the small rodents increased enormously.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Full-grown young red-tailed hawks.]
+
+The court had to be held at night to accommodate the owls and give them
+justice. The judge decided from the evidence that, in this family as in
+the last, there were good members as well as bad and he could not
+condemn them all to death. The owls proved that they were of even more
+benefit to the farmers than were the hawks, because of the large number
+of rats which they ate. The great horned owl and the barred owl only
+were singled out for punishment.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  The screech owl at home. This is a well-known bird, of great economic
+  value because it catches so many mice.]
+
+The case of the meadow lark was called next. An old farmer complained
+that this bird had destroyed his young grain. Then the hunters made the
+plea that the meadow lark was really a game bird and that they ought to
+be allowed to shoot it. In defense of these birds the stomachs of many
+of them that had been killed were shown in court. It was proved that
+two thirds of all their food was made up of harmful insects and that the
+farmers ought to be glad to have them about. It was further shown that
+if the insects killed by the meadow larks in one day in the San Joaquin
+Valley, California, were loaded on the cars and hauled away, it would
+take a train of twenty cars of ten tons each. The meadow lark, upon this
+showing, was allowed to go unmolested and at once began a happy carol.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A coyote, one of the keenest-witted animals of the Western plains.]
+
+The grizzly bear had been summoned, but could not be found, for all of
+his species had been killed except a few in the Yellowstone Park. But
+the black bear was brought in and accused of eating young calves and
+colts. The stockmen asked that all the black bears be killed. The judge
+decided, however, that as there are so few left, and they are so timid
+and rarely do any harm, and are, besides, among the most interesting of
+the citizens of the woods, they should go free and be protected from the
+hunter.
+
+The coyote was next dragged in and accused of all manner of evil deeds.
+He pleaded in defense that he helped to keep down the numbers of the
+rabbits and ground squirrels, and that if it were not for his tribe,
+these little animals would eat up everything. The judge decided that the
+coyote was on the whole a rather unpleasant neighbor and refused to
+afford him any protection. Every one knew, however, that the coyote was
+so sharp and keen that he was a match for most of the enemies about him
+and would get along very well.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A weasel in its summer coat.]
+
+Those sly little animals, the skunk, weasel, coon, and mink, destroyed a
+great many birds, especially those that nested on or near the ground,
+according to the report of most of those present in court. But the skunk
+had some good friends who showed that his chief food was insects and
+worms, and that he did more good than harm. It was further proved that
+the fur of all these animals was so valuable that, while trapping them
+would be permitted, they must not be exterminated. In regard to the
+weasel, the testimony showed that he was a badly slandered animal. Most
+of his food appeared to be rats and mice, and only rarely did he kill
+chickens. The judge added that these poor animals had too often been
+condemned offhand. Although they occasionally ate chickens, no one had
+tried to find out the good which they did.
+
+To hear the complaints against the great California sea lion, the court
+adjourned to the seashore. The fishermen declared that the sea lion ate
+the fish upon which their livelihood depended, and also broke their
+nets. They demanded that all the sea lions be killed. Careful search in
+the stomachs of some of them that had been taken for that purpose made
+it very clear that the fishermen were wrong. The sea lions ate almost no
+fish, but lived upon squid and other sea animals not valuable to the
+fishermen. As a result, these interesting animals were given full
+protection.
+
+The oyster farmers complained most indignantly to the court about the
+conduct of the wild ducks. They said that the ducks ate a large part of
+the young oysters on their oyster farms. They wanted the ducks shot
+without delay, for their business was almost ruined. This matter was
+carefully looked into, and it was proved that the ducks really ate very
+few oysters.
+
+The judge remarked as he adjourned court that if all the accusations
+were true, hardly a wild creature would be left. He said further that
+each one was entitled to fair treatment at the hands of men unless it
+was wholly bad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY
+
+THE BIRDS OUR GOOD FRIENDS AND PLEASANT COMPANIONS
+
+
+As we lie partly awake on some bright spring morning, we hear through
+the open window such a chorus of music that it seems almost as though we
+must be in some enchanted land. This music, however, is the songs of the
+birds that nest about our homes.
+
+We can distinguish in the chorus the notes of many different birds. From
+the treetop come the sweet songs of the oriole and robin. Upon a low
+bush sits a black-headed grosbeak that never seems to weary of his
+refrain. From various hidden places in the dense foliage come the notes
+of the song sparrow and the lazuli bunting. From its perch upon some
+fence post the meadow lark adds to the cheerfulness of the morning. If
+your home is far enough south, you may hear the mocking bird pouring
+forth its melody in endless variation.
+
+Rising above all other sounds, as the morning advances, are the cheery
+calls of the quail who seems to say: "Where are you? Where are you? Stay
+right there; stay right there." Both in the morning and in the evening
+the almost heavenly music of the thrush echoes through the deep woods.
+In the quiet night the hoot of the owls is most entertaining.
+
+Would you for anything have the birds leave us? Would you for anything
+lose these airy creatures whose music, bright plumage, and graceful
+movements not only add so much to the pleasure of our daily lives but
+also serve us in so many ways? The woods, fields, and waters would be
+lonely without them.
+
+Did you ever think that it is possible, that it is indeed likely, that
+many of these beautiful creatures will leave us for all time if we do
+not treat them kindly and give them every protection in our power? Did
+you ever think of all the enemies that are constantly on the watch for
+the birds,--the thoughtless boy who robs their nests, the angry farmer
+who mistakenly believes they injure him, the hunter who thinks only of
+how good they taste, the sleek cat lying so innocently by your fireside,
+which loves a bird above everything else, and last of all, the blue jay,
+butcher bird, and some of the hawks and owls?
+
+To realize how our home would seem without birds, let us take an
+imaginary journey far across the water to "sunny Italy." Here you will
+rarely hear bird music upon spring mornings, unless it be that of some
+poor caged creature. If you will walk through the country, you will see
+few birds where once they must have been abundant. But upon every
+holiday you will see the fields filled with hunters, who with keen eyes
+are watching for any stray birds that have happened to stop on their
+journey across the country to rest and to hunt worms or taste a bit of
+fruit. The Italian does not know the good the birds do his garden and
+that it would be the part of wisdom for him to let them have a little of
+his corn and fruit.
+
+We will now journey to Spain and learn something about the treatment of
+our bird friends there. This country was once rich and prosperous. From
+it came many of the early explorers of our own land. The people of the
+central highlands of Spain never loved to hear the birds sing, because
+they were always thinking of the grain which the birds took. Thinking to
+save their crops, they not only killed and scared away all the birds
+they could, but they also cut down the trees so that the birds would
+have no places to nest.
+
+Thus the people freed themselves from the birds, but what was the
+harvest that they reaped? When the trees were gone they had no fuel, the
+soil dried out more quickly, and the insects increased until they
+destroyed far more of the grain and fruit than the birds could possibly
+have done. The people are now very poor and just manage to live from one
+harvest to another.
+
+Now let us learn a little about our own birds and what they are doing
+for us. We ought to know the habits of all the common birds that
+frequent our gardens and be able to tell each by its note. This would
+add greatly to our pleasure when out of doors and make us appreciate the
+services they are rendering.
+
+Go where you will through the open fields or among the trees and bushes,
+you will find different kinds of birds and all of them busily engaged.
+They are searching over every bit of ground as well as over the trunks,
+branches, and leaves of the trees. Some are after the seeds of different
+kinds of weeds. Others are getting the worms and insects that infest the
+trees. Watch a flock of the little titmice going carefully over all the
+leaves and branches of an oak tree. When they have finished, there are
+few insects or their eggs left upon it.
+
+How anxious are some of our farmers as well as the sportsmen to have the
+meadow lark classed as a pest or as a game bird. Would that the farmers
+knew how much good this bird does them! The stomachs of many of these
+larks have been carefully examined in order to find out what they
+really do eat. The contents show that more than half of the food of the
+meadow lark is made up of harmful insects, including beetles,
+grasshoppers, crickets, Jerusalem crickets, cutworms, caterpillars,
+wireworms, bugs, bees, ants, wasps, flies, spiders, and many others.
+These birds also eat large quantities of the seeds of weeds and at times
+damage the grain fields. The good that they do, however, far outweighs
+the evil.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A young meadow lark.]
+
+Woodpeckers belong to another class of birds that are very useful to us.
+How often have we heard them hammering upon a dead tree as they drill
+holes in search of the worms and beetles that are hidden under the bark
+or in the heart of the wood. It has long been the habit of hunters to
+shoot woodpeckers just for sport, although no one eats them nor are they
+known to do any harm. With a decrease in their numbers there has been an
+increase in insect pests which are now destroying so many trees in all
+parts of our country. The woodpeckers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are
+worth almost their weight in gold, for they destroy millions of beetles
+that are killing the great sugar pines and yellow pines. Here and there
+you will find a tree, attacked by the beetles, from which the
+woodpeckers have almost stripped the bark in their search for these
+insects.
+
+The food of the martins and swallows is wholly made up of insects. We
+have all seen them in their graceful flight and have noticed how they
+seize their insect prey while on the wing. The martins are of little
+value for food, and yet, in some parts of our country they have become
+almost extinct because of the pursuit of them by pot hunters.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A barn swallow.]
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A least sandpiper or snipe, one of the shore birds.]
+
+The shore birds form a group of very great value. They include those
+long-legged birds with slender bills which are found, usually along the
+shores of the ocean and of lakes and small bodies of water, but
+sometimes in the interior away from the water. The food of these birds
+is almost wholly insects, which are harmful in various ways. Among these
+insects are grasshoppers, army worms, cutworms, cabbage worms, grubs,
+horseflies, and mosquitoes.
+
+So cruelly and relentlessly have the shore birds been pursued by men who
+call themselves "sportsmen;" that many species are nearly extinct. We
+hope that the Migratory Bird Law will be enforced and that with the
+protection this gives them they will again increase and fill their old
+haunts. But we must ever be on the watch, for there will still be greedy
+hunters trying to evade the law until all our boys grow up with love and
+appreciation for the birds. The killdeer, snipe, and other plovers,
+whose habits make them the most interesting of the shore birds,
+especially need our protection. We have all seen these birds in our
+walks along the shore. Small and delicate their bodies are; each one
+would make scarcely a mouthful, and yet the pot hunters have seemed
+determined to kill them all.
+
+How many people ever think of the quail in any other light than as a
+delicious morsel to be served up on toast for dinner? The quail is not
+only useful because of the insects which it destroys, but is a most
+wonderfully interesting and attractive bird. If you have ever disturbed
+a mountain quail with a brood of young, you will never forget what an
+interesting sight the mother presented as she strutted back and forth on
+a log, warning her little ones to keep out of sight.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A white heron.]
+
+Quail eat over a hundred kinds of insects, and happy should be that
+farmer who can get them to come about his home. Can you find it in your
+heart to shoot the father bird, as, perched upon some sightly point, he
+watches for danger while the mother just off the nest with her little
+brood feeds trustfully under his care?
+
+The hunting of quail for market is now prohibited by law. But before
+protection came market hunters were known to carry out the most cruel
+methods in order to bag the quail in large numbers. In the drier parts
+of our country, the springs where quail came to drink were covered until
+the thirsty birds gathered in large numbers. In this way the hunters
+were able to obtain all they wanted.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Gulls and terns on their resting ground.]
+
+Let us henceforth show by our kindness and good will to the living
+things around us that we are not merciless savages, thinking only of
+something to eat, but rather that we appreciate their presence and the
+great good that they do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
+
+HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN
+
+
+In the preceding chapters we have learned something of the destructive
+warfare that men have carried on against wild creatures. We have learned
+that some species are already extinct and that many others have been so
+reduced in numbers that they are threatened with the same fate.
+
+Nothing that we can do will bring back those that are gone, but we can
+save those that are left. Throughout our own country as well as many
+foreign countries, people are waking up to the necessity of protecting
+wild life. Thousands of men and women are spending their time and money
+trying to save birds and other animals. Among the things they are doing
+is the establishing of refuges and game preserves, working for better
+laws, and teaching boys and girls to be careful of life and not wantonly
+to destroy it.
+
+The most important thing that we can do to bring wild creatures back
+again is to let them alone. Man is their worst enemy, and, if he can be
+kept from hunting, nearly all will be able to take care of themselves
+and increase in numbers. We can help Nature by supplying them with food
+when it is scarce and by protecting them from a few predatory animals
+and birds. The worst of these are the cougar or mountain lion, wild cat,
+lynx, wolves, and coyotes; the blue jay, butcher bird, and several of
+the hawks and owls. The cougar is the worst of all, for it has been
+estimated that one of these animals kills on the average fifty deer a
+year. Many of the states offer bounties for the killing of the mountain
+lion and coyote.
+
+Ordinarily birds are able to secure their own food; but sometimes
+during long, snowy winters those that do not fly away South need food.
+There are also many trees which bear fruit that is not much used by us
+but which is very attractive to the birds. The planting of such trees
+aids in bringing birds to our homes and encourages their increase.
+
+  [Illustration: We can help to conserve bird life by providing safe
+  nesting places for our feathered friends.]
+
+The settlement of the lands suitable to farming has deprived some of the
+hoofed animals, such as the elk, of their natural feeding grounds. The
+elk that are found in the summer in the meadows of the Yellowstone Park
+migrate in winter to the lower valleys outside of the park. These
+valleys are mostly fenced up, and to keep the elk from getting into
+trouble with the farmers it is often necessary for the government to buy
+hay and feed them.
+
+In order to make sure that the wild animals shall be free to live and
+increase safe from the hunter, we have established great game preserves
+in different parts of the country. These are usually regions that are
+wild and unsettled and not useful for other purposes. All the great
+National Parks which we are trying to keep in their natural condition
+with their animals, birds, and plants are now game preserves. Among them
+are the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater Lake parks. Visitors
+to these preserves are not allowed to carry any guns, and wardens
+constantly patrol them.
+
+The life of the Yellowstone Park is wonderfully interesting. Here we
+find droves of many of the animals that were in danger of becoming
+extinct. Among them are the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Here the grizzly
+and all the lesser bears are safe from the hunter. They have almost lost
+their fear of man and come about the camps and hotels for food, as the
+domestic animals do. In the park are some colonies of beaver, too, which
+will never again be disturbed by the fur hunter. On the higher peaks are
+a few Rocky Mountain sheep.
+
+Another way in which we are protecting the wild animals is by making it
+legal to hunt them during only a short time each year. This is called
+the "open season." In the case of some of the animals that are nearly
+extinct we have made a "closed season" extending through a number of
+years. With this protection we are hoping that they will be saved and
+sometime become numerous again. All our states have made game laws which
+give more or less protection to the deer, elk, moose, antelope,
+squirrel, and other animals. In the case of some of these animals the
+females are absolutely protected, and the number of the males--as of the
+deer, for example--that may be killed in a season is often as small as
+two, and in two states it is only one. A heavy fine is imposed upon any
+one killing the protected animals or having their meat in his
+possession.
+
+We are trying to protect the birds in much the same manner as the wild
+animals. But because of their migrations this is much more difficult.
+Many kinds of birds travel with the changing seasons from north to
+south across different countries. If the people of one country protect
+them and those of another do not, they may easily become exterminated.
+Some species have become extinct in the last fifty years, and others
+have been reduced to a few pairs in regions where they were once seen in
+thousands.
+
+There are three things that have brought about this slaughter of the
+birds. The first is hunting them for food. This was not so serious until
+the market hunters began their work. Then the small game birds that were
+salable quickly began to disappear. In most of our states the sale of
+game birds in the market is now prohibited.
+
+Another cause for the decrease in the birds is the wanton shooting of
+some just for sport, and the hunting of others that are mistakenly
+supposed to be harmful. We cannot wholly stop this until we teach people
+to respect the birds, to love them for their music, and to appreciate
+the great good which many of them do by their destruction of insects and
+small animal pests.
+
+Many of the birds which we have too often tried to kill or drive away
+are among the best friends we have. When we have learned all about their
+habits and their food, we shall find that only a very few are really
+harmful, and that the others abundantly repay the toll that they take of
+our produce. The farmer and the fruit grower should be particularly
+interested in protecting and encouraging the birds. If the birds pull up
+the sprouting seeds in your garden, do not kill them but protect the
+plants with wire screens. It is likely that these very birds feed
+largely upon the insects that are so harmful to your crops.
+
+If the children in our schools could spend a little of their time in
+the interesting study of bird life, we are sure that when they grow up
+the wanton destruction of birds will almost cease. The Boy Scouts and
+the Camp Fire Girls are learning to love and respect life in the wilds
+and would not for anything injure its inhabitants. The children of the
+Agassiz Associations and the Junior Audubon Societies can also be proud
+of the work they are doing. They are not only saving the birds about our
+homes but are attracting others by putting out food, planting trees that
+bear attractive fruit, and making nesting places for the birds.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The boys who are going to see that our wild life is protected.]
+
+The third important thing which has been bringing about the decrease of
+the birds is hunting them for their plumes. For fifty years the demand
+for plumes for millinery purposes has been growing. The trade has spread
+until it now reaches the most remote islands of the sea. No bird, be
+its home in the most remote and inaccessible jungles, has until recently
+been safe from the plume hunter.
+
+Now some of the foremost nations have passed laws for the protection of
+many of the water and jungle birds, which, unfortunately for themselves,
+are so beautiful that milady longs to have them for her bonnet. Nearly
+all the states of our own land offer more or less protection to birds of
+beautiful plumage. There is, however, much yet to be done, for in parts
+of our country birds that should be protected are still at the mercy of
+the plume hunter.
+
+The Migratory Bird Law recently passed by Congress is one of the most
+important things which we have ever done for the birds. This law
+protects the multitude of water birds as well as land birds, that
+migrate with the changing seasons. It is especially important that all
+such birds be protected in the regions where they nest.
+
+In the case of the water birds the nests are often grouped in colonies
+in certain places and not scattered singly here and there as with most
+land birds. Thus when a colony, say of the heron, tern, or flamingo, is
+found it is very easy for the hunter to break it up and destroy all the
+birds. Among the water birds the gulls, terns, grebes, herons, egrets,
+osprey, flamingos, and pelicans have been so hunted for their plumes
+that some of them are almost extinct. Several of these species love the
+rocky coasts, where their nests are found upon the almost bare ledges of
+the cliffs. Others establish colonies about the marshy lagoons of the
+Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and about the marshy shore of the lakes
+of the interior.
+
+During recent years many bird refuges have been established in various
+parts of the country. Such refuges are now scattered all along the
+Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as at various other localities
+throughout the country which are favorite nesting places for the birds.
+Some of these refuges have been established and are guarded by the
+government; others have been donated by wealthy persons who love birds
+and want to see them preserved.
+
+  [Illustration: _E. R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zoölogical Society_
+  A flock of wild duck.]
+
+The most beautiful of the water birds have been so relentlessly hunted
+by the plume gatherers that at the time of the establishment of the
+refuges some of them were almost extinct and it was feared the birds
+would not be able to survive. But in most cases the effect of protection
+was magical. The bird refuges in the Southern coast islands and marshes
+which were almost deserted are now alive again with birds. Here we can
+get some idea of the wonderful richness of life before the bird hunters
+began their work. Even now, in spite of the watchful patrols, the
+hunters sometimes succeed in getting at the colonies. In order to
+insure full protection the refuges must be extended and more patrols
+employed, for such is the value of the plumes that desperate men will
+undergo great risks for the sake of obtaining them.
+
+In order fully to stop this work, all those countries where plumes are
+in demand must forbid their sale. Only when there is no more demand can
+we get rid of the hunters.
+
+In our efforts to protect bird life, we must not forget to take into
+account the instincts of our friend Pussy. It hardly seems as though the
+quiet house cat could do much harm, but if you will watch one out of
+doors when the birds are around you will be convinced that Pussy is one
+of the worst enemies that small birds have. Cats destroy many thousands
+of birds throughout the country. It is believed that they each average
+at least fifty birds killed every year. If you will multiply this number
+by the number of cats in your neighborhood, you will get some idea of
+the great losses among the birds due to the cats. We must choose between
+Pussy and the birds.
+
+Arbor Day and Bird Day in our schools help call to mind the claims
+Nature has upon us. We might celebrate them by planting trees which
+furnish food that the birds like, for the trees and birds go together.
+
+How pleasant it will be when that happy time comes in which the wild
+creatures will cease to regard man as their worst enemy! How pleasant it
+will be to go out through the fields and woods and along the shores and
+find that they look upon us as friends!
+
+THE PRECEPTOR'S PLEA FOR THE BIRDS
+
+  Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,
+      From his Republic banished without pity
+  The Poets; in this little town of yours,
+     You put to death, by means of a Committee,
+  The ballad-singers and the Troubadours,
+     The street musicians of the heavenly city,
+  The birds, who make sweet music for us all
+  In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.
+
+  The thrush that carols at the dawn of day
+     From the green steeples of the piny wood;
+  The oriole in the elm; the noisy jay,
+     Jargoning like a foreigner at his food;
+  The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray,
+     Flooding with melody the neighborhood;
+  Linnet and meadow lark, and all the throng
+  That dwell in nests, and have the gift of song.
+
+  You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain
+     Of a scant handful more or less of wheat,
+  Or rye, or barley, or some other grain,
+     Scratched up at random by industrious feet,
+  Searching for worm or weevil after rain!
+     Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet
+  As are the songs these uninvited guests
+  Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts.
+
+  Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these?
+     Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught
+  The dialect they speak, where melodies
+     Alone are the interpreters of thought?
+  Whose household words are songs in many keys,
+     Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught!
+  Whose habitations in the treetops even
+  Are halfway houses on the road to heaven!
+
+  Think, every morning when the sun peeps through
+     The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
+  How jubilant the happy birds renew
+     Their old, melodious madrigals of love!
+  And when you think of this, remember too
+    'Tis always morning somewhere, and above
+  The awakening continents, from shore to shore,
+  Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.
+
+  Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
+     Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
+  As in an idiot's brain remembered words
+     Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
+  Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
+     Make up for the lost music, when your teams
+  Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
+  The feathered gleaners follow to your door?
+
+  What! would you rather see the incessant stir
+     Of insects in the windrows of the hay,
+  And hear the locust and the grasshopper
+     Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play?
+  Is this more pleasant to you than the whir
+     Of meadow lark, and its sweet roundelay,
+  Or twitter of little fieldfares, as you take
+  Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake?
+
+  You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
+     They are the winged wardens of your farms,
+  Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
+     And from your harvests keep a hundred harms;
+  Even the blackest of them all, the crow,
+     Renders good service as your man-at-arms,
+  Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,
+  And crying havoc on the slug and snail.
+
+HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, _The Birds of Killingworth_
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abandoned farms,                                                 52.
+  Acacia tree, gum arabic made from,                               95.
+  Adobe soil,                                                      58.
+  Æolian soil,                                                     66.
+  Africa, need for protection of animals in,                      180.
+  Agassiz Associations, work of,                                  207.
+  Air, importance of pure,                                         10.
+  Alaska, protection of fish in waters about,                     170.
+  Alkali soil,                                                     59.
+  Alluvial soil,                                                   64.
+  Animals, the first domestic,                                      5;
+    careless destruction of,                                   12, 49;
+    court of birds and,                                       188-194;
+    predatory,                                                    203.
+  Antelope, disappearance of,                                     179;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Appalachian Forest, the,                                    133-134.
+  Arabs, life of the,                                              25.
+  Arbor Day, celebration of,                                      210;
+  Argentine ant, a plague,                                        153.
+  Australia, rabbits as pests in,                                 152.
+  Aztec Indians,                                                   20.
+
+  Bacteria in soil,                                             59-60.
+  Balance of nature,                                              151;
+    effects of upsetting,                                     151-154.
+  Barren Lands,                                                   101.
+  Bears, in early times,                                           21;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Beaver, trapping of,                                            179;
+    protection of,                                                205.
+  Big trees of California,                                     49, 99.
+  Bird Day, observance of,                                        210.
+  Bird of paradise, nearly extinct,                               187.
+  Bird refuges,                                          187, 208-209;
+    patrols for,                                              209-210.
+  Birds,                                                           21;
+    extinct species of,                                            22;
+    destruction of,                                       49, 176-182;
+    hunting of, for millinery purposes,                       183-187;
+    court of the,                                             188-194;
+    our good friends and pleasant companions,                 195-202;
+    predatory,                                                    203;
+    national protection of,                                   205-206.
+  Black bears, case of the,                                   192-193.
+  Blue jays,                                                      189.
+  Bobolink, friends and enemies of,                               189.
+  Bone, implements of,                                              3.
+  Boy Scouts, love of, for wild creatures,                        207.
+  Broad-leaved and narrow-leaved trees,                            98.
+  Bronze, making of,                                                5.
+  Browntail moth,                                                 152.
+  Buffaloes,                                                       21;
+    slaughter of,                                                 177;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+
+  California, forests of,                                      49, 98;
+    "big trees" of,                                                99.
+  California condor, disappearance of,                            180.
+  Camp Fire Girls, love of, for wild creatures,                   207.
+  Camping parties, forest fires started by,                       122.
+  Canada, beaver in,                                              179.
+  Canada balsam,                                                   93.
+  Canals, use of water for,                                        87.
+  Cats, killing of birds by,                                      210.
+  Chesapeake Bay, fisheries of,                                   167.
+  Chestnut-tree blight,                                           107.
+  China, results of destruction of vegetation in,               79-80.
+  Christmas decorations,                                          149.
+  Cigarettes, forest fires caused by,                             122.
+  Citrus canker,                                                  109.
+  "City on the Plain, The,"                                        14.
+  Clay, a part of soil,                                            58.
+  Clay loam,                                                       58.
+  Closed season for hunting,                                      205.
+  Coal, care necessary in use of,                                  12;
+    unequal distribution of,                                       27;
+    deposits and mining of,                                   155-156;
+    waste connected with,                                     156-157.
+  Cod fisheries,                                                  170.
+  Codling moth,                                                   153.
+  Colorado River, mud carried by,                                  73;
+    use of water of, for irrigation,                               87.
+  Cone-bearing trees,                                              98;
+    enemies of,                                                   110.
+  Conservation, meaning of,                                         8.
+  Conservation commissions,                                       138.
+  Coon, arguments for and against the,                            193.
+  Cotton-boll weevil,                                             153.
+  Cougar, a predatory beast,                                      203.
+  Coyotes, killing of,                                            152;
+    defense of,                                                   193.
+  Crater Lake National Park,                                      140.
+
+  Deer, killed by cougars,                                        203.
+  Deltas of rivers,                                            43, 55;
+    alluvial soil in,                                              64.
+  Desert, results of lack of vegetation in the,                 70-71.
+  Digger pines,                                                    99.
+  Ducks, complaints of oyster farmers against, disproved,         194.
+
+  Egrets, killing of,                                        185, 187.
+  Electricity, harnessing of,                                       8;
+    use of water for making,                                       88.
+  Elephant, urgent need of protection of,                         181.
+  Elk,                                                             21;
+    hunting of,                                                   179;
+    feeding grounds of,                                           204.
+  English sparrow,                                                153;
+    should be driven out,                                         188.
+  Erie Canal,                                                      87.
+  Eskimos, the,                                                    25;
+    wood lacking among,                                            89.
+
+  Farmers, great value of work of,                                 51.
+  Feldspar, rock grains called,                                    63.
+  Fertilizers,                                                     11;
+    use of herring for,                                           167.
+  Field mice, plagues of,                                         151.
+  Fire, ignorance of early people concerning,                       3;
+    discovery of,                                                   3.
+    _See_ Forest fires.
+  Fish, caring for,                                                14;
+    protection needed by,                                     162-165.
+  Fish preserves,                                             169-170.
+  Fish traps,                                             22, 165-169.
+  Flamingos, killing of,                                          187.
+  Flowers, destruction of,                                    144-149.
+  Fool's gold,                                                     63.
+  Forest fires,                                      110-111, 119-124;
+    steps taken by national government to prevent,            131-138.
+  Forest rangers, work of,                                    134-137.
+  Forests, effect of cutting down of, on birds,                    22;
+    unequal distribution of,                                    26-27;
+    destruction of,                                                34;
+    effect of destruction of, on soil,                   37-38, 40-42;
+    possible restoration of,                                    47-49;
+    importance of, to man,                                      89-95;
+    location of,                                               96-103;
+    special sources of damage to,                             104-111;
+    various methods by which wasted,                          112-118;
+    government protection of,                                 131-138;
+    National Parks and Forests as playgrounds,                139-143.
+  France, cutting of forests and careless pasturing in,            79.
+  Fruit trees, enemies of,                                   107, 109.
+  Fuel, use of wood for,                                           90;
+    use of peat for,                                              155.
+  Fur seals, destruction of,                                      165.
+
+  Game preserves,                                             204-205.
+  Gas, waste connected with,                                  157-161.
+  Glacial soil,                                                    65.
+  Goats, forests injured by,                                      111.
+  Grand Cañon National Park,                                      140.
+  Grasshoppers, plagues of,                                  109, 151.
+  Great plains,                                                    96.
+  Grizzly bears, destruction of,                             179, 192;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Gusher in California oil field,                            158, 159.
+  Gypsy moth,                                            106-107, 151.
+
+  Hardwood trees,                                                  98.
+  Hawks, arguments for and against,                           189-190.
+  "Heart of the Tree, The,"                                       139.
+  Hens, early ancestors of,                                         5.
+  Herons, hunting of, for their plumage,                          185.
+  Herring, waste in capture of,                               166-167.
+  Hessian fly,                                                    153.
+  Houses, the first,                                                3.
+  Huckleberry shrub, cutting of,                             147, 149.
+  Humming birds, use of skins of, for capes,                      186.
+  Humus, in soil,                                                  57;
+    destruction of, by forest fires,                         123, 125.
+
+  Indians, life of,                                             19-23;
+    uses found by, for wood,                                       90;
+    fishing methods of,                                           163.
+  Insect enemies of trees,                     106, 109, 110, 152-154;
+    warfare waged against, by forest rangers,                 136-137;
+    eaten by birds,                                           197-202.
+  "In the Heart of the Woods,"                                     24.
+  Iron, found in quartz sand,                                      58.
+  Irrigation, storage of water for,                        84, 85, 87.
+  Italy, results of destruction of forests in,                 77, 79;
+    wild chestnuts valued in,                                      90;
+    scarcity of birds in,                                         196.
+
+  Jays, arguments for and against,                                189.
+  Jungle fowls, wild,                                               5.
+  Junior Audubon Societies, work of,                              207.
+
+  Klamath Lake, bird refuge about,                                187.
+  Korea, results of destruction of vegetation in,               79-80;
+    dikes built along rivers in,                                   80.
+
+  Lightning, an enemy of the forest,                          110-111;
+    fires started by,                                             121.
+  Limestone soils,                                                 59.
+  Loam, clay and sandy,                                            58.
+  Lobsters, protection of,                                        167.
+  Los Angeles, water supply of,                                 29-30.
+  Lumber, an important use of trees,                               90.
+  Lumbering, waste of trees in,                               114-118.
+
+  Malheur Lake, bird refuge about,                                187.
+  Maple sugar,                                                     93.
+  Martins, insects eaten by,                                      199.
+  Meadow larks,                                               191-192.
+  Medicinal products from trees,                               93, 95.
+  Metals, discovery of,                                           4-5.
+  Mica, in quartz sand,                                            58.
+  Migrations of birds,                                        205-206.
+  Migratory Bird Law,                                        200, 208.
+  Mills, the first,                                                 7.
+  Mineral resources, destruction and new supply of,             49-50.
+  Mink, points against and in favor of,                           193.
+  Mississippi Valley, rich prairies of,                         53-54.
+  Mistletoe, an enemy of trees,                                   107.
+  Mocking bird, song of,                                          195.
+  Mongoose, as a pest,                                       153, 154.
+  Montenegro, results of destruction of soil in,                   79.
+
+  National Forests,                                           133-139.
+  National Parks,                                         19, 139-143;
+   are game preserves,                                        204-205.
+  Nets, catching of fish in,                                 167, 169.
+  New England, soil of,                                         51-53;
+    gypsy and browntail moths in,                                 152;
+    beaver in,                                                    179.
+  Newfoundland banks, fisheries of,                               170.
+  Nitrogen, in soil,                                               57;
+    stored in soil by plants,                                      77.
+  Norway rat,                                                     153.
+
+  Oil, waste connected with,                                  157-161.
+  Open season for hunting,                                        205.
+  Orange orchards, citrus canker in,                              109.
+  Oregon, protection of beaver in,                                179;
+    bird refuges in,                                              187.
+  Owens River aqueduct,                                            29.
+  Owls, good and bad points of,                               190-191.
+  Oysters, raised on oyster farms,                                167.
+
+  Palestine, destruction of vegetation in,                         79.
+  Panama Canal,                                                    87.
+  Passenger pigeon, extermination of,                         22, 180.
+  "Passing of the Forest, The,"                                   130.
+  Pear blight,                                                    109.
+  Peat, crumbling vegetation called,                               57;
+    use of, for fuel,                                             155.
+  Peat soils,                                              58, 59, 66.
+  Phosphorus in soil,                                              59.
+  Pine beetles,                                                   110.
+  Piñon pines,                                                     99.
+  Plant food,                                                  45, 60.
+  Plants, enemies of,                                         104-111.
+  Plumage, hunting of birds for,                     183-187, 207-208.
+  Polar bear, protection needed by,                               181.
+  Potash in soil,                                                  59.
+  Powder, discovery of,                                             8.
+  Prairie chicken, disappearance of,                              180.
+  "Preceptor's Plea for the Birds, The,"                      211-212.
+  Pueblo Indians,                                               19-20.
+
+  Quail, need for protection of, to preserve from extinction,     180;
+    cheery call of,                                               195;
+    value and attractiveness of,                                  201;
+    insects eaten by,                                             202.
+  Quartz, in sand grains,                                          58.
+  Quinine, made from cinchona tree,                                95.
+
+  Rabbits, as pests,                                              152.
+  Rainier National Park,                                          140.
+  Rats, plagues of,                                               151.
+  Redwood trees,                                                   99.
+  Refuges for birds,                                               22.
+  Residual soil,                                                   64.
+  Rocks, soil made from,                                    58, 61-66.
+  Rocky Mountain sheep, in Yellowstone Park,                      205.
+  Rubber trees,                                                    93.
+
+  Sage grouse, need for protection of,                            180.
+  Salmon fisheries,                                           169-170.
+  San Joaquin Valley,                                             101.
+  San José scale,                                       109, 151, 153.
+  Santa Catalina Island, fish preserve about,                     169.
+  Sea lions,                                                      194.
+  Sea otter, destruction of,                                  22, 165;
+    protection of, by law,                                        179.
+  Seals, fur,                                                      22;
+    hunting of,                                                   165.
+  Sequoias,                                                   99, 115.
+  Shad, decrease in numbers of,                                   169.
+  Sheep, damage done to forests by,                               111.
+  Shingle makers, waste of trees by,                              115.
+  Shore birds, value of,                                          200.
+  Sierra Nevadas, "big trees" on,                                  49;
+    changes in climate in ascent of,                         101, 103;
+    usefulness of woodpeckers in,                                 199.
+  Silt,                                                            75.
+  Skunks, friends and enemies of,                                 193.
+  Soda in soil,                                                    59.
+  Soil, care of the,                                            11-12;
+    effect of destruction of forests upon,               37-38, 40-42;
+    renewal of, by nature,                                         45;
+    story of formation of,                                      51-56;
+    real wealth of world formed by,                                56;
+    things of which made,                                       57-60;
+    plant food in,                                                 60;
+    how made,                                                   61-66;
+    how vegetation holds,                                       67-72;
+    our most valuable possession,                                  74;
+    evil effects upon, of no protecting carpet of vegetation,   74-80;
+    effect of, on growth of trees,                                101.
+  Songbirds, hunting of, for their plumage,                       185.
+  Southern states, destruction of soil in,                         77;
+    turpentine from pine forests of,                               93.
+  Spain, waste of resources of,                                 25-26;
+    results in, of loss of soil,                                   79;
+    treatment of birds in,                                        196.
+  Spruce forest, destruction of, by forest fires,                 126.
+  Squirrels, nuts of trees eaten by,                              109;
+    ground, as pests,                                             152.
+  Stone, implements of,                                             3.
+  Sturgeon, destructive fishing of,                               167.
+  Subsoil,                                                         64.
+  Sugar pines,                                                     99;
+    nuts of, eaten by squirrels,                                  109;
+    careless cutting of,                                          115.
+  Swallows, insects eaten by,                                     199.
+  Switzerland, care of wood in, 93,                               114.
+  Syria, destruction of vegetation in,                             79.
+
+  Tamarack forests, use of,                                       126.
+  Trees, destruction of,                                           12;
+    importance of, to man,                                      89-95;
+    distribution of, in United States,                         96-103;
+    enemies of,                                               104-111;
+    the careless wasting of,                                  111-118.
+  Tundras of far North,                                           101.
+  Turpentine obtained from yellow pines,                           93.
+
+  Valley lands,                                                40, 42;
+    fertility of,                                                  53;
+    alluvial soil in,                                              64.
+  Vegetation, holding of soil by,                               67-72;
+    results of lack of,                                         73-80.
+
+  Walrus, nearly extinct,                                         165.
+  Water, obtaining of pure,                                     10-11;
+     home of, the ocean,                                           81;
+    use and care of,                                            81-88.
+  Water creatures, need for protection of,                    162-170.
+  Water power, use of,                                            157.
+  Water supply, effect upon, of cutting of forests,           127-129.
+  Weasels, defense of,                                            193.
+  White Mountain Forest, the,                                     134.
+  White-pine blister,                                             107.
+  Wild flowers, necessity for care of,                        144-149.
+  Wind, effect of, on soil,                                     65-66;
+   an enemy of the forests,                                       110.
+  Wood alcohol,                                                   117.
+  Woodpeckers, usefulness of,                                     198.
+
+  Yangtse-kiang, soil carried away by,                             80.
+  Yellow Sea, reason for name,                                     80.
+  Yellowstone National Park,                                      140;
+    a game preserve,                                          204-205;
+    animal life in,                                               205.
+  Yosemite National Park,                                         140.
+
+
+
+
+_NEW-WORLD SCIENCE SERIES_
+
+_Edited by John W. Ritchie_
+
+TREES, STARS _and_ BIRDS
+
+A BOOK OF OUTDOOR SCIENCE
+
+By EDWIN LINCOLN MOSELEY
+
+_Head of the Science Department, State Normal College of Northwestern
+Ohio_
+
+The usefulness of nature study in the schools has been seriously limited
+by the lack of a suitable textbook. It is to meet this need that _Trees,
+Stars, and Birds_ is issued. The author is one of the most successful
+teachers of outdoor science in this country. He believes in field
+excursions, and his text is designed to help teachers and pupils in the
+inquiries that they will make for themselves.
+
+The text deals with three phases of outdoor science that have a
+perennial interest, and it will make the benefit of the author's long
+and successful experience available to younger teachers.
+
+The first section deals with trees, and the discussion of maples is
+typical: the student is reminded that he has eaten maple sugar; there is
+an interesting account of its production; the fact is brought out that
+the sugar is really made in the leaves. The stars and planets that all
+should know are told about simply and clearly. The birds commonly met
+with are considered, and their habits of feeding and nesting are
+described. Pertinent questions are scattered throughout each section.
+
+The book is illustrated with 167 photographs, 69 drawings, 9 star maps,
+and with 16 color plates of 58 birds, from paintings by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes.
+
+It is well adapted for use in junior high schools, yet the presentation
+is simple enough for pupils in the sixth grade.
+
+_Cloth, viii + 404 + xvi pages. Price $1.60_
+
+  WORLD BOOK COMPANY
+  YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
+  2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO
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+
+NATURE AND INDUSTRY READERS
+
+These books draw upon the world's best literature, and present
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+WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG
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+Cloth. 160 pages. Illustrated. Price 64 cents.
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+STORIES OF CHILDHOOD AND NATURE
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+Cloth. 222 pages. Illustrated. Price 68 cents.
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+WORLD BOOK COMPANY
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+
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Conservation Reader, by Harold W. Fairbanks
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
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+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 1%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+                color: #A9A9A9
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+    .figcenter   {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+    .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top:
+                 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+    .figright    {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;
+                 margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
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+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Conservation Reader, by Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Conservation Reader
+
+Author: Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2008 [EBook #26935]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSERVATION READER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Verity White, Joseph Cooper and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image1.jpg" width="350" height="523" alt="image1" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The passenger pigeon, an extinct species.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pagei" id="pagei">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONSERVATION SERIES</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%" />
+
+<h1>CONSERVATION READER</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h3>HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Author of "Home Geography, Stories of Our<br />
+Mother Earth," "Rocks and Minerals,"<br />
+"The Western United States,"<br />
+"Practical Physiography,"<br />
+"Geography of California,"<br />
+etc.</span></p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND<br />
+WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF PAINTINGS<br />
+IN COLOR</h3>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h3>YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK</h3>
+
+<h2>WORLD BOOK COMPANY</h2>
+
+<h3>1920</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pageii" id="pageii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>WORLD BOOK COMPANY</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson</b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><b>Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York</b></span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><b>2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago</b></span></p>
+
+
+<p>The need for education in the principles of conservation is imperative.
+As Henry Fairfield Osborn states the matter, "We are yet far from the
+point where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and
+roll back the tide of destruction." The movement for the preservation of
+natural resources can succeed only with the establishment of an
+enlightened public sentiment on the subject. To create and maintain such
+a sentiment is the proper work of the schools. In making this
+<i>Conservation Reader</i> available for school use, author and publishers
+have had in mind the great and lasting service that such a text might
+render. The publishers believe that this little volume and others
+forthcoming in the Conservation Series will rank high among "Books That
+Apply the World's Knowledge to the World's Needs"</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1920, by World Book Company<br />
+Copyright in Great Britain<br />
+<i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pageiii" id="pageiii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p>The wave of enthusiasm for the conservation of our national resources
+must reach the children or it will expend much of its force uselessly.</p>
+
+<p>It is from the education of the children in right ways of looking at
+Nature that everything is to be expected in the years to come. If they
+learn to understand the value of the things about them, as well as to
+appreciate their beauties, the carrying on and enlarging of the
+conservation program which is now so well under way can be safely left
+to their care.</p>
+
+<p>The West, although it has already been ruthlessly exploited, has lost
+less of its natural wealth than have the longer-settled Eastern states.</p>
+
+<p>In the newer parts of our country we can reasonably hope to save most of
+the forests and most of the wild life, and pass them on down to our
+children and grandchildren in something of their primeval beauty and
+richness.</p>
+
+<p>In the East we can hope to arouse a stronger sentiment for preserving
+what remains of the forests as well as for extending their areas, for
+proper forestation will lessen the danger of erosion of the soil and of
+floods, and will encourage the return of the wild creatures that are of
+so much economic importance and add so much to the joy of life.</p>
+
+<p>A book bringing out in a simple and interesting manner the principles of
+conservation has long been needed, for there has been little that could
+be placed in the hands of pupils. It is with the earnest hope of
+furnishing something which will answer in part the present need that
+this <i>Conservation Reader</i> has been prepared.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pageiv" id="pageiv">[Pg iv]</a></span>Acknowledgments are due the publishers of <i>American Forestry</i> and the
+<i>Century Magazine</i> for courteous permission to reprint poems taken from
+those publications. For their help in supplying photographic subjects to
+illustrate the book, thanks are extended to the persons to whom the
+various illustrations are accredited in immediate connection with their
+use in the text. The reproductions in color of two bird subjects have
+been secured through the friendly co&ouml;peration of Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson,
+Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="pagev" id="pagev">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table width="65%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="contents">
+<tr>
+<td align="right"><span style="font-size: smaller">CHAPTER</span></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><span style="font-size: smaller">PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">1.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How Our First Ancestors Lived</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">2.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How Our Needs Differ from Those of the First Men</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">3.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Earth as It Was Before the Coming of Civilized Men</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page18">18</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">4.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Nature's Unequal Distribution of Her Gifts</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page25">25</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">5.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Land of the Poor People</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page32">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">6.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What the Muddy Rivulet Has to Say</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page39">39</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">7.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How Far Will Nature Restore Her Wasted Gifts?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page44">44</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">8.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Soil&mdash;The Most Important Gift of Nature</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page51">51</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">9.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Things of Which Soil Is Made</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page57">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">10.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How the Soil Is Made</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page61">61</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">11.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How Vegetation Holds the Soil</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page67">67</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">12.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What Happens Where There Is No Protecting Carpet of Vegetation</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page73">73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">13.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Use and Care of Water</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page81">81</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">14.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Could We Get Along without the Trees?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">15.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Where Has Nature Spread the Forest?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page96">96</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">16.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What Are the Enemies of the Trees?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page104">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">17.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How the Forests Are Wasted</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">18.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How the Forests Suffer from Fires</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page119">119</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">19.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Evils that Follow the Destruction of the Forests</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page125">125</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">20.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How Our Government Is Helping to Save the Forests</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page130">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">21.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Our Forest Playgrounds</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page139">139</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">22.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What Is Happening to the Wild Flowers</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page144">144</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">23.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Nature's Penalty for Interfering with Her Arrangements</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page150">150</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">24.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What Shall We Do When the Coal, Oil, and Gas Are Gone?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page155">155</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">25.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Need for Protection of Creatures That Live in the Water</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page162">162</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;"><span class='pagenum'><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi">[Pg vi]</a></span>26.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Man More Destructive than the Other Animals</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page171">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">27.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">What Is Happening to the Animals and Birds</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page176">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">28.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Tragedies of Milady's Hat and Cape</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page183">183</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">29.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Court of the Animals and Birds</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page188">188</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">30.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Birds Our Good Friends and Pleasant Companions</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page195">195</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">31.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">How to Bring the Wild Creatures Back Again</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page203">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right" style="vertical-align: top;">&nbsp;</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page213">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page1" id="page1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>CONSERVATION READER</h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>Before these fields were shorn and tilled<br />
+Full to the brim our rivers flowed;<br />
+The melody of waters filled<br />
+The fresh and boundless woods;<br />
+And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd,<br />
+The fountains spouted in the shade.</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">William Cullen Bryant</span>,<br />
+quoted in <i>American Forestry</i>, XIV. 520</p>
+
+<p>The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled with the most
+wonderful things. Although people have lived on the earth for many
+thousands of years, they have been very slow in learning the secrets of
+their treasure house. This is because early men were much like the lower
+animals. During all these years their minds have been slowly growing.
+Now we can learn and understand many things which our ancestors of long
+ago could not.</p>
+
+<p>In habits and appearance the first men that roamed the earth were little
+different from the other animals except that they walked upright. When
+they had enough to eat and a home safe from enemies, they seemed
+perfectly happy and contented.</p>
+
+<p>These early men lived in the same wonderful treasure house as we do, but
+they did not know how to make use of its riches. In truth, their wants
+were so few that they would have had no use for the things that now seem
+so necessary to us. The rich fields about them lay untilled. The gold,
+silver, copper, and iron in the earth remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="page2" id="page2">[Pg 2]</a></span> undiscovered; and the
+animals and birds that we now use in so many ways then served them
+mainly for food.</p>
+
+<p>Since they had no furry coats to keep them warm as do the animals of the
+cold regions, and had not learned to make clothing, their homes must
+have been in the warm parts of the earth. While they were without
+weapons to defend themselves against the lion and tiger, yet they were
+sharp witted and very quick in their movements and thus were usually
+able to escape their more powerful enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Although these early ancestors of ours seemed so much like the other
+animals, they were in reality very different. They had the same keen
+senses of sight, hearing, and smell, but they were more intelligent.</p>
+
+<p>When the dog and cat have had enough to eat, they lie down perfectly
+happy and contented. But when early men had had enough to eat, they were
+often not satisfied. They had other longings which finally led them to
+make discoveries about the uses of things around them and how to make
+their lives more comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>The little bear cub, for example, as it grows up learns from its mother
+just what it should do on all occasions. It learns what its mother knows
+and that is all. But among the early people of whom we are speaking the
+children not only learned all that their parents knew, but a little
+more. In this way each generation of children came to know more about
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>Thus after many years had passed people came to understand something of
+the wonderful world in which they lived. They were no longer at the
+mercy of wild animals, storms, heat, cold, hunger, and disease.</p>
+
+<p>The first people, like the other animals, used only their<span class='pagenum'><a name="page3" id="page3">[Pg 3]</a></span> hands and
+teeth in hunting and in fighting their enemies. Finally some of the
+brighter ones discovered that a stick or club served better than the
+bare hands.</p>
+
+<p>The use of flint knives may have been brought about through some one
+cutting himself accidentally upon a piece of flint sticking out of the
+ground. If he happened to be very bright, he would at once see the value
+of such a piece of stone tied on the end of an arrow or club. By such
+means, perhaps, implements of wood, bone, and stone came into use.</p>
+
+<p>We have discovered the sites of many of the villages as well as the
+caves in which the ancient inhabitants of the earth lived. The
+implements of bone and stone which we have dug up in such places enable
+us to learn a great deal about their lives.</p>
+
+<p>There was a time when people did not know the use of fire. What a
+fearful thing fire must have seemed to them, at first. Their knowledge
+of it probably came from lightning or from hot lava flowing from a
+volcano. After they had learned to control fire, and to make it by
+rubbing two sticks together, they must have felt rich indeed. The
+discovery of fire was one of their greatest triumphs. It kept the cold,
+damp cave warm and dry, even though it filled their eyes with smoke. It
+was a means of keeping them safe from the dangerous wild beasts when
+they had to sleep out in the open. It was useful in cooking their food,
+and by and by it was to prove valuable in still other ways, when they
+began to <i>make</i> things as well as to <i>find</i> things.</p>
+
+<p>They began, by and by, to build rude shelters,&mdash;huts and wigwams, low
+houses of dried mud, and dugouts in the hillside. They learned to weave
+simple coverings out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="page4" id="page4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the fibers of certain plants, or hair or wool,
+to protect their bodies against the cold and the wet. They learned,
+somehow, to tan the skins of animals, so that they would not first
+stretch and grow slippery. They learned to hold things together by
+sewing, using sharp bones for needles and the sinews of animals or
+fibers of plants for thread.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image2.jpg" width="600" height="361" alt="image2" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The Laplander of the far North uses the reindeer to pull
+his sled, its flesh for food, its skin for clothing, and its horns for various purposes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>How did men discover that they could travel on the water? Some one may
+at first have made use of a log to cross a river and, afterwards, have
+tied several logs together, making a raft. When they had learned how to
+make a canoe out of a log, by burning or hewing it out with rude axes,
+they could then take long journeys on the water to new lands. Since
+paddling was very tiresome, some one, brighter than the rest, probably
+thought of making a sail of bark or skins and so letting the wind push
+the canoe along.</p>
+
+<p>We do not know how the metals were discovered. Per<span class='pagenum'><a name="page5" id="page5">[Pg 5]</a></span>haps fire melted some
+of the copper in a vein of ore. Perhaps pure copper was found, for
+Nature sometimes leaves it in this form. Copper could be easily hammered
+into various useful articles, but it was too soft for many needs. After
+tin was discovered, it was learned that by melting it and copper
+together a new and very hard metal, known as <i>bronze</i>, was formed. Next,
+we think, came the discovery of iron, which has become so important that
+we could not get along without it. Think what this must have meant for
+them! To get firewood, to make rude boats and simple houses, to fight
+wild animals, now became easier. After iron they discovered gold and
+silver, and began to take an interest in making beautiful as well as
+useful things.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to see how, once these new ways of using the earth were
+found, men could move into other regions than the belt where it was
+always warm. They could store up food for the winter, they could build
+warm shelters and get warm clothing, and they could sit by a fire.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes when the first people were out hunting, instead of killing the
+young animals that they caught, they took them home and cared for them.
+So the little creatures became quite tame and grew up about the camps.
+The wild jungle fowls were the ancestors of the domestic hens which we
+find so useful. The wild cow was tamed in like manner, and made to
+supply milk in addition to food and clothing. The colts of wild horses
+and donkeys were captured and used for carrying loads. Sheep and goats
+were tamed in the same manner, and became the most valued possessions of
+some of the ancient peoples as they are of some peoples today. When they
+had learned to weave the wool of these animals into clothing and
+blankets, they had taken another<span class='pagenum'><a name="page6" id="page6">[Pg 6]</a></span> step upon the long road which leads
+from ancient times down to us.</p>
+
+<p>Did these early people live entirely upon meat? If they had done so, we
+should never have had the wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables
+that we now enjoy so much. We must not suppose that Nature grew these
+things wild just as they are found in our gardens today. Our ancestors
+grew them for many generations, gradually improving their size and
+flavor. By selecting the best and carefully cultivating them, we are
+still continuing to make them better.</p>
+
+<p>The horse, donkey, cow, and camel proved valuable in another way to the
+people who were learning to cultivate the ground. When harnessed to a
+crooked and sharpened stick they aided in breaking up the ground in
+which the young plants were growing.</p>
+
+<p>And so the long years passed while the early people were discovering and
+making use of the things around them. They came to building better and
+more permanent homes, because they did not have to move from place to
+place in search of food. Where there were forests, wood served for their
+buildings. Where there were few trees, stone or mud bricks were used.</p>
+
+<p>The brighter people learned to understand Nature more quickly than those
+who were dull. Each discovery of some new way of doing things aided them
+in making others, and in this way people finally came to have all the
+comforts of today. Those people less quick to learn the secrets of
+Nature, or those who lived in countries to which Nature had given
+little, gained few comforts and even now remain savage.</p>
+
+<p>After our ancestors had learned to cultivate the soil, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="page7" id="page7">[Pg 7]</a></span> use the
+minerals and the forests, and had tamed the animals and birds, they were
+still unsatisfied. They attempted to make the forces of Nature work for
+them. For a long time people made flour by crushing grain in a mortar.
+Next, two flat stones were used, one being made to turn upon the other
+by a handle. After that some animal, such as an ox or a horse, was
+harnessed to larger stones which, as they slowly turned, ground the
+grain. This was a great deal of work, and so some one thought of making
+the water tumbling over a ledge of rock grind the grain for them. The
+water was made to go over a water wheel. This wheel then made the
+millstones go around. It was a great deal easier.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image3.jpg" width="600" height="444" alt="image3" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The wild home of early men.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Where there was no water power, wind was made to do the same work. A
+crude windmill gathered the power of<span class='pagenum'><a name="page8" id="page8">[Pg 8]</a></span> the rapidly moving air. After wind
+and water had been forced to serve them, some one who had seen the lid
+of a tea kettle dancing up and down, thought of using steam. Then
+electricity, which in the form of jagged lightning had seemed so fearful
+a thing to the early people, was harnessed and made the greatest servant
+of all the forces of Nature.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery of powder led to the making of guns so destructive that
+dozens of birds could be killed at one shot.</p>
+
+<p>Some people became greedy and used all these wonderful discoveries to
+rob Nature. It seemed as if in some places all the wild life would be
+destroyed. Fires were allowed to burn the forest unhindered. The soil
+was made to produce crops until it grew poor.</p>
+
+<p>If we become selfish and indifferent and neglect to care for the
+treasures which Nature has placed in our hands, very serious things will
+happen to us, as they have happened to other people. How to use the
+storehouse of Nature without wasting or destroying these treasures is
+what we mean by <i>conservation</i>.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page9" id="page9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW OUR NEEDS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF THE FIRST MEN</h3>
+
+<p>We have seen that the first men, like the other animals, depended upon
+the food that Nature supplied them, and when this was lacking they went
+hungry. When men had learned the use of fire they took the first step in
+making Nature serve them better than she did the lower animals. Today
+she works for us in so many ways that we can hardly name them all.</p>
+
+<p>After the use of fire the next thing that men learned was to make better
+homes, to tame some of the wild animals, and to raise a part of their
+food supplies, instead of depending entirely upon what they could pick
+up here and there.</p>
+
+<p>As the number of people increased, the question of securing food became
+more and more important. Would it not seem pretty hard to have to go out
+and hunt for your breakfast in the woods, or fields, or along the water?
+If you were alone you might find enough to eat, but if there were
+thousands of other people doing the same thing, you would probably go
+hungry. For this reason people began to cultivate berries, fruits,
+roots, and grains, and to take better care of their herds.</p>
+
+<p>Living as they did, in those parts of the world where the climate was
+warm, they usually found an abundance of food. But when these places
+became too crowded, and some of them had to move to new regions, they
+often found less food and a climate not always comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>In this way people spread into the colder and drier parts of the earth.
+The need for things which they did not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="page10" id="page10">[Pg 10]</a></span> there sharpened the wits of
+these people. It led to one discovery after another. New needs were felt
+and new ways of satisfying them were sought. They kept finding out more
+about Nature and how she works. After many years they knew much more and
+were also far more comfortable than those people who continued to live
+where Nature supplied everything.</p>
+
+<p>There are now so many more people on the earth than there were long ago
+that to furnish them all with food is a very great task. Besides, there
+are now many people engaged in work other than farming, hunting, and
+fishing. All such people have to be provided for by those whose business
+it is to get food. People of the great cities are dependent upon those
+in the country for all that they eat! We can picture to ourselves the
+suffering that would follow if for only one week every one had to get
+his own food.</p>
+
+<p>We need many things that the first people thought nothing about, because
+their manner of life was so much simpler than ours. Let us see now what
+they are.</p>
+
+<p>We live in tightly closed houses, and so have less trouble in keeping
+warm and dry. But we do not always get the supply of fresh air that we
+need. Many of us are sickly and weak because of this. Our ancestors
+lived in the open air, which is always pure and fresh. A supply of pure
+air, then, is one of the things that we must now provide for.</p>
+
+<p>People once gave no thought to the purity of the water that they drank.
+When there were few people, water did not easily become impure. One
+could drink water wherever one found it and there was small risk of
+harm. Now in many places there are so many thousands of people<span class='pagenum'><a name="page11" id="page11">[Pg 11]</a></span> gathered
+together that they have to take the greatest care about drinking water,
+in order to keep in good health. To get pure water it is often necessary
+to bring it many miles from mountainous regions where no one lives.</p>
+
+<p>Clothing is another thing that concerns us very much. Our ancestors were
+not troubled about their clothing. In the warm countries they went
+almost naked. Where it was cold the skins of animals served very well.
+Changes of fashion did not disturb them and cause them to throw away
+warm covering. To supply ourselves now with clothing we call upon Nature
+for many things. As she cannot, without our help, furnish what we need,
+we have to keep a great number of flocks, for their wool and skins, and
+cultivate vast fields of cotton and flax.</p>
+
+<p>When Nature raised in her own way the berries, grains, and roots that
+the first men ate, no thought was given to the soil in which these
+things grew. In truth, it was not necessary to pay any attention to the
+soil. Nature is very careful in her way and never makes the soil poor by
+growing more plants than it can support. In her own gardens she always
+renews the foods in the soil which the plants require as fast as they
+take them away.</p>
+
+<p>The needs of men have increased so fast that the soil has often been
+forced to grow more than it ought. Men have been a long time in learning
+that they cannot keep on growing the same crops on the same soil year
+after year without supplying to the soil extra foods, or <i>fertilizers</i>,
+as we call them. The care of the soil is another thing to which we have
+to give attention, but which did not worry our ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Nature clothes the earth with a carpet of grasses, bushes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page12" id="page12">[Pg 12]</a></span> or trees.
+When the rain falls on the ground, their roots hold the soil so firmly
+that it usually washes away only very slowly. When men first began to
+cultivate the soil, they paid no attention to the fact that water washes
+away the loose earth very easily. In this loose earth at the top of the
+ground is stored most of the food which the plants require. Care of the
+surface of the ground is, then, another thing which we have to keep in
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>Men at first made shelters for themselves from anything that was at
+hand, such as bark, skins, rock, or earth. When they learned to make
+sharp-edged tools, they began to use trees. Where it is cold, much wood
+is required to build warm houses. As the numbers of men increased, they
+used greater and greater quantities of wood. Wood also proved to be most
+useful for many other purposes than house building. In order to plant
+larger fields the trees were cut down or burned off, without thought of
+doing any harm. In time trees became scarce in many parts of the world
+and men began to realize that care must be used or the supply of wood
+might fail them.</p>
+
+<p>Coal was finally discovered and men said, "Now we have something that
+will last always, for there must be an inexhaustible amount in the earth
+beneath our feet. All that we shall have to do is to dig it out." When
+men grew wiser they learned that coal must not be used carelessly any
+more than the other gifts of Nature; otherwise the supply may give out
+and leave them with nothing to take its place.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page13" id="page13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image4.jpg" width="350" height="504" alt="image4" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Sierra junipers above Tuolumne Meadows, near the Yosemite Valley,
+showing how roots will force their way in apparently most unfavorable
+places.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Hunting and fishing continued to be the business of many. They invented
+destructive weapons with which they were able to kill such large numbers
+of wild creatures that some kinds disappeared entirely. Fish, also, of
+which people<span class='pagenum'><a name="page14" id="page14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+thought the sea and the rivers contained a never failing supply, became
+scarcer. They did not know that fish live mostly in the shallow waters
+along shores, and that the great ocean depths contain very few.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, as the earth became thickly settled with men and their wants
+increased, they discovered that they had to treat Nature in a very
+different way from that of their early ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Because of our great numbers we have to be careful not to use the earth
+in such a way as to lessen its fertility and productiveness. Where
+people have been careless, famine has often resulted. Poverty and
+suffering have come to many parts of the earth, as we shall learn
+farther along in this little book.</p>
+
+<h3>THE CITY ON THE PLAIN</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>Strange indeed were the sounds I heard<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">One day, on the side of the mountain:</span><br />
+Hushed was the stream and silent the bird,<br />
+The restless wind seemed to hold its breath,<br />
+And all things there were as still as death,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Save the hoarse-voiced god of the mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>Through the tangled growth, with a hurried stride,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I saw him pass on the mountain,</span><br />
+Thrusting the briers and bushes aside,<br />
+Crackling the sticks and spurning the stones,<br />
+And talking in loud and angry tones<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the side of the ancient mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>The tips of his goatlike ears were red,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though the day was cool on the mountain,</span><br />
+And they lay close-drawn to his horned head;<br />
+His bushy brows o'er his small eyes curled,<br />
+And he stamped his hoofs,&mdash;for all the world<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Like Pan in a rage on the mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page15" id="page15">[Pg 15]</a></span><br />"Where are my beautiful trees," he cried,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"That grew on the side of the mountain?</span><br />
+The stately pines that were once my pride,<br />
+My shadowy, droop-limbed junipers:<br />
+And my dewy, softly whispering firs,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Mid their emerald glooms on the mountain?</span></p>
+
+<p>"They are all ravished away," he said,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"And torn from the arms of the mountain,</span><br />
+Away from the haunts of cooling shade,<br />
+From the cloisters green which flourished here&mdash;<br />
+My lodging for many a joyous year<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the side of the pleasant mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>"The songbird is bereft of its nest,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And voiceless now is the mountain.</span><br />
+My murmurous bees once took their rest,<br />
+At shut of day, and knew no fear,<br />
+In the trees whose trunks lie rotting here<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the side of the ruined mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Man has let in the passionate sun<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To suck the life-blood of the mountain,</span><br />
+And drink up its fountains one by one:<br />
+And out of the immortal freshness made<br />
+A thing of barter, and sold in trade<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The sons of the mother mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Down in the valley I see a town,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Built of his spoils from my mountain&mdash;</span><br />
+A jewel torn from a monarch's crown,<br />
+A grave for the lordly groves of Pan:<br />
+And for this, on the head of vandal man,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I hurl a curse from the mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p>"His palpitant streams shall all go dry<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Henceforth on the side of the mountain,</span><br />
+And his verdant plains as a desert lie<br />
+Until he plants again the forest fold<br />
+And restores to me my kingdom old,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As in former days on the mountain.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page17" id="page17">[Pg 17]</a></span>"Long shall the spirit of silence brood<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the side of the wasted mountain,</span><br />
+E'er out of the sylvan solitude<br />
+To lift the curse from off the plain,<br />
+The crystal streams pour forth again<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From the gladdened heart of the mountain."</span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">Millard F. Hudson</span>,<br />
+in <i>American Forestry</i>, XIV. 42</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page16" id="page16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image5.jpg" width="200" height="489" alt="image5" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="font-size: smaller">"'Where are my beautiful trees,' he cried,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'That grew on the side of the mountain?'"</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page18" id="page18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF CIVILIZED MEN</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>For ages, on the silent forest here,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy beams did fall before the red man came</span><br />
+To dwell beneath them; in their shade the deer<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fed, and feared not the arrow's deadly aim.</span><br />
+Nor tree was felled, in all that world of woods,<br />
+Save by the beaver's tooth, or winds, or rush of floods.</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">William Cullen Bryant</span>,<br />
+<i>A Walk at Sunset</i></p>
+
+<p>The earth has not always been as it is now. Those parts now possessed by
+the more civilized peoples have been very greatly changed. If we could
+look back and see some of the countries as they were long ago, we should
+hardly know them. In certain lands the forests have been cut down, the
+wild creatures driven away, and the soil so carelessly cultivated that
+it has become poor. In other lands Nature's gifts have been carefully
+used; even the barren deserts have been turned into green fields and
+blooming gardens for hundreds of miles.</p>
+
+<p>Let us try to picture to ourselves how our own country looked when white
+men first found and explored it. A few hundred years ago it was the home
+of wild animals and Indians only. We have been given our freedom in one
+of the richest of Nature's gardens, and, like so many children, have
+tried to see who could gather the most treasures from it. We have given
+little attention to keeping up the garden.</p>
+
+<p>If you have been in some part of the country that is still wild and
+unsettled, it will help you to form a picture of how the entire land
+once looked. If you have been in one of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="page19" id="page19">[Pg 19]</a></span> great natural parks, this
+will be a better help. In these parks everything remains just as Nature
+made it. There the animals, birds, and plants are free to live their
+lives unmolested. Is it not a good thing that our government has been
+wise enough to have large tracts of land left in just the condition in
+which the whole country was when our ancestors first came?</p>
+
+<p>We will think of our whole land, then, as a great wild park, rich in all
+kinds of animal and plant life. It was not an altogether happy family
+that lived in this park, for all were struggling for food, drink, and
+sunshine. But as none were possessed of such deadly weapons as those of
+civilized man, no one kind of animal was able to kill off all of any
+other kind.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the Indians in their wigwams, nor the wild animals in their
+lairs, nor the birds singing in the trees, nor the ducks quacking in the
+marshes dreamed of the change that was coming to their homes. They did
+not dream of civilized man with his terrible weapons and his many needs,
+who was to change the whole appearance of the country and nearly or
+quite exterminate many of them.</p>
+
+<p>The life of the Indians was almost as simple as that of the lower
+animals. Their clothing required little care. Their homes were easily
+made. Some of them had learned to cultivate the soil, but they depended
+mainly upon food obtained by hunting, and such roots, berries, and nuts
+as the women could collect. If we could have looked down on our land as
+the bird does, we should have seen little sign of human inhabitants.
+There were no roads or bridges, and only indistinct trails led from one
+village to another.</p>
+
+<p>In the far Southwest there were people quite different<span class='pagenum'><a name="page20" id="page20">[Pg 20]</a></span> from those of
+whom we have been speaking. They were called the Pueblo Indians. In
+Mexico there were similar people called the Aztecs. All these Indians
+still live in permanent stone villages, as they did a thousand years
+ago. They learned more about Nature than the wandering Indians, but we
+do not believe they would ever become civilized if left to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The only animal that the Indians had tamed was the wolf. They made
+little use of the wolf-dog except in the far North, where it drew their
+sleds over the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the Indians of our country once knew of the use of copper, but
+it had been forgotten when white men first came.</p>
+
+<p>All about the Indians was the same world that surrounds us. In truth, it
+was a richer world in some ways, for since then many of its treasures
+have been lost through greed and waste.</p>
+
+<p>The rich soil of the valleys was almost undisturbed. The forests were
+uncut save for an occasional tree used in making a canoe or a rude
+cabin. The forests suffered only at the hands of the insects, storms,
+and fires. The flowers that covered the ground in spring went
+ungathered. The vast grassy prairies were disturbed only by the feeding
+of such animals as the buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope.</p>
+
+<p>A single great forest spread over all the mountains and valleys of the
+eastern part of our country. Now you can travel for many miles in the
+more thickly settled portions of this region and see not a single tree
+of the original forest.</p>
+
+<p>To the west of the forest came the prairies and plains. Still farther
+west came lofty mountains and desert valleys. On these Western mountains
+were other forests with trees of wonderful size.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page21" id="page21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image6.jpg" width="600" height="365" alt="image6" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The elk once roamed the valleys.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This great natural park, with its long seacoasts, rivers, lakes,
+marshes, dense woods, and open plains, was a paradise for wild creatures
+of every description, and the Indian was contented to leave it so.</p>
+
+<p>Grizzly and black bears roamed the thickets. Elk wandered through the
+mountains and valleys. Deer were abundant everywhere. The antelope raced
+over the plains, mountain goats and sheep lived among the rocks, and
+moose filled the Northern woods. Great herds of buffalo darkened the
+surface of the plains. When the first railroad was built across the
+plains, less than fifty years ago, the trains were sometimes stopped by
+herds of buffalo crossing the track.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the songbirds that filled the country then are still with us,
+for they were of little commercial value to the hunter. No other land
+has richer bird music than ours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page22" id="page22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Many of the birds that are valuable
+for food are, however, nearly extinct. Now we have laws for their
+protection, but these laws went into effect too late to save some
+species. The passenger pigeon is one of our greatest losses.</p>
+
+<p>The cutting down of the vast forests that once covered the Eastern
+states, and the cultivation of fields, has helped to drive many of the
+wild creatures away. We are just beginning to learn how poor our country
+would be if we lost them all. Refuges are being established in many
+places, where those birds and animals most in danger of extinction may
+live safe from the hunter.</p>
+
+<p>The coast waters, lakes, and streams of our country were once alive with
+fish. The Indians made use of them, but their rude traps did not catch
+enough to affect the number seriously. We have fished with every kind of
+trap that the brightest fisherman could think of. Many important food
+fishes are now very much reduced in numbers. The fur seal and sea otter
+are so nearly gone that only the most watchful protection will save them
+from extinction.</p>
+
+<p>The land, as the Indian knew it, was beautiful, and was filled with
+everything that one could wish. But the Indian did not know how to use
+it. He lived a poor life, suffering from cold and hunger.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page23" id="page23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image7.jpg" width="350" height="491" alt="image7" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">"Such beautiful things in the heart
+of the woods! Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We came into the possession of a land unspoiled by its primitive
+inhabitants. It was just as Nature made it. In a few short years we have
+almost exterminated the Indian. We have swept away a large part of the
+forests. We have almost destroyed many of the species of animals and
+birds. We have robbed the soil and injured the flow of the rivers. Some
+of this loss we could not help, for when many millions of people occupy
+a land there must be many changes. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="page24" id="page24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+for the losses that we have needlessly and carelessly caused we shall
+sometime be sorry.</p>
+
+<p>Do you not think we are wise in seeking how to take better care of this
+land of ours?</p>
+
+<h3>IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss;</span><br />
+Such love of the birds in the solitudes,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where the swift winds glance and the treetops toss;</span><br />
+Spaces of silence swept with song,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which nobody hears but the God above;</span><br />
+Spaces where myriad creatures throng,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sunning themselves in his guarding love.</span></p>
+
+<p>Such safety and peace in the heart of the woods!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far from the city's dust and din,</span><br />
+Where passion nor hate nor man intrudes,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor fashion nor folly has entered in.</span><br />
+Deeper than hunter's trail hath gone<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glimmers the tarn where the wild deer drink;</span><br />
+And fearless and free comes the gentle fawn,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To peep at herself o'er the grassy brink.</span></p>
+
+<p>Such pledges of love in the heart of the woods!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the Maker of all things keeps the feast,</span><br />
+And over the tiny flowers broods<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With care that for ages has never ceased.</span><br />
+If he cares for this, will he not for thee&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thee, wherever thou art today?</span><br />
+Child of an infinite Father, see;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And safe in such gentlest keeping stay.</span></p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">Margaret E. Sangster</span>,<br />
+in <i>American Forestry</i>, XIV</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page25" id="page25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+
+<h3>NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS</h3>
+
+<p>Pure, fresh air is free to all of us, for, like an ocean, it surrounds
+the whole earth. We need pure water just as much as we do pure air, but
+it is not always easy to get. A large part of the earth is buried
+beneath water so salt that we cannot use it. Other parts of the earth
+are so dry that if we venture into them we may die of thirst. The solid
+land on which we make our homes is not all of the same value. Thousands
+of square miles are so rocky or so cold or so dry that they support no
+living thing. Other thousands of miles of the earth have been so favored
+by Nature that they are fairly alive with every sort of creature.</p>
+
+<p>We say that a country is rich in natural resources when it has an
+abundance of those things that men need or can make use of for their
+pleasure and comfort. A country is poor when it has few of these things.</p>
+
+<p>The first men were poor, although they lived in a rich part of the
+earth. They did not know how to make use of what lay around them. If
+civilized men are poor now, it is because they have wasted Nature's
+gifts or because they live in a country upon which she has bestowed
+little.</p>
+
+<p>When we say that the far North where the Eskimos live is a dreary,
+desolate region, we mean that it lacks most of those things necessary to
+make men comfortable and happy. When we read of the life of the
+wandering Arabs in the desert of Arabia, we think of a country to which
+Nature has not given its share.</p>
+
+<p>When we speak of Spain as poor, we have in mind a country once favored
+by Nature, but no longer prosperous<span class='pagenum'><a name="page26" id="page26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+because its resources have been wasted. Our own land is now rich and
+prosperous because of the abundance of its natural resources. We should
+guard these well lest we meet a fate similar to that of the people of
+Spain.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image8.jpg" width="600" height="351" alt="image8" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Where Nature has supplied little rain; desert sand dunes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>If we journey over our own land, we shall discover that Nature has been
+very partial to certain parts, giving them more than they need. Other
+parts have been left with little. We shall also discover what wonderful
+things men are doing to make up for the failures of Nature, and to make
+habitable many of those places which she left uninhabitable.</p>
+
+<p>The forests of the eastern half of the country have been thinned out.
+West of the Mississippi River there are thousands of square miles of
+prairies where there are almost no trees. In such places the first
+settlers had difficulty in getting firewood, and had to build their
+houses of earth or stone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page27" id="page27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Upon the northwest coast there is fog and rain and little sunshine.
+There the forests grow so dense that it is difficult to travel through
+them. In the deserts of the Southwest the sun shines out of a cloudless
+sky almost every day in the year. The ground becomes very dry and the
+living things found there have strange and curious habits.</p>
+
+<p>In the Central and Eastern states there is much coal; and because of
+this, millions of people have gathered there to engage in manufacturing.
+In California coal is scarce and has to be brought from other parts of
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The vast prairies of the Mississippi Valley are covered with fields of
+waving grain, much of which is shipped to distant regions. In New
+England much of the soil is rocky and not enough grain is raised there
+to supply the needs of the population.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image9.jpg" width="600" height="323" alt="image9" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>U. S. Office of Farm Management (J. S. Cotton)</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A farming scene in the fertile valley of the Missouri River.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The work that people do in different places is determined by the way in
+which Nature has distributed her resources. The farmers are mostly found
+in the valleys where the soil<span class='pagenum'><a name="page28" id="page28">[Pg 28]</a></span> is best. Cattle are pastured on those
+lands not suited to farming. The miners go to the mountains, where they
+can more easily find the minerals they are after. The lumberman finds
+his work where the climate favors the growth of forest trees. The
+manufacturer seeks the waterfalls, where there is power to turn his
+mills.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us try to discover in how far we can change Nature's plan and
+make habitable those places which she left uninhabitable. There are some
+things which we cannot do. We cannot make the air warmer or colder. We
+cannot cause rain to fall even though the fields are parched with
+drought. We cannot stop the rain falling, and we cannot stop the winds
+blowing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image10.jpg" width="350" height="558" alt="image10" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The prickly pear in its desert home.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While we cannot stop the water falling from the clouds, we can drain the
+lowlands and marshes and so make them fit for the farmer. We can raise
+great dikes or embankments along the rivers and so shut out the flood
+waters. The people of Holland have saved thousands of acres from the sea
+by building dikes and pumping out the water from the inclosed fields.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page29" id="page29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While we cannot make it rain where not enough rain falls, we can do that
+which is just as good or better: we can carry water by ditches and pipes
+to the land that needs it. Much of the soil of the great deserts in the
+southwestern part of our country is rich in plant food. All that it
+lacks is water.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian roamed over the rich lands of the great delta of the Colorado
+River. He often went hungry and thirsty. He did not think of taking the
+water out of the river in a ditch and allowing it to flow over and wet
+the rich soil. The white man came and turned the river out of its
+channel and spread the water over hundreds of square miles of the
+richest land on the earth. Now, where once you would have died of thirst
+and hunger, there are green fields and growing crops as far as you can
+see.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image11.jpg" width="600" height="412" alt="image11" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The Owens River aqueduct, through which water is carried
+to Los Angeles from a source more than two hundred miles distant.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The city of Los Angeles is situated in a dry region where<span class='pagenum'><a name="page30" id="page30">[Pg 30]</a></span> there is not
+water enough for the needs of a great city. There has now been completed
+a great aqueduct which brings a river of water through deserts and
+mountains from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, over two hundred miles away.
+There is now sufficient water for hundreds of thousands of people.</p>
+
+<p>When it rains too much, many rivers rise and overflow their banks. The
+farmer's crops are destroyed, his cattle drowned, and his buildings
+washed away. We can lessen the danger from these floods, which are very
+bad in such river basins as those of the Ohio and Mississippi, by
+building reservoirs in the highlands where the rivers take their start.
+If when summer comes these rivers are too shallow for safe navigation,
+the reservoirs can be opened and the streams supplied with this stored
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The lack of trees upon the prairies was once a serious matter for the
+settler. We must not think, however, that because Nature placed no trees
+on the prairies that trees will not grow there. She may not have had
+handy the seed of the kind suitable for such dry lands. Our government
+has found in the dry regions of other countries trees that will grow
+upon our prairies. In their own home these trees had become used to a
+dry climate like that of our prairies.</p>
+
+<p>Steep ca&ntilde;ons and cliffs of rock once kept people, living on the opposite
+sides of mountain ranges, from becoming acquainted with one another. Our
+ancestors were afraid to venture out on the boundless oceans with their
+small, frail boats. Because of this the continent that we live on long
+remained unknown. Those who first found it, the ancestors of the present
+Indians, came here by accident. Storms probably blew their boats across
+the North Pacific Ocean,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page31" id="page31">[Pg 31]</a></span> and thus they found a new home. Now railroads
+enable us to cross the deserts in perfect comfort. Tunnels have been
+made through the mountains, so that we can go easily from one valley to
+another. Boats of giant size carry us safely and quickly across the
+stormy oceans. Nature did not intend us to fly through the air or swim
+beneath the water, but we are learning so much about her laws that we
+shall soon be almost as much at home in the air and the sea as the birds
+and fish are.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page32" id="page32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>My squandered forests, hacked and hewed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are gone; my rivers fail;</span><br />
+My stricken hillsides, stark and nude,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stand shivering in the gale.</span><br />
+Down to the sea my teeming soil<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In yellow torrents goes;</span><br />
+The guerdon of the farmer's toil<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With each year lesser grows.</span></p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Robert M. Reese</span>, <i>The Spendthrift</i>; quoted in<br />
+<i>American Forestry</i>, XIV. 269</p>
+
+<p>This is the story of a land of plenty that became almost a desert. Long
+ago there dwelt in this land a people wise in all the things that
+concerned their home. Through many hard years of toil and struggle they
+had learned to take the very best care of what Nature had given them.
+Although Nature seemed to them to be wasteful, she punished waste in her
+children. As long as they obeyed, they had comfortable homes, fertile
+fields, and sleek herds.</p>
+
+<p>The country of which we are speaking was very beautiful. There were
+lofty mountains and broad, fertile valleys. Many streams, fed by clear,
+cool springs, flowed through the land. There were also green meadows and
+deep, dark forests.</p>
+
+<p>The forests contained many wild animals, for in the forests the animals
+found both food and protection. Birds of every sort abounded, and their
+music filled the air. Trees overhung the streams, shading them from the
+hot sun, so that they did not dry up in the summer. The springs never
+failed, for the carpet of leaves and decaying vegetation underneath the
+trees of the forests held much of the rainwater<span class='pagenum'><a name="page33" id="page33">[Pg 33]</a></span> from running away, so
+that it sank into the ground. Instead of making floods in the rivers, it
+fed the springs gradually and steadily through the long, dry summers.</p>
+
+<p>The people of this land had learned the secrets of the growing plants
+and how these plants could be made better by cultivation. They had also
+learned to tame the wild animals and make them useful. The farms were
+managed with great care so that they never grew poor. The soil never
+refused to grow their crops. The people had learned during their earlier
+years of struggle that they must not clear the forests from the
+hillsides, for, if they did, the soil would begin to wash away. They had
+learned that they must leave the forests on the mountains in order to
+save the springs.</p>
+
+<p>Rain did not always come when it was needed for the crops, and at other
+times it rained too much. Reservoirs were built to hold the surplus
+water for use in time of drought. Canals were dug to carry it to the
+fields.</p>
+
+<p>The wild animals and birds bothered the crops, and the first thought of
+the people was to kill them. But it was soon discovered that this was
+not wise. Those who destroyed the wild creatures about their farms began
+to suffer from rats, mice, rabbits, and a multitude of little insects
+that all but devoured the crops.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take these people long to learn that Nature was not to be
+trifled with. If they took too much from the earth one year, she made
+them pay for it the next. They not only became wise enough to take care
+of every good thing that Nature had given them, but improved upon many
+things that she had left unsuited to their use.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the land was kept beautiful and fertile. The inhabitants<span class='pagenum'><a name="page34" id="page34">[Pg 34]</a></span> became
+rich, and, instead of fearing Nature as they once did, they came to love
+the rocks, the woods, the streams, and the wild creatures.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now leave this rich and fertile land and come back to it after
+hundreds of years have passed. We find a new people living there and the
+country so changed that we can hardly believe it is the same land.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it must be the same, for there are the very mountains that were
+there long ago. To be sure, they do not look just as they did. When we
+last saw them they were covered with forests, but now they are barren
+and scarred with many gulches. Here is the same river, but it also looks
+different. While it was once overhung with trees and its waters were so
+clear that we could see the fish in the bottom, it now has a broad,
+sandy bed; the trees are gone, and the water is shallow and muddy.</p>
+
+<p>The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and discouraged
+appearance. They have a hard struggle to get enough to eat. The soil is
+rocky, and it takes much labor to raise the scanty crops. They never
+seem able to gather all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes
+away and new ones are constantly uncovered.</p>
+
+<p>Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in their stead only a
+few stunted trees and bushes. There is little grass and almost no
+flowers, even in spring. Sheep and cattle wander far for their forage
+and do not have the sleek appearance they once did.</p>
+
+<p>There are few wild creatures of any sort, for since there are no woods
+there are few hiding places. Neither do we see any birds, and we listen
+in vain for a song or note of any kind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page35" id="page35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image12.jpg" width="600" height="359" alt="image12" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The women carry home the fuel.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The houses are made of mud or stone and look cold and cheerless. The
+people must suffer from cold in winter. The only wood they have is small
+brush which the women and children gather upon the far hills and bring
+home in huge bundles upon their backs.</p>
+
+<p>In the towns of this country the only fuel now to be had is charcoal.
+This is brought upon the backs of burros from the distant mountains,
+where the few remaining trees give work to charcoal burners. The
+charcoal is peddled through the streets and sold in tiny quantities at
+each door. The people are too poor to buy much at a time and are very
+careful in its use. It is burned in a metal or earthen dish called a
+brazier, and a double handful may last a family a whole day.</p>
+
+<p>Rains still fall in this country of the Poor People, as they did long
+ago. But the waters gather quickly upon the unprotected<span class='pagenum'><a name="page36" id="page36">[Pg 36]</a></span> slopes and run
+off in muddy torrents, taking along some of the soil. Thus each
+succeeding year there is less plant food for the crops.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image13.jpg" width="600" height="292" alt="image13" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The rocky land of the poor people.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>How did this country, once rich and fruitful, become so barren? We are
+sure from what we know of Nature's ways that she is not the cause of the
+trouble. Through greed and ignorance of how to take care of their land
+the present inhabitants have wasted and squandered its wealth until it
+has become almost a desert.</p>
+
+<p>We can do things with Nature, and direct many of her forces so that they
+will work for our good. We cannot, however, as we have learned, change
+the amount of rain that falls, nor can we make it warmer or colder.</p>
+
+<p>How, then, are these poor people to blame for the condition of their
+country? The troubles which overtook them came from two things. In the
+first place they did not know how to take care of their rich land, and
+in the second place they were greedy and wanted to become wealthy faster
+than they ought.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page37" id="page37">[Pg 37]</a></span>Why does the rain, which once made this country fruitful, now wash away
+the soil and make it barren? It is because in those earlier times much
+of the land was covered with cool forests. The rain then fell more
+gently because of the forests. More of it soaked into the ground and the
+springs were larger. Now the rains are delayed by the hot air of the
+thirsty land until, when they finally do come, the water falls in
+torrents. Such rains or cloudbursts, as we often call them, carry away
+the unprotected soil faster than Nature can renew it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image14.jpg" width="600" height="382" alt="image14" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Bailey Willis</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The shallow, rock-filled river along whose banks the trees have been
+destroyed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The strangers in the land, under whose rule it became poor, thought they
+knew better than Nature. They did not look upon her as the great wise
+mother of them all. Soon after these people came into possession of the
+land, they found that in other places there was a demand for<span class='pagenum'><a name="page38" id="page38">[Pg 38]</a></span> their
+grain, cattle, and wool. They began to increase their fields and herds.
+To do this it was necessary to cut down the forests which had stood so
+long. It seemed to them too bad to leave valuable land covered only with
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>The people began to look askance at the birds, for they thought they
+were eating too much grain. Because they did not know what good the
+little creatures were doing, they killed them. Since most of the birds
+nested in trees, they got rid of them faster by cutting down the trees.</p>
+
+<p>The steep hillsides were finally cleared of trees and the soil began to
+wash, and the rocks soon appeared. No plant food was given to the soil
+to replace that taken by the growing plants, and the crops soon began to
+show the effect of starvation. The cattle began to suffer for lack of
+food. They ate the grass down so closely that much of it was killed.</p>
+
+<p>The rainwater, instead of feeding the springs, now ran swiftly away. The
+clear, steady rivers turned to muddy floods during the rainy season.
+They swept through the valleys, washing away houses and crops. In the
+summer they dried up so that the fish died.</p>
+
+<p>When these people at last discovered their mistake, they strove by hard
+labor to repair the damage which they had done through years of
+ignorance and greed. This was such slow, difficult work that the land
+still remains a dreary place in which to live. It is known as the Land
+of the Poor People.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page39" id="page39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY</h3>
+
+<p>Would you like to know something about what I am doing? Would you like
+to know why my waters are yellow with mud? I am accused of being a
+noisy, roistering fellow, of robbing people of their wealth and of doing
+all sorts of wicked deeds. But, worst of all, I am accused of carrying
+away the tiny particles of soil in which the plants find their food and
+of dropping them in the depths of the sea.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image15.jpg" width="250" height="430" alt="image15" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Because some farmer was careless, a rivulet has nearly destroyed this
+rich valley.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Perhaps, when you really understand my work, you will say that I have no
+evil intentions at all. I am only one of Nature's servants. Each one of
+us has a work to do. Sometimes we have to do things that seem to be bad,
+but that is because some one on the earth has broken Nature's laws.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has many servants. To each one of us is given a different kind of
+work. I am the great leveler of the land. No mountain is too great or
+too high for me to tear down. I can carry it all away grain by grain and
+leave it in the lowlands or in the sea. Many mountains I have destroyed
+so completely that you would hardly believe they ever existed. Long
+before there were any animals and men on the earth I was busy, and I
+shall be busy when they are all gone.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer believes me his enemy, but if I do injure his fields it is
+because I cannot help it. The work that has been given me to do is the
+carrying away of the loose earth wherever I can find it. If the farmer
+does not want his hillsides made poor, he should take care of them.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer does not know that he has me to thank for<span class='pagenum'><a name="page40" id="page40">[Pg 40]</a></span> the richest of his
+lands, those lands where the soil is deep and dark, and filled with
+plant food. I and my brother rivulets have been thousands of years in
+collecting the soil which forms the fertile lowlands in the valleys
+through which we flow. We all unite to form the mighty river which
+finally ends in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Upon all the slopes which drain toward the river we rivulets are at
+work. Other servants of Nature are working here. Some of them are making
+the rocks soften and fall apart. Others are bringing seeds of the
+grasses and trees that they may take root in the crumbling rock. It is
+their business to make a carpet of plants over the earth and thus stop
+my work. But wherever the slopes are steep we rivulets have our way. We
+pick up and carry away the particles of sand and clay so that only the
+bare, hard rocks remain.</p>
+
+<p>When the steep slopes become gentle, and we can no longer carry away all
+the particles of crumbled rock, then the carpet of plants spreads over
+the surface. Now our<span class='pagenum'><a name="page41" id="page41">[Pg 41]</a></span> waters become clear. We seem like different
+beings. Once in a while, when the rains fall very heavily, some of us
+break through the protecting carpet and dig great hollows and gullies
+into the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Would you like to know how we rivulets get rid of the load we carry from
+the mountain slopes? When we are muddy and swollen with the heavy rains,
+we turn the river into a flood. The river then breaks its banks and
+spreads out over all the lowlands along its course. Now the river flows
+more slowly and drops a part of the sand and mud which we rivulets
+brought to it. Finally, when the storm is over and the river goes back
+into its channel, there is left on the surface of the valleys a layer of
+earth rich in plant food. We brought the river the finest of the rock
+particles, together with the leaves and stems of plants that lay in our
+way.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image16.jpg" width="600" height="304" alt="image16" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The rivulets have united to form the broad, shallow river loaded with
+the soil from the farms along its upper course.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As year after year we made the river overflow, the soil of the lowlands
+grew deeper and deeper until it became as<span class='pagenum'><a name="page42" id="page42">[Pg 42]</a></span> you see it today. Now the
+slopes about the head of the river are not so steep as they were once.
+Our waters do not run away so rapidly and the river seldom overflows.
+Thus the farmer can use the land for his crops, which grow so
+luxuriantly that he is envied by his less fortunate neighbors who live
+upon the hills.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image17.jpg" width="600" height="298" alt="image17" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>U. S. Office of Farm Management</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The soil of this valley has been washed to its present location by flood
+waters.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Upon the slopes about the valleys we rivulets did not leave so much
+soil. The farther one goes up the slopes the thinner one finds the soil,
+until at the top the bare rock may appear.</p>
+
+<p>But our work, says the muddy rivulet, was not finished with the making
+of the fertile valley lands. We carried a part of our load of sand and
+mud on to the mouth of the river. Here in the bay into which the river
+empties we began another great task. It seemed hopeless at first to try
+to turn the bay into dry land, but year after year we kept at work,
+through a time so long that I have forgotten when we began. At last we
+succeeded in bringing so much material to the bay that the waters
+became<span class='pagenum'><a name="page43" id="page43">[Pg 43]</a></span> shallow. Then the soft mud began to show itself when the water
+was low. At last the water was replaced by dry land, which appeared much
+like the lowlands which we had made along the river.</p>
+
+<p>Now you who think we muddy rivulets do only harm see what we have
+accomplished. We have built a great delta of the richest land that
+extends away on every hand as level as a floor and almost as far as you
+can see. The soil of the delta is hundreds of feet deep and the richest
+to be found on the whole earth. It is on such river deltas that the
+first civilized men made their homes, and became rich and powerful.</p>
+
+<p>Now I have told you what Nature has appointed the muddy rivulets to do.
+Is not the good that we do far greater than the harm? When we do harm it
+is because people have not learned how, or have not tried, to obey
+Nature's laws. If we make people poor, it is their own fault.</p>
+
+<p>We still find much to do upon the earth. Nature is still making
+mountains which we have to tear down. We are still building deltas which
+will sometime be inhabited by rich and prosperous people. We do not
+willingly spoil the lands of the farmers on the hills and make them
+labor hard for a living.</p>
+
+<p>In those happy lands where people understand Nature we rivulets have a
+different kind of work to do. We become pure and clear. We furnish a
+home for the fish, drink for the thirsty flocks, and a never-failing
+power to turn the mill wheels. Our waters are of service to every living
+thing.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page44" id="page44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW FAR WILL NATURE RESTORE HER WASTED GIFTS?</h3>
+
+<p>The natural wealth of our country is its soil, water, forests, minerals,
+animal and bird life, and, finally, its climate and scenery.</p>
+
+<p>Of all these, <i>climate</i> and <i>scenery</i> are the only ones which we can use
+and enjoy as much as we like without any danger of their ever failing
+us. The sun will shine through the blue sky, the winds will blow, and
+the storms will come just the same, no matter what we may do.</p>
+
+<p>Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to make the wonderful
+world in which we live, and place upon it the mountains and valleys,
+lakes and oceans? Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to
+make the rocks and store away in them gold, silver, copper, and iron?
+Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to cover the rocks with
+soil, and spread over the surface the flowers and trees and to stock it
+with uncounted numbers of animals and birds?</p>
+
+<p>Nature usually works very slowly, but she never rests. The earth and all
+things on its surface, have always been changing, but changing so slowly
+that we do not ordinarily notice what is going on. When there is an
+earthquake, or a slide of rock on a mountain side, or an eruption of a
+volcano, we are astonished and often terrified.</p>
+
+<p>Stories that have come down to us from the distant past tell us that the
+earth looked then much the same as it does now. If we could look away
+back to a time long before the first men lived, when even the animals
+and plants were<span class='pagenum'><a name="page45" id="page45">[Pg 45]</a></span> different from those around us, we should discover that
+the surface of the earth was quite different from that of today. We
+should then see mountains and hills where now we find valleys, and dry
+land where now lies the blue ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has been such a long time making the beautiful world in which we
+live, that we ought to treat it with great consideration. It is also a
+wise thing for us to be heedful of her requests, for, if we will work
+with her, the earth with all its treasures will be at our command.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we not now seek to learn which of the natural resources of our
+land will never be replaced if we squander them? Let us also learn which
+may be made good again by Nature, if we are willing to wait long enough,
+as well as to assist her in her slow work.</p>
+
+<p>Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It
+is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the
+fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water
+to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be
+our lot for many years.</p>
+
+<p>Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks
+will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a
+foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even,
+for a new and fertile soil to come again.</p>
+
+<p>During the early years of placer mining in California thousands of acres
+of rich lands in the foothills were destroyed. Only boulders were left.
+Now fifty years have passed and a new soil is being formed, but it will
+be a long time yet before it will be as good as it was in the first
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the Western prairies only grain has been raised for<span class='pagenum'><a name="page46" id="page46">[Pg 46]</a></span> so many years
+that in many places the soil will scarcely grow a crop worth gathering.
+Many farmers have never thought of this, but the wise ones understand
+that they must frequently add plant food to the soil to replace that
+taken by crops. They understand also that it is a good thing to change
+the crops grown upon any particular field from year to year, since
+different plants take different substances from the soil.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image18.jpg" width="600" height="355" alt="image18" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The miner in his search for gold ruins the beautiful valley, leaving it
+a mass of boulders.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Water goes through a ceaseless round. It rises from the sea and lakes to
+form the clouds, falls as rain or snow, and then flows back down the
+slopes to the sea. Although we have learned that we cannot change the
+quantity of rain that falls in any place, we can influence the way in
+which it runs back to the sea. This in turn affects the lives of people.
+We can store water in reservoirs, and by building canals have it to use
+on the land during the summer. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="page47" id="page47">[Pg 47]</a></span> can also keep it from flowing back to
+the sea as rapidly as it otherwise would, by leaving uninjured the
+covering of vegetation which has been spread over the mountain slopes.
+The water will run from bare rocks and bare soil much more quickly than
+it will from soil that is covered with leaf mold and held by plant
+roots. Do you not see, then, that we have almost as much control over
+water and its distribution as though we could increase or decrease the
+rainfall?</p>
+
+<p>What about the forests? If we cut them down, will they ever come back?
+All through the eastern part of our country and in the mountains of the
+West are lands once forested which have been cleared and turned into
+farms. Many of these farms, when abandoned, have in a few years been
+covered with a growth of young trees. The scattering trees that had been
+left in the vicinity of the clearings furnished the seed. The winds and
+the birds carried the seed to the open fields and so the forests began
+again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image19.jpg" width="600" height="299" alt="image19" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">But Nature, after a lapse of fifty years, has spread a new carpet of
+soil over the valley.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It will be hundreds of years before the trees are as large
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page49" id="page49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+and valuable as those of the first forest. The "big trees" of the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains are found nowhere else in the world, for they are the
+last of their race. Some of these trees are more than 4000 years old.
+They stood here when our forefathers were still savages and lived in
+trees or caves. Much of the region where these trees are found has now
+been reserved as a park. If the lumberman had been allowed to get at
+them, they would have soon been gone forever.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page48" id="page48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image20.jpg" width="600" height="395" alt="image20" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Uncle Sam has preserved both forests and water power.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is far more difficult to destroy completely most of the species of
+forest trees than it is to destroy the species of animals and birds. We
+can cut down the trees and in some cases they will grow again from
+sprouts. Many will hide away in remote places and furnish seed for new
+forests.</p>
+
+<p>The animals as well as the plants have had a long history. They have had
+a harder struggle than the plants, because many of them prey upon one
+another. We often dig up the skeletons of strange animals unlike any now
+living. These must have all been killed long ago. Each species or kind
+of animal now living must have come off victorious in the struggle with
+its enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Does it not seem a heartless thing for us, who call ourselves civilized,
+to destroy so completely any species of animal or plant that not one of
+its kind remains alive? No species which we destroy will ever come back
+again, and its place will always remain empty. There are a few predatory
+animals and birds that destroy vast numbers of useful ones. We should
+keep these in check by every means in our power, but for our thoughtless
+destruction of the valuable ones the world will always be poorer.</p>
+
+<p>What of the mineral treasures hidden away in the earth?<span class='pagenum'><a name="page50" id="page50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Will these be
+replaced when once they have all been used up? It took Nature a very
+long time to make coal out of the vegetation which had gathered in some
+ancient swamp. It took her fully as long to make the oil and gas from
+the bodies of the little organisms that once lived in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies of the little creatures from which oil is made are still
+gathering upon the bottom of the sea, and there are many swamps where we
+find vegetation and peat accumulating. But it is a long story from these
+substances to oil and coal. I am afraid we should get tired of waiting
+for Nature to make a new supply.</p>
+
+<p>Gold, silver, copper, and other minerals, so useful to us, are found in
+very small quantities scattered throughout most of the solid rocks of
+the earth. It would be impossible for us to obtain these from rocks,
+because there is so little in any one place. But Nature has collected a
+part of them in veins in the rocks. We sink shafts upon these veins and
+mine the ores. It will be a long time before we shall have mined all
+there is of these minerals. Because they are so hard to get we are not
+likely to waste them. But it is quite certain that there is a limit to
+the supply of mineral treasures, and equally certain that they can be
+renewed either very, very slowly, or not at all. Shall we cause our
+remote descendants to suffer for our carelessness?</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page51" id="page51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SOIL&mdash;THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE</h3>
+
+<p>An ancient story tells us that men were made from the dust of the earth.
+This dust under our feet, which soils our shoes, this dust which the
+wind sometimes sweeps along in blinding clouds, is indeed precious. The
+delicate tissues of our bodies are made from the food we eat. If it be
+plant food, it comes directly from the soil. If it be meat or eggs or
+milk, it comes from animals which live upon the plants, that in turn got
+their nourishment from the soil.</p>
+
+<p>This soft, dark substance which covers the rocky skeleton of the earth
+we call the <i>soil</i>. How common and cheap it looks when it is placed by
+the side of a piece of gold! But how much more wonderful it would seem
+if we could know all about it. The soil is far more necessary to our
+comfort and prosperity than gold. Gold, silver, or precious stones
+cannot keep us alive. They are of little worth to us compared with food
+and clothing. The soil, then, is the real wealth of the world. The
+farmer, who tills the soil, is the one worker we could not possibly do
+without. All the wealth of the world, all the comforts which we have,
+all the luxuries brought from far corners of the earth, come in the
+first place from the soil.</p>
+
+<p>We do not have to journey far over the earth to learn that there are
+many lands where the fields are not fruitful, and yet such lands are
+often rich and prosperous. How can this be if the soil is so necessary?
+Let us go to New England and ask the people living there if they can
+tell us why rich people sometimes inhabit lands which do not raise
+enough for them to eat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page52" id="page52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image21.jpg" width="600" height="262" alt="image21" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">These jagged rocks are formed of once molten lava. By and by they will
+crumble and be covered with a layer of soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Much of New England is hilly and has a poor, rocky soil. The farmers who
+first settled there toiled hard, working early and late, and yet got few
+of the comforts of life. Most of the farmers did not know how to improve
+the soil or even to keep it in as good condition as it was when they
+first cleared away the forests and began cultivating it; so many left
+their farms to seek a living elsewhere. There are now many abandoned
+farms that are growing up to forests again.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this poor land, the New England states form one of the most
+wealthy and prosperous parts of our country. There are many great cities
+containing hundreds of thousands of people in this territory. The
+inhabitants enjoy luxuries of every kind sent from all parts of the
+world. The farmers of New England certainly do not produce this wealth
+from their rocky soil. Where, then, does it come from?</p>
+
+<p>Industries of almost every sort except farming are carried on in the
+cities of New England. All these people have to be fed and the farms of
+this region would hardly support<span class='pagenum'><a name="page53" id="page53">[Pg 53]</a></span> them even if the soil were very
+productive. So much food is needed every day that if the supply were cut
+off for only a short time, there would be great suffering.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere there must be farmers at work raising food supplies for the
+people of the great cities. The many beautiful and wonderful things made
+by the workers in the cities must be exchanged with the farmers for the
+real necessities of life.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere there must be vast fertile fields which produce much more than
+their owners require. We will journey westward to the prairies of the
+Mississippi Valley. Here for hundreds of miles we can see hardly
+anything but fields of waving wheat and corn. Here are hundreds of
+granaries and flour mills. Upon the rivers and lakes there are many
+boats, and upon the land railroads, all carrying flour and other farm
+products to feed the people of New England. Here are great stock ranches
+with thousands of cattle and hogs, which, when fattened upon the grain,
+are also shipped to New England to help feed the people there.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image22.jpg" width="600" height="302" alt="image22" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A field of wheat on one of the Western prairies.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page54" id="page54">[Pg 54]</a></span>We must conclude, then, that if it were not for the vast fields with
+their deep, rich soil, where the farmers are able to grow much more than
+they need for themselves, it would not be possible for the people of New
+England to become wealthy by working at other things than farming. The
+articles which they are making add to their own comfort and pleasure as
+well as to that of the farmers, but they have to have the products of
+the soil to keep alive.</p>
+
+<p>If the farmers of the Mississippi Valley and of all the other valleys
+that help support the city people are careful of their soil and keep up
+its fertility, our country will remain prosperous. But we are sorry to
+say that the farmers have not always been careful. Many have wanted to
+make more than they should from their lands. The plant food with which
+Nature has filled the soil has been taken away year after year faster
+than she has been able to renew it. Many fields do not produce the crops
+they once did. The smaller the yield becomes, the higher the prices the
+produce brings. This makes it more difficult for the workers in the
+cities to live comfortably. The less abundant the supply of food
+becomes, the less prosperous is the country.</p>
+
+<p>There are countries, such as England, that have neglected agriculture
+but have, in spite of this, become rich and powerful through devoting
+their time to manufacturing articles to sell to other people. But those
+who work in the factories of England have to be fed, and so they must
+depend upon other countries to supply much of their food. If, for any
+reason, they were cut off from trade with these countries, not only
+would their manufacturing be ruined, but they would be in danger of
+starvation.</p>
+
+<p>To the first men, who lived entirely upon hunting and<span class='pagenum'><a name="page55" id="page55">[Pg 55]</a></span> fishing, the soil
+was of little consequence. Now things are different. The wild game has
+mostly gone and we have to depend upon the products of the soil.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image23.jpg" width="600" height="353" alt="image23" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">At the top of the bank we see a layer of dark, rich soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The people of those lands where the climate is unfavorable and the soil
+poor and rocky lack most of the comforts of life, unless they are able
+to obtain them through trade. It does not follow, however, that people
+living in lands favored by Nature are always happy and prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>You must remember that when the first men increased in numbers over the
+earth, the soil was fresh from the hand of Nature. Although they had
+everything about them that could be asked for, yet they were poor. There
+are men living today on the rich deltas that we have learned about who
+have few of the comforts that we have. This is because they are lazy and
+ignorant, and do not make proper use of this valuable gift, the rich
+soil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page56" id="page56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We conclude, then, that the soil forms the real wealth of the world. All
+our comforts and luxuries come in the first place, as we have seen, from
+the soil. The more crowded people become upon the earth, and the greater
+the number that engage in manufacturing and trade, the more important
+becomes the care and cultivation of the soil. If we do not take the best
+of care of the soil, there may come a time when there will not be food
+enough for us all.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page57" id="page57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+
+<h3>THINGS OF WHICH SOIL IS MADE</h3>
+
+<p>Let us take a spadeful of soft, dark earth from the garden and see if we
+can find of what it is made.</p>
+
+<p>We will first put the earth in a dish of water and stir it thoroughly.
+We notice that the water at once becomes muddy and that little particles
+of a dark substance rise to the surface. These particles appear to be
+pieces of stems and leaves.</p>
+
+<p>This crumbling vegetation is <i>peat</i>, a substance which fills many swamps
+and, when cut into blocks and dried, is used for fuel. When scattered
+through the earth peat has a very different use. As the leaves and stems
+of plants die and slowly mingle with the earth, they give it the dark
+color, which usually extends down for two or three feet. As this
+vegetation changes, or decays, as we usually say, it furnishes a number
+of substances which supply food to the roots of growing plants. One of
+the most important of these is <i>nitrogen</i>, an invisible gas.</p>
+
+<p>The decaying vegetation which we find mixed with the soil has other
+uses. It holds water and so helps to keep the soil moist. It makes the
+soil loose and more easy to cultivate. It absorbs heat from the sun and
+so helps to warm the soil. This vegetable matter, when it is completely
+decayed, we call <i>humus</i>. Soils that are rich in humus are usually very
+fertile.</p>
+
+<p>We will now turn the muddy water into another dish, pour more clear
+water upon the material that remains in the bottom of the dish, and wash
+it again, repeating the work until the water is no longer muddied. We
+will set<span class='pagenum'><a name="page58" id="page58">[Pg 58]</a></span> aside the dish containing the muddy water and examine what
+remains in the bottom of the dish that once contained the earth or soil.
+This is mostly sand, but with it are rough fragments of rock which can
+be crumbled in the hand. The greater number of the little sand grains
+are <i>quartz</i>. Some of them are clear like glass, others are reddish. In
+this quartz sand are a few grains of <i>iron</i> which the magnet picks out,
+and a number of scales of yellow <i>mica</i>.</p>
+
+<p>After standing a few hours the muddy water has become clear, and a
+deposit of a yellowish substance has collected in the bottom of the
+dish. We will carefully pour off the water and examine what remains.
+This fine soft mud we call <i>clay</i>. As it dries and becomes hard it
+shrinks and cracks, and thus breaks up into little pieces. Clay forms a
+greater or lesser part of all soil. Clay soil is very sticky when it is
+wet, as you will be sure to remember if you have tried to walk over it.
+When soil is formed largely of clay we speak of it as a <i>heavy soil</i>. In
+the West it is called <i>adobe</i> and is sometimes used in making houses.
+When adobe soil dries, great cracks form in it. These cracks are
+sometimes large enough for small animals to fall into. When there is a
+large amount of sand, we speak of the soil as <i>light</i> or <i>sandy</i>. A soil
+composed of sand and clay is sometimes called <i>loam</i>. If it is nearly
+all clay it is a <i>clay loam</i>; if there is much sand it is a <i>sandy
+loam</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Soils found in low, swampy places are sometimes formed almost wholly of
+decaying vegetable matter. Such soils are known as <i>peat soils</i>. They
+are usually very fertile.</p>
+
+<p>We have now learned about three things that the soil contains that are
+bulky and easy to discover: decaying vegetation, sand, and clay. These
+are, however, far from<span class='pagenum'><a name="page59" id="page59">[Pg 59]</a></span> being all that compose the soil. There are still
+many other things, some of which are invisible to the unaided eye and
+difficult to find.</p>
+
+<p>We will next take the clear water that remained after the mud settled.
+We will pour it into a dish, place the dish over a fire, and let the
+water boil slowly until it has all evaporated. There will remain in the
+bottom of the dish a thin white coating. Moisten this with a drop of
+vinegar or other weak acid and it will disappear in a mass of little
+bubbles. Such behavior teaches us that the white substance is probably a
+mixture of <i>lime</i> and <i>soda</i>. Besides these there are tiny particles of
+<i>potash</i> and <i>phosphorus</i>, which we cannot distinguish by the means we
+have used.</p>
+
+<p>Some soils contain a great deal of lime, and because they have been
+formed from limestone, are called <i>limestone soils</i>. Plants need a
+little soda, but when there is much in the soil it will kill them. Soils
+rich in soda are known as <i>alkali soils</i>. They were formed in the bottom
+of lakes the waters of which contained soda. Salt is another harmful
+thing found in the soil. You can sometimes see faint whitish deposits of
+soda and other salts on the soil in flower pots.</p>
+
+<p>There is one more thing that the soil contains that we must not forget,
+for it is one of the most important of them all. This is a living
+organism so small that we cannot see it with the unaided eye. Many
+thousands of these organisms are contained in a bit of earth such as you
+could take up on the point of a small knife blade. We have named them
+<i>bacteria</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Plants cannot make use of most of the substances in the soil without the
+aid of these organisms. The bacteria live<span class='pagenum'><a name="page60" id="page60">[Pg 60]</a></span> upon the materials of the
+soil and change them into such form that plants can digest them.</p>
+
+<p>Soil may be supplied with all kinds of plant food in just the right
+amount and yet, if it is packed hard and is not watered, no living thing
+can take root in it and grow. Plants drink their food and so we must
+supply water. They also require oxygen, as do other living things. For
+this reason we must leave the soil loose, so that the air can enter it
+and the roots get the oxygen which it contains.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we learn how wonderfully the soil is made. We learn that it
+contains many things required by plants. In order that the plants may be
+thrifty, there must be enough but not too much of these different
+things.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page61" id="page61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE SOIL IS MADE</h3>
+
+<p>The substances which we found in the soil teach us that it was formed
+from the rocks. If we could take the sand, clay, potash, soda, lime, and
+iron that we found in the soil and put them together as Nature knows how
+to do, we should have rock again.</p>
+
+<p>But if we should take a piece of rock and crush it to a fine sand, that
+would not be soil, because soil cannot be made in that way. It takes
+Nature many, many years, as the rocks slowly crumble and decay, to
+change the materials of which they are composed into true soil with its
+swarms of bacteria and its plant food.</p>
+
+<p>If we should dig down through the soft earth under our feet, we would at
+last come to solid rock. This is the rough and jagged crust of the earth
+on which rests the carpet of soil. In the mountains where the slopes are
+steep the rocks stick up through the soil. The outer parts of this solid
+rock are, however, always crumbling. Little particles, as soon as they
+become loosened, either fall by their own weight or are washed away.
+Some of the rock fragments collect upon the gentler slopes and finally
+turn to soil. This soil is not rich and it dries out quickly, because it
+is shallow. The soil in the valleys, as we have already learned from the
+muddy rivulet, is deep and rich.</p>
+
+<p>Nature is slowly spreading her mantle of soil over the earth. In some
+parts of the earth one can travel for hundreds of miles and see no
+rocks. One might think that in time Nature's work would be finished. But
+before the mountains in one place have crumbled and been washed<span class='pagenum'><a name="page62" id="page62">[Pg 62]</a></span> away,
+she raises up new ones somewhere else so that the tearing-down work
+begins again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image24.jpg" width="600" height="321" alt="image24" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Little by little the great rocks break in pieces and crumble finally to
+form soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Let us, in imagination, sit down by the side of a rock, prepared to stay
+there many years, that we may learn just how Nature makes the soil. It
+will be a long, long time before we can see any change in the rock. Each
+bright day the sun warms the cold rock and makes it expand a very
+little. At night the rock grows cold and shrinks. In this way minute
+crevices are finally formed between the grains of the different minerals
+that make up the rock.</p>
+
+<p>When it rains, water creeps into the tiny crevices. The water carries
+with it a little carbonic acid which the raindrops took from the air.
+This substance aids in dissolving some of the rock materials. If the
+nights are very cold, the water in the crevices freezes and opens them a
+little wider, for ice, as you know, takes up a little more room than it
+did when it was water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page63" id="page63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Plants also aid in breaking the rock. Often seeds are dropped by the
+wind, and the rootlets of some of these seeds, when they sprout, may
+find a crevice large enough and deep enough for them to push their way
+into the rock. In these crevices they find a little food and slowly grow
+larger and stronger. By and by some of the roots are strong enough to
+push apart large pieces of rock.</p>
+
+<p>If the rock which we are studying is granite, we shall after a time be
+able to pick out the different minerals of which it is composed. We can
+tell the grains of quartz, because they look glassy and remain very
+hard. Other grains, which we call <i>feldspar</i>, soften and change into
+clay, which makes the water muddy as it runs over the rocks. We see also
+little scales of yellow mica, sometimes called "fool's gold," and a few
+grains of iron. There are tiny quantities of other things which we shall
+not be able to see, for the rainwater dissolves them and carries them
+away.</p>
+
+<p>As the rock slowly crumbles to sand and clay, the bacteria begin to make
+their home in it. Hardy plants, that are not particular about what they
+grow in, get a foothold, and when they die their stems and leaves decay
+and mix with the rock particles until at last this material begins to
+look like soil. It has become dark in color and rich in plant food.
+Then, many other plants that require a good soil take root there. The
+rock has at last completely disappeared under the layer of soil and its
+carpet of vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose, now, that we dig down and find how deep the soil is and what
+lies below it. When we have gone down two feet the soil is harder and of
+a lighter color, for there are<span class='pagenum'><a name="page64" id="page64">[Pg 64]</a></span> fewer plant remains in it. This poorer,
+lighter-colored soil we call <i>subsoil</i>. If we dig a little deeper, we
+shall find pieces of rock in the subsoil. Below these we come to soft,
+crumbling rock and last of all the solid rock.</p>
+
+<p>The soil that is found resting on the rocks from which it was formed is
+known as <i>residual soil</i>. This name is given to such soil, because it is
+what remains after long years of rock decay during which the rains have
+washed away a part of the finer material.</p>
+
+<p>What has become of the soft earth that the water washed away? The muddy
+rivulet has already told us its interesting story. We have learned that
+a part of this earth (or soil) is borne to the distant ocean. There it
+is forever lost unless the sea bottom should some day become dry land.
+Stranger things than that have happened on this ancient earth of ours.
+The part of the soil which the water carried away to form the rich
+valley lands and deltas is known as <i>alluvial soil</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image25.jpg" width="600" height="290" alt="image25" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>U. S. Department of Agriculture</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A flood plain, where alluvial soil has been deposited by the river.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Long ago the northern part of our country was covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="page65" id="page65">[Pg 65]</a></span> with a sheet of
+ice. This ice crept slowly southward, and as it moved along it tore off
+all the soil and loose rocks on the surface of the earth over which it
+passed. When it melted it left them spread roughly over the country.
+Such material forms <i>glacial soil</i>. It is often deep but not very rich.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image26.jpg" width="600" height="355" alt="image26" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>U. S. Geological Survey</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Soil brought by a glacier and deposited as the ice melted.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is another kind of soil, formed by the wind. If you have ever been
+in a dust storm you have seen the fine, powdery substance that settles
+over everything and creeps into the smallest cracks. In some countries
+where there are strong winds and not much rain there is little
+vegetation on the surface to hold the soil. Year after year the winds
+pick up particles of the dusty soil, whirl them high in the air, and do
+not let them down again until they have been carried many miles. In some
+far-off land where the winds go down the dust particles settle again to
+the earth. After a long, long time, enough dust collects to form a
+thick<span class='pagenum'><a name="page66" id="page66">[Pg 66]</a></span> layer of the richest soil. This is called &aelig;olian soil, from the
+word <i>&AElig;olus</i>, meaning the "wind."</p>
+
+<p>There is one more kind of soil which we ought to know about; that is
+<i>peat soil</i>. It is found in marshy or swampy lowlands and is formed
+largely of plant remains. When lands with such soil are drained, they
+prove very rich.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page67" id="page67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW VEGETATION HOLDS THE SOIL</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image27.jpg" width="600" height="328" alt="image27" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">What the rivulets did to the hillside pastures where the grass was
+destroyed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A walk up the mountains on a rainy day is not a pleasant one. There are
+mud and water under our feet, and overhead are the dripping branches
+which, if touched, send down a shower of drops. But if we keep our eyes
+open we shall learn something which will be of great value to us. We
+shall learn how it is that Nature holds the soil on the slopes&mdash;the
+wonderful soil which it takes her so long a time to make and which is
+the source of all our wealth.</p>
+
+<p>Our way up the mountains is by a winding road. We first pass the
+foothills upon which there are scattered oaks. The rain is steadily
+pouring down and rivulets loaded with mud are eating little gullies all
+over the slopes. Along the roadside, where they have united, the
+rivulets form a torrent which is making a deep ditch that threatens to
+render the road impassable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page68" id="page68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These slopes were once covered with grass and the rivulets ran down them
+without doing any harm. But so many sheep were pastured here that the
+grass was killed. The roots, which once formed a thick protecting sod,
+are now decaying. How quickly the rivulets have taken advantage of the
+unprotected slopes!</p>
+
+<p>The road leads still upward until it brings us to where there were once
+pine forests. The lumbermen cut off all the trees, and then fire came
+and burned the decaying vegetation which once lay spread over the
+ground. Now all that remains is bare earth and blackened stumps.</p>
+
+<p>What are the raindrops doing here? They gather in rivulets just as they
+do on the once grassy hillside; but because there are so many roots
+still remaining in the ground they have not done much work. They are not
+loitering, however, and by and by, when the roots have rotted, they will
+seize their chance and begin tearing away the soil from the mountain
+side.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the end of the road. Farther up we come to the primeval
+forests, where the giant trees stand just as they did before men came.
+Here we can see how the slopes are protected, for in making the road the
+workmen cut deep into the hillside. They first removed a layer of pine
+needles and decaying branches. Then they cut through a layer of soil
+about two feet thick which was completely filled with little roots of
+trees and bushes. Below this they came to the soft subsoil, which
+contained only a few roots, and at the bottom they reached the solid
+rock.</p>
+
+<p>The layer of roots and soil at the top of the bank, you can see from the
+picture, now overhangs the road, because the raindrops which beat
+against the bank have washed away<span class='pagenum'><a name="page69" id="page69">[Pg 69]</a></span> all that they could reach of the
+unprotected earth at the bottom. How plainly we can see the network of
+roots. What a hard task it must be for the water to get at the soil in
+which these roots are growing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image28.jpg" width="600" height="360" alt="image28" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The layer of roots holds the soil on the mountain side.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We will now leave the road and, although it is still raining hard, we
+will walk a distance through the forest and see if there is anything
+more that we can learn. We are soon in the deep woods where, perhaps, no
+one has ever been before. Around us are trees of all ages and sizes,
+from little seedlings to great giants six feet through. Among them are
+the crumbling stumps of trees long dead. Their trunks lie on the ground,
+and many are so soft and rotten that we can kick them to pieces with our
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>As we walk our feet never touch the real earth. It is always on the
+soft, yielding leaves and crumbling branches that we step. These leaves
+and branches form a thick layer completely hiding the soil. But the
+strangest thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="page70" id="page70">[Pg 70]</a></span> is that, although the rain is still falling, we can
+discover no rivulets. What, then, becomes of the water? The soft,
+decaying vegetation on which we are walking and the rotting stumps and
+logs act like a great sponge. As long as this sponge can take up the
+falling drops, none have a chance to run away. If it rains a very long
+time and the sponge becomes saturated, the drops that creep away and
+finally unite in rivulets in the hollows do no harm to the soil, for
+they cannot get at it.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image29.jpg" width="250" height="173" alt="image29" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The roots of the tree grip the soil like the fingers of a great hand.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Long after the storm has passed, the earth underneath the trees remains
+wet, while the ground out in the open has become dry. A part of the
+water held by the decaying vegetation evaporates. Another part creeps
+down through the earth to the crevices in the rocks and feeds the
+springs.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now put aside our storm clothes and journey, in imagination, far
+away to where it seldom rains&mdash;to that land which we call the desert.
+Here the bare rocks of the mountain slopes are burned brown by the hot
+sun. Here there is little soil and only a few little bushes that somehow
+manage to live. Why does not the soil gather over the rocks as it does
+in other places? The rocks are surely crumbling, for we can crush some
+of the pieces in our hands.</p>
+
+<p>Once in a long time it rains in this desert. Then the drops descend
+furiously. The water gathers in rivulets and these turn to torrents
+which sweep down the slopes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page71" id="page71">[Pg 71]</a></span> They carry away the particles of sand and
+clay which would in time, if there were plant roots to hold them, turn
+to soil.</p>
+
+<p>The winds also help keep the desert rocks bare and free of soil. Have
+you ever been in a dust storm or have you read of caravans caught in
+such storms in the Sahara Desert? The fierce wind picks up the particles
+of sand and clay from the bare earth and sweeps them along as it does
+the snow in winter, or it whirls them in clouds high in the air. The
+dust clouds are often so dense that they hide the sun and all landmarks
+by which the traveler can guide his way. But have any of us ever seen
+the winds pick up much dust from the green fields where the vegetation
+protects the surface?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image30.jpg" width="600" height="273" alt="image30" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The vegetation prevents the wind from blowing the sand away, so that
+wherever the roots obtain a hold there a little mound is formed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>If we turn now to a very wet country, such as that upon our northwest
+coast, where often nearly eight feet of rain falls in a year, we shall
+find the vegetation so dense that it hides both soil and rocks. Here
+water can do little in<span class='pagenum'><a name="page72" id="page72">[Pg 72]</a></span> wearing away the soil, even upon the steepest
+slopes, while the wind cannot get a peep at the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Does it not seem strange that where little rain falls the earth washes a
+great deal faster than where it rains very heavily? The reason is that
+the more it rains the more dense becomes the carpet of vegetation. If we
+wish to preserve the soil, we must preserve the natural growth on the
+hillsides.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page73" id="page73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE IS NO PROTECTING CARPET OF VEGETATION</h3>
+
+<p>Not all of the muddy streams are due to the carelessness of men. It is
+the business of some of the servants of Nature, as we have already
+learned, to tear down the mountains and fill up the hollows in the
+earth. It is the business of others to spread a carpet of vegetation
+over the surface, and wherever they have already succeeded in their work
+the waters run clear most of the time.</p>
+
+<p>Where it is dry so much of the time that few plants can live, the
+destructive servants have their own way when the occasional rains come.
+Where there is a warm sun and frequent rains, a green carpet is spread
+over all the slopes. But when men destroy the carpet and take no care of
+the soil underneath, the raindrops are able to do as much damage as they
+do during the cloudbursts in the deserts.</p>
+
+<p>The Colorado is one of those rivers in the basin of which few people
+live. Much of its journey is through a land in which there is little
+vegetation. Here, the waters from the melting snows upon the lofty
+mountains about the basin and those of the occasional heavy rains have
+things their own way. They are always yellow with mud. The amount of mud
+which this river carries has been measured. You will hardly believe me
+when I tell you that it amounts to sixty-one million tons every year.
+This is enough to cover 164 square miles one foot deep. We might call
+this the cream of the soil from all the slopes of the great basin of the
+Colorado River.</p>
+
+<p>In other parts of our land, where abundant rains fall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page74" id="page74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the streams tell
+a different story. Before men came the water of these streams was clear
+throughout the greater part of the year. It was only when the rains were
+very heavy that the soil washed away, for the vegetation held it well.
+Now the gullies on the hillsides and along the roads tell us as plainly
+as though they could speak that our country is losing wealth here.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image31.jpg" width="600" height="342" alt="image31" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The roots of the tree form a wonderful network underground from which
+the water cannot tear the soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The soil is our most valuable possession. The people of many lands are
+suffering from poverty today because their forefathers did not take care
+of the soil as they should. In such lands the people who live on the
+mountain sides are poor, because the best of their soil has been washed
+away. Those who live in the valleys are often poor because of the sands
+and gravels which floods have spread over their fertile fields.</p>
+
+<p>While it is raining, let us fill a bottle from some muddy<span class='pagenum'><a name="page75" id="page75">[Pg 75]</a></span> stream and
+allow it to stand until the water settles. In the bottom will then
+appear a layer of fine mud, or <i>silt</i> as it is usually called. How much
+soil do you suppose the rivulets washed from my garden and from yours
+during the last severe storm? How much do you suppose all the rivulets
+which make up the rivers of your state washed from all the gardens and
+fields during the same storm? Make a guess and then multiply your answer
+by the number of storms in one year and that by fifty years, and you
+will get a quantity greater than you would believe possible.</p>
+
+<p>This is the way Nature takes her toll for our carelessness. So quietly
+does she do it that often the farmer does not have any idea of what is
+happening. She is like a thief that comes and steals his goods while he
+is sleeping.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image32.jpg" width="600" height="332" alt="image32" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Bailey Willis</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The soil on the hillsides of China is being washed away because of the
+thoughtlessness of the people.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the farmer finally awakes and begins to wonder why his crops grow
+smaller each year, he has already lost<span class='pagenum'><a name="page77" id="page77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+the cream of his soil. He must at once stop plowing the steep hillsides
+and leaving the ground bare for the winter rains to wash it away. To
+save the slopes he can either terrace them or he can sow grass or
+clover, which will form a sod and hold the soil. If the farmer can get
+peas, beans, alfalfa, or clover to grow upon his wasted lands, they will
+make it fertile again, for these plants have the wonderful power of
+taking nitrogen from the air and storing it in the soil.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page76" id="page76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image33.jpg" width="600" height="365" alt="image33" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The farmer who owns this land will soon be made poor because of his
+carelessness in destroying the covering of the soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>More earth has been washed from the hillsides of our country during the
+last fifty years than during thousands of years before white people
+came. The farm lands have been injured, the bays have been made
+shallower, and many river channels have been so filled up that it is
+more difficult to navigate them now than it was in the early days.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer, the stockman, the lumberman, and the miner has each been
+selfishly doing his share in the destruction of the soil. Each one has
+thought only of how he could make the most money in the shortest time.
+It has not occurred to them that they are making it difficult for their
+children and grandchildren to live.</p>
+
+<p>In the Southern states thousands of acres are being gullied by the
+rains, and the soil destroyed. The floods of spring have become worse in
+late years, because of the destruction of the forest cover in the
+Appalachian Mountains. Buildings and bridges are frequently carried
+away, and gravel and boulders are washed over the rich bottom lands.</p>
+
+<p>In the mountains of far-away Italy the soil is poor, and so are the
+people. They have cut down nearly all the trees and for hundreds of
+years the brush and grass have been eaten so closely by the sheep and
+goats that few roots<span class='pagenum'><a name="page79" id="page79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+remain to hold the soil. It does not need to rain heavily there to cause
+the rivers to become muddy and swollen. The soil which once covered the
+slopes has been carried to the bays, and now there is land where ships
+floated two thousand years ago.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page78" id="page78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image34.jpg" width="600" height="367" alt="image34" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>U. S. Forest Service</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Terraces of rock built by natives of China to aid in holding the soil.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Spain so much of the best soil has been lost that the people now do
+not raise enough food to support themselves, and much has to be imported
+from other lands.</p>
+
+<p>France is a rich country still, in spite of the cutting of so much of
+the forest and the careless pasturing of the mountain slopes. The people
+are industrious and hard working and thus make a living in spite of the
+loss which they are suffering.</p>
+
+<p>The Montenegrins are among the bravest people of Europe, but their land
+is barren and they enjoy few luxuries. Their country consists largely of
+limestone mountains, from which they have been cutting the trees for
+hundreds of years. There is but little soil and that is to be found in
+the hollows of the rocks. This soil is so precious that every bit, be it
+ever so small, is carefully cultivated.</p>
+
+<p>In the mountains of Palestine and Syria the people have so completely
+destroyed the trees and grasses which Nature once planted there that it
+is difficult for them to raise enough to live upon. The rivers are muddy
+after every rain, and even the water from the melting snows picks up
+some of the soil and flows away with a dirty, yellow color.</p>
+
+<p>When we reach China and Korea, we find that there the people have been
+most severely punished for their carelessness. The mountain sides have
+been torn by the rains and deeply gullied. The once smooth slopes upon
+which grew trees and grasses are now a mass of sharp ridges and<span class='pagenum'><a name="page80" id="page80">[Pg 80]</a></span> deep
+hollows of bare earth. The water falling upon these mountains runs off
+in torrents, carrying even large boulders as it does in our Western
+deserts. Here and there the natives have built terraces of rock to aid
+in holding the soil, but many parts of the country are almost wholly
+deserted. The waters run off the mountains so quickly that they often
+form vast floods which spread over the lower valleys and plains. The
+floods destroy the crops and drown the people.</p>
+
+<p>Eastward of China there is an arm of the Pacific Ocean known as the
+Yellow Sea. Why do you suppose this name was given to the sea? One of
+the great rivers of China, the Yangste-kiang, empties into it. The river
+rises in the barren mountains of which we have just been speaking, and
+it is continually bringing so much mud and sand that a whole sea is
+being filled. Long before a ship comes within sight of the land the
+waters are seen to be of a muddy, yellow color.</p>
+
+<p>In the smaller valleys of Korea the natives build dikes along the rivers
+to keep the mountain floods from spreading sand and gravel over their
+rice fields. Every year they have to make the dikes higher as the river
+beds fill up.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we see that all over the world people are suffering because they
+have not obeyed the laws which Nature has made for the protection of the
+soil.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page81" id="page81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>THE USE AND CARE OF WATER</h3>
+
+<p>The ocean is the home of the water. The water would always remain in the
+ocean if it could, but the sun and air are continually at work stealing
+little particles away and sending them on long journeys.</p>
+
+<p>The water particles are so small as they rise from the ocean that we
+cannot see them. By and by they crowd together and make the clouds that
+float across the sky. As soon as the clouds meet colder air, the little
+water particles rush together and thus become larger and larger until
+they grow so heavy that they can no longer float in the air, but must
+fall. Some of them fall into the ocean again, but others drop upon the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>The raindrops that reach the land have many sorts of stories to tell
+before they again get back to the ocean. Some of them are at once
+snatched up again and are started upon another journey. The thirsty air,
+whether over the ocean or over the land, is ever in search of water
+particles.</p>
+
+<p>If the air is very cold, the clouds turn to snow instead of rain. The
+feathery flakes fall slowly through the air and form a soft white mantle
+over the earth. Those that fall on lofty mountains form great banks
+which may not entirely melt and turn to water until late in the summer.</p>
+
+<p>The raindrops that fall where the slopes are steep, where Nature has
+grown little vegetation, or where men have destroyed the earth cover,
+have little to detain them and are soon on their way back to their home.
+In their hasty journey they do much damage to the unprotected soil.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page82" id="page82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image35.jpg" width="350" height="508" alt="image35" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The cool and shady stream before men came and cut the trees away so that
+the hot sun could get at it.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>If the drops fall upon gentle slopes, or where there are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page83" id="page83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+marshes and lakes, or upon the forest with its decaying vegetation, or
+upon deep beds of gravel and sand, they are a long time getting back to
+the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>We can in no way change the amount of rain that falls upon any part of
+the earth. We cannot call up a storm when we wish it, nor can we send it
+away when there has been rain enough. But there are many ways in which
+we can hasten or delay the return of the water to the ocean. Nature
+shows us some of these. The spongelike carpet underneath the forest
+holds the water until it has had time to soak into the earth from which
+it later emerges as springs. Nature forms basins on the heads of the
+rivers where a part of the water, instead of immediately flowing away,
+collects in the form of lakes. From these lakes the water runs away
+slowly instead of in torrential floods.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image36.jpg" width="600" height="336" alt="image36" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The rotting tree trunks take up the rainwater like a sponge.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Only a few places in our country have more rain than is really needed.
+One of these is the region about the mouth<span class='pagenum'><a name="page84" id="page84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of the Mississippi River
+upon the Gulf of Mexico. Another is upon the Northwest coast. Throughout
+the central part of the country the summer rains are sometimes too light
+to afford a full harvest. The rainfall upon the plains and valleys of
+the Southwest is so small that the only plants that can live there are
+those strange and curious forms that have become used to desert
+conditions. The only way in which these lands can be made useful to the
+farmer is by means of irrigation. To obtain water for irrigation we have
+either to go to the distant mountains and build reservoirs to collect
+the rains which fall there and then dig canals to carry the water to the
+desert valleys, or to make use of some river flowing through them, if
+they are fortunate enough to have such a river. Can you think of any
+rivers that are used in this way?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image37.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="image37" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Brown Brothers</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The great Roosevelt Dam, in the Salt River irrigation project,
+Arizona.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page85" id="page85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Although water sometimes seems the greatest blessing that we have, yet
+it may prove a curse if it is not looked after. If you give the water a
+chance to make gullies in your fields, you lose not only the water but
+the best of the soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most
+of the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise farmer you
+know also that cultivation of the soil helps to hold the water, for it
+cannot escape through loose soil as it can through compact soil. Thus if
+you know how to handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a
+little rain, accomplish a great deal.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image38.jpg" width="600" height="389" alt="image38" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield,
+Idaho, showing a field irrigated by means of canals and ditches.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We can, then, hold or <i>conserve</i> the water, first, by leaving the
+steeper slopes covered with vegetation; second, by keeping the soil
+loose; and, third, by building reservoirs to hold the floods. We can
+make use of the conserved water<span class='pagenum'><a name="page86" id="page86">[Pg 86]</a></span> by carrying it in pipes or ditches to
+those regions where it is needed. We can get rid of too much water by
+draining the swamps, and building dikes to protect lowlands from river
+floods.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now learn something of the different uses of water. Every one of
+our homes has its water supply. In the city the water comes through
+pipes from some distant reservoir. In the country the homes are so far
+apart that it is difficult to supply them in this way. The water in the
+streams is often not suitable for drinking, and if there are no springs
+near by it has to be obtained by some other means. Nearly everywhere in
+the earth under our feet water can be found by digging or boring a well.
+Sometimes we have to go only a few feet, at other times many hundreds of
+feet. This water in the earth, or <i>ground water</i>, is of very great
+importance. It enables us to build our homes where we wish. Spring water
+is that which finds its way to the surface through some tiny crack or
+fissure in the rocks. How delicious is the pure, cold water that comes
+out of the shady hollow in the hills! You can form in your minds a
+picture of the rain falling on some distant mountain, of its soaking
+into the ground and finally reaching the little crevices in the rocks.
+Along these crevices it may have crept for days and perhaps years until
+at last it found an outlet in some spring.</p>
+
+<p>The great river flows by so quietly that we often forget in how many
+ways it is serving us. It serves not only those upon its banks but those
+who live hundreds of miles away and who, perhaps, have never seen it. It
+was the first and easiest means of travel used by our forefathers before
+there were any roads or railroads through the wilderness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page87" id="page87">[Pg 87]</a></span> It now aids
+in carrying on trade between different regions. If large and deep
+enough, it permits boats from all parts of the world to reach the very
+heart of our country.</p>
+
+<p>Canals might be called artificial rivers. They serve an important
+purpose in nearly level countries where Nature has placed no navigable
+river. Although canal boats usually move slowly, yet they can carry
+goods cheaper than railroads can. The Erie Canal, in connection with the
+Great Lakes and the Hudson River, makes it possible for us to go all the
+way by water from the heart of the continent to New York City. The Erie
+Canal has helped make New York City the greatest city in our country.
+The canal across the Isthmus of Panama saves ships a journey of many
+thousand miles around South America.</p>
+
+<p>Rivers serve us in yet another way by affording water for irrigation. A
+great river like the Colorado flows through regions of many different
+climates. Some rivers become so small in the summer that it is necessary
+to build great reservoirs at their headwaters in order to insure a
+supply when the crops need it. But in the case of the Colorado this is
+not necessary. The headwaters of this river are among lofty mountains,
+where the melting snows and summer showers make the waters of the river
+higher in the early summer than at any other season of the year. Thus
+its great delta, the Colorado Desert, has become the home of many
+thousands of people.</p>
+
+<p>Another use which we make of rivers is by putting the water to turning
+mill wheels. If you will turn to your geographies, you will find that
+nearly all the great manufacturing cities of our country have grown up
+around rapids or waterfalls, where some river tumbles over a ledge of
+rocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page88" id="page88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Once we had to build our mills close to the rivers to use the water
+power, but this is no longer necessary. Now we build electric-power
+plants by the rivers and carry electric energy more than a hundred miles
+to any place where we wish to use it. Electricity made from the distant
+mountain waterfall will do any kind of work for us wherever we carry it.
+Thus we see that the river works for us in more than one way. After it
+has created power for our factories, it can be turned on to the thirsty
+fields, where it will serve us equally well.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image39.jpg" width="600" height="424" alt="image39" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Great Western Power Company of California</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Electric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for
+generating electricity which is carried to distant places.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page89" id="page89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?</h3>
+
+<p>We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we
+could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than
+Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the
+steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the
+springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and
+she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter
+and a home.</p>
+
+<p>It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only
+useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors
+may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild
+people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth
+stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of
+the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.</p>
+
+<p>We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few
+articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance
+at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than
+the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no
+communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood,
+however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their
+shores.</p>
+
+<p>From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than
+his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of
+purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making
+their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their
+rude homes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page90" id="page90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving
+baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes
+that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to
+another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or
+burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier
+than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians
+learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in
+making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap
+of the maple until it turned to sugar.</p>
+
+<p>The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came
+as natural to early men as it does to the other animals. They shared
+with the birds the wild fruits, and divided with the squirrels the many
+kinds of nuts. So highly do the Italians still value the wild chestnut
+that this tree, almost alone of all the forest trees that once covered
+their country, has been saved.</p>
+
+<p>The most important uses of trees in our country are for lumber, for
+fuel, and for the edible fruits and nuts which they bear. There are
+several purposes to which logs are put without being sawed into lumber,
+such as for telegraph poles and for piling for the support of great
+buildings and for wharves. Long ago nearly all our houses were made of
+logs. There was then an abundance of clear, straight trees but very few
+sawmills. It was easy to cut the logs, peel and notch them at the ends,
+and then lay them up in a house of just the size that was wanted. From
+the logs that split easily rough boards and shingles were made, as well
+as chairs and tables. Blocks of wood were set in the openings cut for
+windows, because of the scarcity of glass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page91" id="page91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image40.jpg" width="350" height="507" alt="image40" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada
+Mountains.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page92" id="page92">[Pg 92]</a></span>Our forefathers had all the wood they wanted just for the cutting, and
+so they warmed their houses by means of fireplaces large enough to hold
+great logs. They made of wood every tool and household convenience for
+which this substance could be used. Indeed, they had more wood than they
+wanted. Trees covered so much of the land that the ground could not be
+cultivated until they had been cut away. Now we wish that we had the
+oak, hickory, black walnut, and other kinds of trees, that the pioneers
+of our country burned in order to get them out of the way, for they have
+become very valuable.</p>
+
+<p>Now, partly because wood is becoming scarce, and partly because our
+large buildings must be made very strong and safe from fire, we are
+using other materials for them. Stone, brick, and concrete, when tied
+together with iron beams, are more suitable material for great
+buildings. Our land now contains so many people, and so many new homes
+are needed every year, that the lumber required for houses alone is
+almost more than we can believe.</p>
+
+<p>The forests are now disappearing so fast that unless we use wood more
+carefully we may have to give up our attractive wooden homes and cheery
+fireplaces and live in houses of stone or concrete. In many parts of the
+world people have so completely destroyed the forests that they have not
+only to make their homes of mud bricks or stone, but have little wood
+left for fuel and other purposes.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot mention all the purposes to which wood is put in our homes and
+in our industries. It would take a whole page in this book merely to
+make a list of them. What we ought to remember, however, is that it is
+not so much the amount of wood that we actually <i>use</i> as it is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="page93" id="page93">[Pg 93]</a></span> wood
+that is <i>wasted</i> that is likely to bring us to want. Two thirds of the
+wood of the trees cut throughout our country is wasted in its
+manufacture into lumber and other objects. Besides this, as much wood is
+burned every year in needless forest fires as is cut by the lumberman.
+The waste of trees that are cut merely for their bark which is used in
+tanning leather is a wrong for which Nature will sometime call us to
+account.</p>
+
+<p>In Switzerland, where the forests are given the care that we bestow upon
+a garden, not a particle of wood is allowed to go to waste. The branches
+are all picked up and saved. Even the sawdust is made use of in the
+manufacture of wood alcohol, which has an important use as fuel.</p>
+
+<p>There are many kinds of trees the sap of which has great value. If care
+is used in tapping the trees, they are not greatly injured and will live
+for years. Sap of the maple affords delicious maple sugar. The sticky
+sap of the coniferous trees is obtained by making a cut in the bark.
+Canada balsam, thus obtained, is a clear liquid from a fir tree of the
+same name. It is the finest of all the turpentines and is used for many
+purposes in the arts. Enormous quantities of turpentine are obtained
+from the yellow pines. The pine forests of the Southern states supply
+nearly all our turpentine. From this by a process of distillation is
+obtained resin and spirits of turpentine.</p>
+
+<p>The rubber tree found in the tropical forests has become one of the most
+necessary of trees. Rubber made from the sap of this tree is now used
+for many purposes for which we have been able to find no other material.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page94" id="page94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image41.jpg" width="350" height="612" alt="image41" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only
+about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine
+trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quantities of
+resin, and other products.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We sometimes forget how valuable trees are for various substances used
+in medicine. Our lives may depend on
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page95" id="page95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+having such medicines within reach. Quinine made from the bark of the
+cinchona tree is perhaps the most important. Camphor gum is furnished by
+another tropical tree. The acacia supplies gum arabic. The poison,
+strychna, comes from a nut tree. The eucalyptus, birch, and other trees
+too numerous to name, supply various other medicinal products.</p>
+
+<p>While we are trying to find other substances to replace wood as far as
+is possible, so as to keep the forests from being used up, we are
+requiring more and more for the manufacture of paper. The spruce forests
+are fast disappearing in pulp mills, from which the blocks of wood
+emerge as sheets of paper. Perhaps after a time we shall find something
+to take the place of wood in the manufacture of paper.</p>
+
+<p>The one use to which we put the trees, which does not destroy or injure
+them in the slightest, is growing them for their fruit and nuts. We take
+great care of such trees, selecting the best varieties and cultivating,
+trimming, and spraying them in order to keep them healthy and strong.
+The better the care that we give them, the finer and larger become their
+fruits.</p>
+
+<p>Trees are valuable to us in so many ways and appeal so deeply to our
+love of the beautiful things in Nature that we should all be interested
+in them. If we give the trees a chance, they will do their share toward
+making our lives comfortable and happy.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page96" id="page96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?</h3>
+
+<p>Our forefathers who came across the water to America found forests
+stretching away from the water's edge into an unknown wilderness. The
+settlements spread very slowly into the pathless woods, for there lurked
+danger from the Indians and wild animals. The Allegheny Mountains also
+held the settlers back for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>The pioneers found the country, as far as the Ohio River and beyond,
+still forest covered; but by and by openings or <i>prairies</i> began to
+appear. By the time they had crossed the Great River the forests had
+been left behind, except for fringes of trees upon the lowlands along
+the streams.</p>
+
+<p>From this point westward the open prairies stretched away to the
+horizon. Antelope, deer, and buffalo were often seen feeding on the rich
+grasses. The adventurous pioneers pushed on across the fertile prairies,
+coming at last to a drier and higher region which we have called the
+<i>Great Plains</i>. On these plains the Rocky Mountains came in sight. These
+mountains gradually became higher as the travelers approached, until
+they rose before them like a mighty wall. Here they again met vast
+forests, which covered all the higher slopes.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the Rocky Mountains they crossed a broad land of deserts where
+little rain fell. The vegetation was so scanty and springs so far apart
+that many of their horses and cattle died. The dreary and barren deserts
+were followed by another lofty range of mountains. Entering these
+mountains, the pioneers came upon the most magnificent forest that had
+yet been seen upon our continent. After traveling for some days over rugged mountains, they at last
+emerged from the forests upon the Great Valley of California.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page97" id="page97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image42.jpg" width="350" height="489" alt="image42" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller">A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite
+Valley.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page98" id="page98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Scattered over portions of the valley were oak trees, giving it the
+appearance of a park. When the valley had been passed the pioneers
+climbed the last mountain range, and from this range looked down upon
+the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here they found forests again, some of
+the trees being of enormous size. Thus we see that the eastern part of
+the continent was nearly all forested, but that in the West the forests
+grew chiefly on the mountains, because there is not enough rainfall upon
+the plains and in the valleys.</p>
+
+<p>The trees that make up most of the forests of our country are of two
+very different kinds. There is one kind that has narrow or needle-like
+leaves which they keep through the winter. These we commonly call
+<i>narrow-leaved</i> trees or <i>conifers</i>. The most important of the
+narrow-leaved trees are the pines, firs, spruces, and hemlock. Such
+trees form the forests of the greater part of the highlands of the
+northern and northeastern parts of our country. The pines also find a
+congenial home upon the lowlands of the Southern states. Trees of the
+second kind have broad leaves, and usually their wood is rather hard.
+Hence we call them <i>broad-leaved</i> or <i>hardwood</i> trees. Since most of
+these trees drop their leaves in winter, we often speak of them as
+<i>deciduous</i> trees. By far the larger part of the lands of the Eastern
+states that are now cultivated were found by the first settlers to be
+covered with hardwood trees. We are familiar with many of the hardwoods
+through their use in furniture and various household utensils and farm
+implements.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page99" id="page99">[Pg 99]</a></span> The most important varieties are the walnut, hickory,
+chestnut, beech, maple, ash, oak, elm, locust, and linden.</p>
+
+<p>There are not many broad-leaved trees in the forests of the West. The
+children of the West miss all the nut trees that the boys and girls of
+the East enjoy. But to make up for this lack there are some in the West
+that are not found in the East. The sugar pine, the pi&ntilde;on pine, and the
+digger pine afford delicious nuts which once formed an important article
+of food for the Indians. In the West the broad-leaved trees do not form
+dense forests. They are scattered among the pines on the lower mountain
+slopes, in the valleys, and along the streams. The most important of
+these trees are oaks of many kinds, soft maple, alder, cottonwood,
+sycamore, and laurel.</p>
+
+<p>The dense forests of the Western mountains consist almost wholly of
+narrow-leaved trees. Among them are the pines and firs of different
+kinds, spruce, cedar, redwood, and "big trees." The redwoods and "big
+trees" are both known as sequoias; they grow to an immense size upon the
+mountains of California. The coniferous forests of which these trees
+form a part are among the most wonderful and interesting ones on the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>If you will take a forest map of our country and place it beside a
+rainfall map, you will quickly discover why the forests are found where
+they are. You will see that the forests are found where there is more
+than thirty inches of rain each year, except in the far North, where it
+is very cold. You can say, then, that the climate is the chief thing
+that determines where the forests shall grow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page100" id="page100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image43.jpg" width="350" height="511" alt="image43" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Mountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all
+conifers.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>If the climate is warm and the rainfall heavy, the forest<span class='pagenum'><a name="page101" id="page101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+vegetation is so dense and rank that you can hardly travel through it.
+Such forests are found in the tropical parts of the country. Where
+little rain falls there is scanty vegetation, as upon the deserts of the
+Southwest. But where it is very cold, even if there is much snow or
+rain, you will find no trees.</p>
+
+<p>We must not forget that there is another thing that affects the growth
+of trees, and that is the soil. Pines like a sandy soil, while most
+other trees do not. Certain cedars and cypresses like swampy places
+where no other trees will grow. Many beautiful meadows and prairies have
+no trees, because the soil is not well drained.</p>
+
+<p>It is very easy to understand why trees cannot grow where it is dry, but
+how shall we learn of the effect of cold upon them? Shall we have to
+take a journey of thousands of miles into the far North, until we
+finally come to the land called the <i>Barren Lands</i> or <i>tundras</i>, where
+the trees become stunted and at last disappear&mdash;a land where they cannot
+longer fight against the cold and live?</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately such a long journey is not necessary. All we have to do is
+to climb a great mountain range, like the Sierra Nevadas, to pass
+through all the different climates which we would experience on a long
+journey to the arctic regions.</p>
+
+<p>It is only a few miles from the hot San Joaquin Valley, at the base of
+the Sierras, where it is so dry that irrigation is necessary, to the
+summit of the range, where the winter climate is as cold as it is in the
+arctic regions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page102" id="page102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image44.jpg" width="600" height="371" alt="image44" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">East Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we
+approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In going up the mountains we first come to the foothills, where there is
+a little more rain than in the valley. Here we find oak trees growing.
+Farther up there is still more<span class='pagenum'><a name="page103" id="page103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+rain and we come to the pines. Soon we reach the most wonderful
+coniferous forest in all the world. Here not only is there a great
+variety of trees, but because of the favorable climate they grow to a
+great size. As we approach the summit of the mountains the trees become
+smaller, and at an elevation of about two miles they shrink to the size
+of little bushes and finally disappear. They can no longer stand the
+fierce winds and cold storms of this arctic region.</p>
+
+<p>We have learned now that the trees do not grow haphazard over our
+country, but that the rain, the temperature, and the soil determine
+where they can live.</p>
+
+<p>Within the heart of the forest the trees will come again if we cut them
+down, but upon its borders, where the air is drier, it is more difficult
+for them to spring up anew. If we cut them down carelessly and allow
+fires to burn over the surface, and the water to wash away the soil,
+they may never come back.</p>
+
+<p>It is important, then, that we understand why trees grow in some places
+and not in others, in order that we may know how to take care of them.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page104" id="page104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE TREES?</h3>
+
+<p>Every living thing is engaged in a struggle for air to breathe and for
+something to eat. Those that make their homes on the land also have to
+struggle for water. The stronger rob the weaker; for, among all of them
+except man, might always makes right. Men are learning that
+unselfishness is the better way, although they do not always practice
+it.</p>
+
+<p>In this struggle the animals have an advantage over the plants, for if
+food fails in one place they can move to another. Among the animals also
+the mother tries to protect her children; and, in the case of some,&mdash;the
+wolf, for example,&mdash;a number will hunt together for the common good.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite different with the plants. They must grow where the seeds
+take root. If there is little sunlight or water or the soil is poor,
+they must make the best of what they have.</p>
+
+<p>The plants have to struggle not only with such enemies as insects,
+winds, fire, and browsing animals, but with each other, for every tree
+is the real or possible enemy of every other tree. Brother seeds
+sprouting under the same parent maple struggle with each other for the
+food and moisture in the soil and for the best place in the sunlight.
+The one that gets the most of these will grow the faster and choke some
+of its weaker brothers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page105" id="page105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image45.jpg" width="350" height="504" alt="image45" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller"><i>Edward S. Curtis</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Trees that struggle with cold and storm.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In yonder grove of pines there are trees of all ages and sizes. The
+older ones have much the advantage and take a part of the food and
+sunlight that the smaller ones require.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page106" id="page106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+How the little ones stretch up and grow tall and slender in their
+attempt to get the sunlight! But in spite of all their efforts some of
+them must die.</p>
+
+<p>Some kinds of trees grow faster than others. Where a number are
+springing up together, the slow-growing ones will stand less chance of
+ever becoming great trees. In this way the yellow pine sometimes chokes
+out the cedar, and the fir gets the advantage of the sugar pine.</p>
+
+<p>The bright, warm sun is the enemy of the tree that loves the shady
+hillsides. The swamp is the enemy of the tree that must have loose, dry
+soil. The cold is the enemy of the tree that is used to a hot climate.
+Is it not strange that what is good for one tree is an enemy of another?</p>
+
+<p>Many kinds of trees have their own particular insect enemies which
+attack them and no others. Some of these insects live upon the leaves,
+others eat the sapwood under the bark, while a few attack the roots.
+Certain insects burrow in and eat the heartwood. Although this does not
+always kill the tree, it weakens it and makes the wood unfit for use.
+The cedar and the hickory are among the trees injured in this manner.</p>
+
+<p>The foliage of the broad-leaved trees is the delight of many insects.
+They sometimes eat the leaves so closely that the tree is killed; for
+the trees breathe through their leaves and can no more do without them
+than they can without their roots.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy moth, which did no great harm in its European home, was
+brought to this country and accidentally set free. It at once began to
+attack the leaves of the elm, that beautiful tree of the old New England
+villages. Now it is destroying other trees and, notwithstanding the
+fight which<span class='pagenum'><a name="page107" id="page107">[Pg 107]</a></span> we have made against it, we have not yet been able to
+exterminate it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image46.jpg" width="600" height="374" alt="image46" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Insects are destroying the trees of this forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The chestnut tree, which every Eastern child loves for its nuts, is now
+being destroyed by a fungus which may kill every one of these trees in
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>The white-pine blister, also brought over from Europe, is now
+threatening all the white pines and the related trees of our country.
+This disease has already such a start in the East that we may not be
+able to stop it.</p>
+
+<p>The dainty mistletoe, about which there are so many pretty Christmas
+legends, is a deadly enemy of many trees. The seed of this fungus is
+carried, by the birds or by the wind, from one tree to another. When it
+sprouts, tiny roots go down through the bark to the sap, on which it
+feeds until the tree is killed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page108" id="page108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image47.jpg" width="600" height="379" alt="image47" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A dwarf white pine which has found a foothold in the rocks on a mountain
+top.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>All our fruit trees have their deadly enemies which cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="page109" id="page109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+a loss of many millions of dollars every year. Among the worst of these
+is the San Jos&eacute; scale, which was carelessly brought into the country
+from China.</p>
+
+<p>The pear blight has destroyed whole orchards of pear trees in the
+Western states. The citrus canker is now threatening the orange orchards
+of the Southern states.</p>
+
+<p>For years we have been searching over the world for new and better
+varieties of fruit trees. With the shipments of such trees we have
+brought some of the worst of the diseases that we have just mentioned.
+We should have all foreign trees most carefully inspected before
+admitting them to the country. We should also be very careful about
+shipping fruit or other trees from one part of our country to another.
+Diseases are often carried in this way into places which otherwise they
+could not reach.</p>
+
+<p>Field mice, gophers, and rabbits eat the bark of young fruit trees and
+kill those which are not carefully protected. In some parts of our
+country the apple and peach tree borers are a serious menace to young
+orchards. Grasshoppers occasionally come in dense swarms and eat the
+leaves from every tree or plant in their path.</p>
+
+<p>The valuable sugar pine of the Western mountains is not seeding itself
+as rapidly as it should, and we fear it will become extinct. The
+beautiful silver-gray squirrel loves the nuts of this pine, and it is
+said that he eats so many that few are left to sprout and make new
+trees. For this reason some people would like to make it lawful to kill
+all the gray squirrels that one wished. This would be too bad, for we do
+not believe the gray squirrel is the cause of the trouble. It is more
+likely that the lack of young sugar pines is due partly to its struggle
+in the forest with more rapidly grow<span class='pagenum'><a name="page110" id="page110">[Pg 110]</a></span>ing trees and partly to the less
+frequent occurrence of forest fires to burn off the humus on the ground.
+We know that the seeds of certain trees find difficulty in sending their
+roots down through the humus to the soil beneath.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image48.jpg" width="600" height="364" alt="image48" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">An avalanche has passed through this forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The narrow-leaved or cone-bearing trees, which are the main source of
+our lumber, also have other enemies. The most destructive of these are
+the little pine beetles which lay their eggs in the bark of the yellow
+pine, sugar pine, and tamarack pine. From these eggs there hatch worms
+which burrow under the bark until they cut off the flow of the sap. This
+kills the trees. The trees that are young and strong are sometimes able
+to pour out enough sap into the wounds to drown the insects, but many
+thousands of trees in the Western mountains are destroyed every year by
+these insects.</p>
+
+<p>Wind and lightning are both enemies of the forests.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page111" id="page111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Hundreds of forest
+fires are set every summer by thunder storms, but the rangers usually
+discover such fires soon enough to put them out before they have done
+much harm.</p>
+
+<p>The pasturing of forests by stock does great injury, because of the
+browsing and trampling underfoot of the young trees. Sheep and goats are
+the worst of all the animals and should be kept out of those forests
+where the surface particularly needs protection and where the young
+trees require all the encouragement that Nature can give them in order
+to make a successful start in life.</p>
+
+<p>We have learned something about the many enemies of the trees, but the
+worst one has not yet been mentioned. Can you guess what it is? This
+terrible enemy is man,&mdash;not savage man or Indian, but civilized man.
+Although man has more need for forest trees than has any other animal,
+he is at the same time more ruthless in his treatment of them. Man
+destroys more trees every year, as a result of fires which he sets and
+of his wasteful methods of lumbering, than all the other enemies of the
+trees put together.</p>
+
+<p>The forest area of the world is constantly growing smaller, and we must
+soon learn to treat the trees with more care or they may, like many of
+the wild creatures, nearly disappear from parts of the earth where they
+are most needed.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page112" id="page112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE FORESTS ARE WASTED</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>O forest home in which the songbirds dwell!<br />
+The squirrel and the stag shall miss the spell<br />
+Of thy cool depths when summer's sun assails,<br />
+Nor more find shelter in thy shadowed vales.</p>
+
+<p>All will be silent; echo will be dead;<br />
+A field will lie where shifting shadows fled<br />
+Across the ground. The mattock and the plow<br />
+Will take the place of Pan and Satyr now.<br />
+The timid deer, the spotted fawns at play,<br />
+From thy retreats will all be driven away.</p>
+
+<p>Farewell, old forest; sacred crowns, farewell!<br />
+Revered in letters and in art as well;<br />
+Thy place becomes the scorn of every one,<br />
+Doomed now to burn beneath the summer sun.<br />
+All cry out insults as they pass thee by,<br />
+Upon the men who caused thee thus to die!</p>
+
+<p>Farewell, old oaks that once were wont to crown<br />
+Our deeds of valor and of great renown!<br />
+O trees of Jupiter, Dordona's grove,<br />
+How ingrate man repays thy treasure trove<br />
+That first gave food that humankind might eat,<br />
+And furnished shelter from the storm and heat.</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Pierre de Ronsard</span>,<br />
+translated by <span class="smcap">Bristow Adams</span>; <i>American Forestry</i>, XVI. 244</p>
+
+<p>When our grandfathers came to America they found the country so covered
+with forests that they had to cut and burn the trees in order to obtain
+the ground on which to raise their crops. The Eastern states could not
+have been settled without clearing the land, and we cannot blame the
+pioneers for doing under those circumstances that which today would be
+very wrong.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page113" id="page113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image49.jpg" width="600" height="343" alt="image49" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The farmer wastes the trees by girdling them and then allowing them to
+rot.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is now enough land so that it is no longer necessary to destroy
+the trees in order to raise our food supplies. The forests constitute
+one of the great natural resources of our country and men should not be
+allowed to waste them for private gain.</p>
+
+<p>Although the need for more land has long passed, the habit of reckless
+tree cutting still continues. There are now parts of the East where none
+of the primeval forest remains and very little of the second growth.
+Firewood is expensive and many a farmer has to buy coal, who, if he and
+his ancestors had been careful, might have a woodlot to supply not only
+fuel, but lumber for his buildings.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the lands once cleared were found not suited to farming and have
+been left to grow up to brush. If the farmer were wise he would replant
+some of these lands with such trees as spruce, hickory, walnut, or
+maple. Although his ancestors toiled early and late to get these<span class='pagenum'><a name="page114" id="page114">[Pg 114]</a></span> trees
+out of the way, a few acres of them now would be a fortune.</p>
+
+<p>There are parts of our country, particularly in the South and West,
+where the settlers are still cutting the trees to get them out of their
+way. In distant mountain valleys where there is no market for lumber,
+men are chopping down the great pines. They would make fine lumber, for
+they are tall and straight, but instead of being put to some useful end
+their fate is the bonfire. It makes no difference to these men that they
+are wasting what it has taken Nature hundreds of years to produce nor
+that in other parts of the country timber is scarce and expensive.</p>
+
+<p>In Germany and Switzerland the forest resources are carefully looked
+after. As fast as the grown trees are cut from a field, young trees are
+planted in their places. The keeping of a certain part of the land in
+forest is held to be of advantage to all the people. For this reason men
+are not allowed to cut trees upon their own land without permission from
+the forest officer.</p>
+
+<p>Many years ago, when lumbering became an important industry and the
+mills began to turn out immense quantities of boards and beams of every
+sort needed by the growing population of our new country, it was
+believed that the supply would never be used up. Only the best and
+clearest logs were sawed into lumber, and a large part of each tree was
+left on the ground to rot or to feed the first fire that occurred. Now
+lumber is scarce and expensive; and the poorer grades also are in much
+demand.</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever seen the giant sugar pines on the slopes of the Western
+mountains? Next to the sequoias they are the largest of our American
+trees. A single tree has fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="page115" id="page115">[Pg 115]</a></span>nished lumber enough for a house. Sugar
+pine has now become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes
+as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of
+these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut
+and wasted in the most reckless fashion.</p>
+
+<p>If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds
+and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting.
+This is the work of the shake or shingle maker. He has been as
+thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of
+years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up
+and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker must have material
+which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At
+most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does
+not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to
+rot.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image50.jpg" width="600" height="346" alt="image50" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is
+wasted.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page116" id="page116">[Pg 116]</a></span>The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our
+eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests.
+On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is
+actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the
+various processes through which it passes before it reaches our hands.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of
+the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not
+care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the
+trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or
+mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen
+usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less
+valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and
+bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the
+ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least
+possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young
+trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open spaces between the large
+ones, rests our hope of a future forest.</p>
+
+<p>When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the
+sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to
+our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches
+and fragments of the trunks lie scattered about, while above the ruin
+rise those trees not considered worth cutting. The once beautiful and
+majestic forest is now ready for fire. Some<span class='pagenum'><a name="page117" id="page117">[Pg 117]</a></span> passer-by may drop a
+lighted match or cigarette, and you can easily form a picture in your
+mind of what happens.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image51.jpg" width="600" height="371" alt="image51" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has
+been a thousand years in growing.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the countries of Europe lumbermen are very careful; not a particle of
+the cut tree goes to waste. The logs are sawed without removing what we
+call "slabs." The sawdust is saved and used in the manufacture of wood
+alcohol. If we saved all the present waste in the logging and milling of
+our pines, we could make all the turpentine needed in our country. If we
+saved what is now wasted of the poplar and spruce, we should have
+material enough to make all the paper we use.</p>
+
+<p>There are still large and valuable forests in the Southern Appalachian
+Mountains, in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, and
+the Coast Ranges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page118" id="page118">[Pg 118]</a></span> These regions were settled later than the Eastern
+states, and parts of them are yet remote from markets.</p>
+
+<p>Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut
+over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop.
+Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we
+give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for
+those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except
+that it cannot be cut every year.</p>
+
+<p>Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest.
+Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in
+part on how the forests are managed.</p>
+
+<p>If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood
+famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams
+will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a
+water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page119" id="page119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES</h3>
+
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>He who wantonly kills a tree,<br />
+All in a night of God-sent dream,<br />
+He shall travel a desert waste<br />
+Of pitiless glare, and never a stream,<br />
+Nor a blade of grass, nor an inch of shade&mdash;<br />
+All in a wilderness he has made.<br />
+O, forlorn without trees!</p>
+
+<p>He who tenderly saves a tree,<br />
+All in a night of God-sent dream,<br />
+He shall list to a hermit thrush<br />
+Deep in the forest by mountain stream,<br />
+With friendly branches that lead and shade,<br />
+All in a woodland that he has made.<br />
+O, the peace of the trees!</p>
+
+<p>He who passionately loves a tree,<br />
+Growth and power shall understand;<br />
+Everywhere he shall find a friend.<br />
+Listen! They greet him from every land,<br />
+English Oak and the Ash and Thorn,<br />
+Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall,<br />
+Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine,<br />
+Flowering branches by orchard wall&mdash;<br />
+Sunshine, shadow, and sweetness of glade&mdash;<br />
+All in a Paradise he has made.<br />
+O, the joy of the trees!</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><i>The Dryad's Message</i></p>
+
+<p>Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the
+flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up
+the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with
+a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is
+like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="page120" id="page120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+suffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image52.jpg" width="600" height="348" alt="image52" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The forest fire sweeps everything in its path.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is no wonder that those whose homes are in the forest gather quickly
+to fight the fire, for if they cannot control it, they may lose
+everything that they possess. If there is a wind blowing, the fire will
+probably sweep over many miles of country. At night, though, when the
+air becomes cooler and more quiet, the men can get the advantage of it.</p>
+
+<p>You can understand, of course, that it is impossible to use water
+against such a fire, for water is not to be had throughout most parts of
+the forests. Instead of using water, the men fight fire with fire.
+Taking shovels, hoes, and rakes to a suitable place some distance ahead
+of the fire, they rake away the dead litter on the ground, making a
+broad, clean path through the forest. Then they set "back-fires" along
+that side of this clean path which lies toward the coming fire. These
+back-fires burn slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="page121" id="page121">[Pg 121]</a></span> toward the main fire, and when they meet both
+must die out for lack of fuel.</p>
+
+<p>For many years forest fires have caused as much damage as the lumbermen;
+but now most of the forests are patrolled by rangers during the summer,
+and there are fewer serious fires.</p>
+
+<p>How do the fires start in the forest? It is supposed that long ago the
+Indians set many fires to keep the woods open for their hunting.
+Lightning has always been a frequent cause of forest fires. As many as a
+dozen fires are known to have started during a single thunderstorm. But
+such fires are not as serious as they once were, because the rangers are
+on the watch for them and put them out before they get well started.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image53.jpg" width="600" height="299" alt="image53" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller">image53</p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Fires destroyed the forest that once covered this region and its place
+is now mostly occupied by small bushes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Aside from those due to lightning, most forest fires are now either set
+purposely or come from engine sparks or from somebody's carelessness.
+Many fires are set purposely by stockmen who think by this means to
+clear away the<span class='pagenum'><a name="page122" id="page122">[Pg 122]</a></span> brush and thus obtain better feed for their cattle and
+sheep. These men often care nothing for the forests or for the
+preservation of the summer water flow. They would, indeed, be pleased to
+see all the forests burned away if by that means they could increase
+their feed. If you could travel through some of the mountainous portions
+of the Southwest, you would see how much harm has been done in this way
+to the trees, the streams, and the soil.</p>
+
+<p>It is a hot summer day and two men are riding along a mountain road. One
+of them thoughtlessly throws away a lighted cigarette, which falls upon
+some dry pine needles. In a few moments the pine needles are ablaze. The
+fire spreads with incredible rapidity and a great column of smoke rises
+above the treetops. Before any one can reach it, the fire is sweeping up
+the mountain side, and it may not be stopped before it has destroyed
+thousands of acres of valuable timber. All this terrible loss is due to
+one careless man who, in the first place, should not have been smoking
+cigarettes, and in the second place should have known better than to
+throw a spark into the forest powder magazine.</p>
+
+<p>Some campers, enjoying the summer in the mountains, go away leaving
+their fire burning. By and by a stick burns outward until the fire
+reaches the leaves, or a gust of wind comes along and carries a spark to
+them. In the hot sun the leaves and needles are almost as easy to ignite
+as powder, and in a few moments another fire is making headway into the
+surrounding forest.</p>
+
+<p>A farmer clearing land thinks he can get rid of the brush and young
+trees more easily by burning. But the undergrowth is drier than he
+thought, and, the wind coming up unexpectedly, the fire is soon beyond
+his control. It may<span class='pagenum'><a name="page123" id="page123">[Pg 123]</a></span> destroy his own fences and buildings and, sweeping
+on, ruin those of his neighbors also.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image54.jpg" width="600" height="355" alt="image54" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The dead stubs of a once beautiful forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Few people have perished from fires in the West, for there the forest
+regions are generally thinly inhabited, but in some of the Eastern and
+Northern states there have been terrible fires that have destroyed whole
+villages together with their inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>In many mountain regions of our country there are large areas now
+covered with useless brush where there were once valuable forests. In
+regions where the lumbermen have not utterly destroyed the forests, but
+have left some seed trees, the forests will come back again, but in
+these large burned areas conditions are not favorable. The destruction
+of the humus as well as the trees has been so complete that the seeding
+of a new forest is slow work. It may be hundreds of years before the
+trees will spread over and again take possession of the waste land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page124" id="page124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A single fire often destroys more timber than would be destroyed by a
+whole camp of loggers working for years. In the Northwest there are many
+sad and desolate pictures of the destruction caused by forest fires. We
+may travel for miles through forests of tall, dead stubs, the remains of
+once noble trees. Where they have fallen the trunks lie piled many feet
+high and trails had to be cut through an almost solid mass of timber.</p>
+
+<p>Here is wood enough to supply thousands of people with pleasant winter
+fires. But there are, alas, no people living near these vast woodpiles
+and often no road to them. The logs must lie there and rot.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us see if we can state the chief reasons why we should be
+exceedingly careful about setting fires in the woods:</p>
+
+<p>1. Fires destroy an enormous amount of valuable timber every year.</p>
+
+<p>2. Between fires and lumbermen our forests are disappearing faster than
+they are growing.</p>
+
+<p>3. Fires destroy the young trees, and if they happen often enough will
+keep them from growing up to replace the mature trees.</p>
+
+<p>4. Fires do not permanently help the cattle ranges, but injure them by
+burning the humus and grass seeds.</p>
+
+<p>5. Fires leave the ground bare, so that it will dry out quickly.</p>
+
+<p>6. Fires leave the soil unprotected, so that it will wash away quickly.</p>
+
+<p>7. Fires destroy property and endanger lives.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page125" id="page125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER NINETEEN</h2>
+
+<h3>EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS</h3>
+
+<p>We have already learned something about the poverty of the people in
+those lands where the forests have been destroyed. This poverty is due
+not so much to lack of wood for fuel and other purposes, but to a whole
+series of troubles which the removal of the forests has brought upon
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The burning of the humus, when a fire sweeps the forest, is the next
+greatest loss to that of the timber itself. Where there has been no
+fire, the ground under the trees is covered with decaying leaves and
+stems which are slowly mixing with the soil and becoming a part of it.
+The more there is of this humus in the soil, the more thriftily plants
+will grow.</p>
+
+<p>Many people purposely burn over their pasture lands in the fall,
+believing that this will make the grass better the following year. They
+should know that every time this is done the soil is made poorer, and
+that it kills the seeds lying on the ground ready to sprout when the
+warm spring days come. Instead of a better pasture there is more likely
+to be a crop of almost worthless weeds. The ground is full of worthless
+seeds which are always ready to take the place of the grasses when they
+have a chance.</p>
+
+<p>Before the fire came, the roots of trees, bushes, and grasses kept the
+earth from washing; and the humus helped to hold the rainwater from
+running away rapidly, so that more of it had time to soak into the
+ground. How well this is shown on yonder hills which were once covered
+with brush. A fire swept over these hills and burned every living thing.
+What a barren appearance they presented after the heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="page126" id="page126">[Pg 126]</a></span> winter storms!
+The slopes were completely covered with little furrows and gullies where
+the rainwater had done its work. It will be a long time before
+vegetation will again gain a foothold there and stop the washing of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image55.jpg" width="250" height="364" alt="image55" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The work of the water where the forest has been cut away.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When a fire occurs in the dense forests of the Cascade Range, all the
+trees are killed and the thick layer of decaying vegetation underneath
+is burned. The spruce, which is one of the most important lumber trees
+of this region, does not at once spring up again. Its seeds may be
+scattered there, but the soil is not now in a condition to nourish them.
+In its place springs up the tamarack pine, which, because it can grow in
+poor soil, has the whole burned area to itself.</p>
+
+<p>If we should return to the same place perhaps one hundred years after
+the fire, we should find that the tamarack pines had formed a thick
+forest. The lumbermen have little use for the tamarack and so have
+passed it by. In looking carefully through the tamarack forest, we find
+that other trees are now springing up. They are already struggling for
+the food, the moisture, and the sunlight which the tamaracks are making
+use of.</p>
+
+<p>During the many years that have passed since the fire swept this region,
+decaying vegetation has been slowly accumulating and forming humus
+again. Now at last the seeds of the spruce find the soil rich enough
+again to sprout and grow. Here and there are thrifty young trees which
+will in a few years grow up and choke out the tamarack. Thus the
+tamarack, though of so little value itself, has done a great work in
+preparing the soil for a new growth of the valuable spruce.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the drier slopes of the Western mountains shrubs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page127" id="page127">[Pg 127]</a></span> such as the
+manzanita and chaparral, spring up and cover the surface after a forest
+fire. Nature does not seem to want the surface left bare and usually has
+something at hand, even though it be nothing better than brush, with
+which to clothe it again. As the years pass humus begins to collect upon
+the ground and finally restores it to much the same condition it had
+before the fire. Now, if by any means seeds can reach such places,
+scattering trees will first spring up in favored spots and, after a
+time, the trees will become thick enough and large enough to shade the
+ground and the brush will be killed out.</p>
+
+<p>The cutting of the forests, especially from the steeper mountain slopes,
+has in many parts of the world changed water, one of Nature's most
+valuable gifts, into an agent of destruction. Throughout the Eastern and
+Southern states the floods are higher in spring and lower in summer than
+they used to be, because of the removal of so large a part of the
+forests that once covered this whole region.</p>
+
+<p>In the West it is even more necessary that the forest cover be disturbed
+as little as possible. One reason is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="page128" id="page128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the greater part of the
+forests are found upon the lofty mountains in which the streams rise. If
+we deforest these steep slopes, water is going to injure them much more
+than it would the gentler slopes of the lower lands, if they had been
+deforested. Another reason is that since little rain falls in the summer
+in this region, we must do nothing to lessen the summer flow of the
+streams, which is so much needed for irrigation.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image56.jpg" width="600" height="480" alt="image56" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">This beautiful valley in the Southern Appalachian Mountains has been
+ruined by the floods due to cutting off of the forests upon the
+headwaters of the river.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The more water that can be held back in the mountains of the West for
+summer use, the more prosperous the farmers are. There is nothing that
+helps to hold the water<span class='pagenum'><a name="page129" id="page129">[Pg 129]</a></span> better than the forests. They help to equalize
+the flow of the streams so that the floods are not so high in the spring
+nor the water so low in the summer as they would be if there were no
+forests.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first questions asked by a man who is thinking of buying a
+farm is about the water supply. He wants to know whether there are
+wells, springs, or living streams on the place. Almost everything
+depends upon the water supply. If there is an abundance, the farmer is
+likely to be prosperous. When he is prosperous all the rest of us are
+prosperous, no matter what our business is.</p>
+
+<p>Are you not ready now to say that the Swiss are right in not permitting
+tree cutting upon any land except under the supervision of a forester?
+The careless removal of the forests from the mountain slopes may affect
+the farmer in the valley fifty miles away. Do you not think that this
+farmer is very much interested in the management of the forest, although
+he does not own a foot of it?</p>
+
+<p>Trouble always follows the destruction of the forests on the headwaters
+of the streams.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page130" id="page130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>As long as the forest shall live,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The streams shall flow onward, still singing</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sweet songs of the woodland, and bringing</span><br />
+The bright, living waters that give<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">New life to all mortals who thirst.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But the races of men shall be cursed.</span></p>
+
+<p>Yea, the hour of destruction shall come<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To the children of men in that day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">When the forest shall pass away;</span><br />
+When the low woodland voices are dumb;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And death's devastation and dearth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shall be spread o'er the face of the earth.</span></p>
+
+<p>Avenging the death of the wood,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The turbulent streams shall outpour</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Their vials of wrath, and no more</span><br />
+Shall their banks hold back the high flood,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Which shall rush o'er the harvests of men;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As swiftly receding again.</span></p>
+
+<p>Lo! after the flood shall be dearth,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And the rain no longer shall fall</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">On the parching fields; and a pall,</span><br />
+As of ashes, shall cover the earth;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And dust-clouds shall darken the sky;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And the deep water wells shall be dry.</span></p>
+
+<p>And the rivers shall sink in the ground,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And every man cover his mouth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">From the thickening dust, in that drouth;</span><br />
+Fierce famine shall come; and no sound<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shall be borne on the desolate air.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But a murmur of death and despair.</span></p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Alexander Blair Thaw</span>,<br />
+<i>The Passing of the Forest</i>; in <i>Century Magazine</i>, June, 1907</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page131" id="page131">[Pg 131]</a></span>For many years it was thought the forests were inexhaustible and needed
+no special care. The national government encouraged people to acquire
+forest land and practically gave away 160 acres to every one who would
+build a cabin upon the land and live there for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly some of the wise people among us awoke to a realization of what
+was going on. They discovered that the forests were going very fast and
+that soon we should have none if something were not done. Between the
+fires that swept them every year and the wasteful lumbering, the forests
+were in a fair way to leave us as they had the wasteful and careless
+peoples of other parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>How fortunate it is that some of us did look ahead before it was too
+late; for, although the Eastern forests have largely disappeared, there
+still remain millions of acres of government-owned forests in the West.
+These forests have now been withdrawn from sale and are to be held for
+the use and benefit of all. They are not to be permitted to pass into
+the hands of a few, to be cut and sold for private gain.</p>
+
+<p>Our government is acting like a wise father who is interested in the
+welfare of his children, and who understands the need of taking care of
+their treasures until they are wise enough to manage them for
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We are all concerned in many ways in the welfare of the forests. Whether
+we own any forest land or not, we are affected by the way in which the
+trees are managed. Because we are all dependent more or less upon the
+forests, they should be regarded as the property of us all, just as the
+air and water are. But because some of us do not yet know how, or do not
+care, to protect them, it is best that the government should do so for
+us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page132" id="page132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image57.jpg" width="350" height="510" alt="image57" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">These men are replanting a mountain slope from which fire once swept the
+forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page133" id="page133">[Pg 133]</a></span>It may be that you live in a brick, or stone house and burn coal in your
+stoves. You think that it makes no difference to you whether or not
+there are any forests. But stop and think a moment. Are you sure that
+you are really independent of them? How many things do you use every day
+that are made of wood? The list is surely a long one. If wood is rare
+and expensive, the articles which are made of it add to your cost of
+living and allow you less money for other things.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose for a moment that you have no use for wood in any form.
+Will this take away all interest that you may have in the forests? In
+any event you are dependent upon the fertility of your fields for the
+food that you require. Now, if there is a lumber company stripping the
+mountains at the head of the river upon which your home is situated, and
+as a result of clearing the timber from the slopes the floods become
+worse, your garden is buried beneath gravel and sand, and your orchard
+washed away, will you not think it <i>does</i> make a difference to you in
+what way the forests are treated?</p>
+
+<p>The timbered lands which the government is holding and caring for are
+known as National Forests. About two thirds of the forests yet remaining
+in the West are included in them. These lands are mostly mountainous and
+not suited to agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>In the East the government has no lands except those which it buys.
+Because of the great damage which is being done to the streams and
+valleys of the Appalachian Mountains by careless lumbering, a great
+tract of land is being acquired by purchase. This is called the
+Appalachian Forest. The timber in this region will be carefully cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="page134" id="page134">[Pg 134]</a></span> and
+those areas from which it has been stripped will be replanted.</p>
+
+<p>In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, with Mt. Washington as the
+center, is a remnant of a once beautiful forest, which has been acquired
+by the government. This is known as the White Mountain Forest. It will
+be enlarged as the years pass and carefully guarded. It will serve for
+all time as a beautiful pleasure and camping ground.</p>
+
+<p>It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain
+unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest
+permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been
+placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their
+duties are of many kinds.</p>
+
+<p>The rangers supervise the sale and cutting of the mature or ripe trees
+as they are needed for lumber, mining timbers, or posts. They see that
+the waste parts of the cut trees are piled so as to lessen the danger
+from chance fires.</p>
+
+<p>During the long summers the forests become as dry as tinder and the loss
+from fire amounts to millions of dollars every year. It is the chief
+duty of the rangers at this time to patrol the roads and trails leading
+through the forests and keep a sharp lookout for fires.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page135" id="page135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image58.jpg" width="350" height="579" alt="image58" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches, has been of
+excellent service in Pennsylvania.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Stations have been established upon high points from which there is a
+view over a wide extent of country. In each of these stations there is a
+man constantly on watch for columns of smoke which indicate the
+beginning of a forest fire. When smoke is seen a message is telephoned
+to the ranger station nearest the fire, and from this station men are
+sent as quickly as possible with the object of putting<span class='pagenum'><a name="page136" id="page136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+out the fire before it spreads beyond the power of control. The forests
+are now watched so carefully that hundreds of fires are thus stopped
+before there has been any serious loss of timber.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image59.jpg" width="600" height="435" alt="image59" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The seed trees left by the lumberman are giving rise to a new forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In convenient places the rangers store boxes of tools, which include
+axes, picks, shovels, and rakes to be used in fighting any near-by fire.
+They also have at hand provisions and camp outfits, so as to be able to
+live anywhere in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts where there is a great deal of small timber and brush,
+"fire lines" are cut along the ridges where it is easiest to stop a
+fire, should one occur. Our forests are so vast that it is not possible
+to remove the dead wood as is done in Europe and thus lessen the danger
+of fire.</p>
+
+<p>The forest rangers also wage a warfare against insect pests. In regions
+where the bark beetles carry on their<span class='pagenum'><a name="page137" id="page137">[Pg 137]</a></span> destructive work among the pines,
+the rangers sometimes cut down and burn thousands of trees. Another duty
+of the rangers is that of replanting burned or logged-off areas. In this
+way many thousands of acres which would otherwise remain waste land for
+years, not being suitable for agriculture, are made in a short time to
+produce a new forest.</p>
+
+<p>A limited number of cattle and sheep are allowed in those forests which
+can be pastured without doing injury to the young trees or affecting the
+flow of the streams. The rangers have charge of this work and collect
+the rent. A part of the money derived from the sale of timber and for
+pasturage rights is expended in the improvement of the roads and trails
+in the forests and in making the forests more safe from fire.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image60.jpg" width="600" height="340" alt="image60" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A beautiful grassy meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The National Forests are open to all for pleasure and recreation, but
+under strict regulations about the cutting of trees and the care of camp
+fires. Violators of these rules<span class='pagenum'><a name="page138" id="page138">[Pg 138]</a></span> are severely punished. Visitors to the
+forests are expected to take care in the selection of places for their
+camp fires so that there will be no danger of the fire spreading. When
+the camp is left, the fire must be put out with water or covered with
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Many states have forest services of their own, and some have
+conservation commissions. It is the business of these organizations to
+look after various natural resources, including the forests, water,
+soil, minerals, and wild game. All forest rangers as well as state fire
+wardens are authorized to aid in the enforcement of the game laws.</p>
+
+<p>We should assist the foresters and wardens in every way possible. Most
+of these men love the woods, the birds, and the animals. They are doing
+their best to protect the forest and its wild life for the good and
+happiness of us all.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page139" id="page139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE</h2>
+
+<h3>OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>What does he plant who plants a tree?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He plants the friend of sun and sky;</span><br />
+He plants the flag of breezes free;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The shaft of beauty, towering high;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He plants a home to heaven anigh</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For song and mother-croon of bird</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In hushed and happy twilight heard&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The treble of heaven's harmony&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These things he plants who plants a tree.</span></p>
+
+<p>What does he plant who plants a tree?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He plants cool shade and tender rain,</span><br />
+And seed and bud of days to be,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And years that fade and flush again;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He plants the glory of the plain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">He plants the forest's heritage;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The harvest of a coming age;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The joy that unborn eyes shall see&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These things he plants who plants a tree.</span></p>
+
+<p>What does he plant who plants a tree?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,</span><br />
+In love of home and loyalty<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And far-cast thought of civic good&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His blessing on the neighborhood</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who in the hollow of His hand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Holds all the growth of all our land&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A nation's growth from sea to sea</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.</span></p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2em;"><span class="smcap">H. C. Bunner</span>,<br />
+<i>The Heart of the Tree</i>; in <i>Century Magazine</i>, April, 1893</p>
+
+
+<p>Our National Parks and Forests form the grandest summer playgrounds that
+any people have ever had. The National Forests, we have learned, were
+set aside for the direct purpose of preserving the timber supply and
+regulating the flow of the mountain streams. The National<span class='pagenum'><a name="page140" id="page140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Parks were
+created for the purpose of preserving for all time the most beautiful
+and attractive scenic features of our country. Among the most important
+of these are the Yellowstone, Grand Ca&ntilde;on, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater
+Lake parks. They include many thousands of square miles of forested
+mountains, cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers, which are open to all
+of us with no restrictions except that we do not injure them.</p>
+
+<p>How delightful it is to have these wild and picturesque parts of our
+country left unspoiled and just as Nature made them, and to be able to
+wander through them at will! In the parks we can become acquainted with
+the flowers, trees, birds, and animals as they were before the country
+was discovered and settled by white men. Here the wild creatures are
+protected from the hunters. The deer no longer fear the sight of men,
+and the mother grouse can raise her brood in safety from them.</p>
+
+<p>When summer comes we feel a strange and mysterious longing to get out of
+doors and live in the forests with the wild creatures. The parks offer
+just the opportunity to satisfy this longing, for in them we can get
+away from the worries and perplexities of our everyday life.</p>
+
+<p>We feel the "call of the wild," perhaps, because long ago our savage
+ancestors dwelt in the forests among the hills. They were a part of
+Nature and lived much as the animals do in caves in the hillsides, or in
+homes of the rudest sort made of the bark of trees or the skins of
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>Our ancestors spent nearly all of their time out of doors in the pure,
+fresh air. Their eyes and ears were trained to every sign of the forest,
+for upon the sharpness of their senses their very lives depended.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page141" id="page141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image61.jpg" width="350" height="505" alt="image61" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>George J. Young</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A forest playground on Virginia Creek in the Yosemite country,
+California, in one of Uncle Sam's forest reserves.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page142" id="page142">[Pg 142]</a></span>We have lived in houses so long, where the air is often close and impure
+and where we have no need of sharp senses for protection, that we have
+lost some of the strength and sturdy self-reliance of our wild
+ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>We have become partly dulled to the beauty out of doors, because we have
+been so constantly employed by the business of making a living. But the
+forest playgrounds are calling us to return for a little time each year
+to the wilds that were once our home, and to renew our acquaintance with
+the trees, the streams and the rocks, and with the wild creatures that
+live among them. To be able to make our beds on the leaves under the
+trees, and to build a fire of sticks and cook our own food, seems quite
+natural and like old and familiar times.</p>
+
+<p>The stories and legends that have come down to us about the forests and
+the imaginary people who lived in them were believed to be true by the
+people of long ago. The deep, dark woods once covered nearly all Europe
+where our ancestors lived. To be lost in the woods was to be in danger
+of meeting the strange and mysterious people who were thought to live in
+their depths. Among these beings, some of whom were good and others bad,
+were fairies, nymphs, gnomes, and ogres. When people ceased to believe
+so much in these stories, they began to lose their fear of the woods.
+Among some of these people there grew up a love and fascination for the
+trees which they believed were the dwelling places of spirits or
+divinities.</p>
+
+<p>If in our great forest playgrounds we can lead this out-of-door life for
+a few weeks each year, it will make us healthier, stronger, and happier.
+We no longer fear any mysterious creatures in the woods or the forces of
+Nature as shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="page143" id="page143">[Pg 143]</a></span> in the lightning, the winds, and the waterfalls; but
+year by year we are finding more to love and admire in the wild scenery
+of the woods and mountains and in their animal and plant inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>The wild woods call many of us on jaunts and picnics when, if it were
+not for them, we should stay at home shut up in stuffy rooms. In time
+may not the love of the forest wilds come back to us all? May not the
+time come when each one of us shall be able to look at a beautiful tree
+and not think only of how much lumber it would make? May not the time
+come when we may hear the grouse drumming its call and not feel the
+desire to kill and eat it?</p>
+
+<p>If the time does come in which we think as much of our beautiful
+mountains as the people of Europe do of the Alps, we shall then guard
+them with far more jealous care than we do today. In spite of the fact
+that the Alps are wet and cold and that no one thinks of sleeping out of
+doors there, yet the people of Europe love their mountains almost
+passionately.</p>
+
+<p>Our mountains are much more attractive summer playgrounds than the Alps.
+We can wander at will over a far greater number of untrodden ways than
+Europeans can in the Alps. We can make our beds under the trees with
+rarely a thought of the weather. The air is always balmy and the skies
+are almost always blue.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page144" id="page144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS</h3>
+
+<p>How eagerly we have looked forward to the coming of spring, and now it
+is here! The sun is shining brighter and warmer each day. The birds are
+returning from their winter home in the South. The buds on the trees are
+swelling and, in the warm nooks, some of the wild flowers have already
+opened their delicate petals. Who will find the first <i>spring beauty</i> in
+the Eastern woods? Who will find the first of the <i>purple trilliums</i>
+that open their dark flowers in the shady groves, or the <i>golden
+poppies</i> on the warm hillsides of the West?</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image62.jpg" width="250" height="429" alt="image62" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The spring air affects us as it does the plants and wild creatures. We
+long to get away from school, and taking our lunches, to spend the
+delightful days wandering through the fields and woods. There is no
+place like the open country when all Nature is waking. We feel like
+running and frisking as the young lambs do.</p>
+
+<p>Can it be wrong to gather all that we wish of the beautiful flowers with
+which the earth is carpeted? Has not Nature grown them in her great
+garden in such abundance that all we pick will make no difference to
+her? Let us go with the children on their rambles after flowers and
+learn if Nature does take any account of their innocent raids on her
+treasures.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a party of children chasing across the fields. Each one is
+searching for the flowers that have bloomed since last they were out,
+and each is trying to get more than his companions. The children have
+learned that some kinds of flowers grow in the woods, others in the
+marshy places,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page145" id="page145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and still others on the dry hillsides. They know where
+to go for each kind, and not a spot escapes their sharp search.</p>
+
+<p>Here they find a patch of violets, and all are quickly picked. There are
+some baby-blue-eyes, and yonder dry field is brilliant with the colors
+of many others. In the gathering of the flowers some of them are pulled
+up by the roots, but the children do not think of the harm this does.
+They wander on and on until many have more in their hands than they can
+carry. Some of those picked first are already wilted, and, to make their
+burdens lighter, the children throw these away. At last a tired but
+happy band turns toward home.</p>
+
+<p>What will be done with all the flowers that have been picked? In each
+home the vases are filled and the tables decorated. There is no room for
+all of them and some are thrown out. These flowers, once so fresh and
+bright as they nodded in the breeze, now lie crushed and wilted on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>Another spring returns and the children are out again<span class='pagenum'><a name="page146" id="page146">[Pg 146]</a></span> looking in the
+familiar places for the flowers they know so well. But there seems to be
+something wrong, for there are not so many as there used to be. The
+children have to go farther and search more carefully to get their arms
+full.</p>
+
+<p>Still a third spring comes and the children are just as ready for the
+happy excursions and just as anxious to get the flowers. They hunt the
+fields over, but in the places where the flowers used to be so thick
+there are only a few scattering ones. They cannot understand what is
+wrong, but Nature could tell them if they would ask her. The year before
+she was short of seed, but this year it is much worse, for she had
+hardly any to plant in her garden. She is short of bulbs also, and of
+many other plants that grow from year to year, for the children
+carelessly pulled these up.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image63.jpg" width="600" height="449" alt="image63" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Wild asters cover the mountain meadows.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page147" id="page147">[Pg 147]</a></span>The children do not want to go home with only a few flowers, and so they
+wander farther into the country than they have ever been before. Here
+they find them as abundant as they used to be near home.</p>
+
+<p>The children do not stop to think that at the base of the bright,
+fragrant blossoms grow the seed that will make the flowers of the next
+year. Nature can spare the seed of a part of the blossoms, for she grows
+many more than she needs; but if we pick them all, what can she do for
+the coming year?</p>
+
+<p>The wild flowers are living things struggling for a place in the world,
+just as are the animals and birds. We cannot abuse and destroy too many
+of them if we would have them stay and add to the beauty of our homes.
+Should we not take just as much pleasure in gathering the flowers if we
+did not bring home more than we needed? Would it not be better to be
+satisfied with smaller bouquets and leave enough in the fields to go to
+seed and gladden us next year?</p>
+
+<p>The reckless gathering of wild flowers has gone on so long and they have
+been picked so closely about many of our towns and cities, that they are
+disappearing. When there are no longer wild flowers within reach of the
+children who live in the cities, they will have lost a great joy out of
+their lives.</p>
+
+<p>There are besides the flowers of which we have been speaking other low
+plants of beautiful foliage with which we love to decorate our homes. We
+must take care that these are not gathered too closely or they also will
+become scarce. We cannot go out into the woods and pull up ferns by the
+roots year after year and expect Nature to keep up the supply.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page148" id="page148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image64.jpg" width="350" height="501" alt="image64" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="tect=align: center; font-size: smaller">Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy
+too many of them.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The huckleberry is one of the many beautiful shrubs<span class='pagenum'><a name="page149" id="page149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+which we admire for its delicate leaves and colors. It is cut and
+brought in from the country in huge bundles to supply the florists. The
+time will come when these decorations can no longer be had if the men
+are allowed to cut all they can find. Just as in the case of the
+flowers, seekers for them will be obliged to go farther each year and by
+and by the shrubs will be so scarce and high priced that we shall be
+obliged to do without them.</p>
+
+<p>We hunt far and wide for the beautiful "holly berries" with which to
+decorate our homes at Christmas. When we have found a berry-laden bush,
+we eagerly break off the branches and bear them home in triumph. The
+bush, once so gay with berries, is a sad-looking thing when we are
+through with it. The branches are broken so far back that next year it
+will bear few berries and we shall have to seek another.</p>
+
+<p>We treat the beautiful earth on which we have been placed in a most
+thoughtless manner. We think only of what we want <i>now</i>, and forget that
+another year is coming in which also we shall want some of the earth's
+treasures. If we take only the surplus which each year produces, there
+will always be enough for us and for the people who live after us.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page150" id="page150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE</h2>
+
+<h3>NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS</h3>
+
+<p>Nature seems very prodigal in her ways. She is continually creating on
+the earth a great multitude of living things, far more than there is
+room for. Each one of these, if it would live, must have a certain
+amount of air, sunshine, and food. As there is not enough of these
+things to supply every one, there arises a struggle. Those that are
+weakest die, because they are not able to get what they need. To us this
+seems hard, but it is Nature's way.</p>
+
+<p>And further, since many of the animals feed on the flesh of other
+animals, the latter have, in addition to the struggle for their food, to
+watch constantly for their lives. Every organism is in one sense the
+enemy of every other one. We do not mean that they often try to kill
+each other because of hate, as men do, but that they are after food to
+satisfy their hunger. Some of the higher animals as well as men fight
+for mastery, in addition to struggling for food. We hope that among men
+the unnecessary fighting will sometime cease, and that kindness and
+unselfishness will rule.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle for life is ceaselessly going on around us, but so quiet is
+it that we are not often aware of the countless tragedies that take
+place. This struggle extends from the plants and animals in the pond, so
+small that we cannot see them with the unaided eye, upward through all
+the larger animals.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle among all living things helps us to understand the
+necessity for Nature's prodigality. If the plants and animals that serve
+as food for others were not produced<span class='pagenum'><a name="page151" id="page151">[Pg 151]</a></span> in great numbers, they would soon
+become extinct. It is seldom that any one kind of plant or animal,
+because of its many enemies, has an opportunity to spread and obtain
+more than its share of food and sunshine. According to Nature's
+arrangements, each organism does its share in keeping down the numbers
+of the others. This we call the "balance of Nature."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the balance of Nature is disturbed and one particular kind of
+animal gets the start of its enemies and increases until it becomes a
+<i>plague</i>. This may be caused by a favorable season or by the decrease of
+its enemies on account of disease among them. We have read of the
+plagues of grasshoppers which have sometimes visited the Western states
+and eaten up every green thing. Plagues of rats and field mice have been
+known to do a great deal of damage. In such cases their natural enemies,
+the hawks, owls, and coyotes, may be attracted to the region from far
+around, because of the extra food supply. After a time they may succeed
+in reducing the numbers of these pests.</p>
+
+<p>This balance among the animals, which comes from one living upon
+another, is a strange and wonderful thing. No one kind can long overrun
+its fellows. If one does get a start and increases until it becomes a
+pest or plague, some enemy is sure sooner or later to spring up to
+destroy it. We use this method in fighting some of the insect pests
+which are injuring our trees. Men have searched in various parts of the
+world from which such pests as the gypsy moth and the San Jos&eacute; scale
+have come to find some of their enemies and bring them to this country
+to feed on these insects.</p>
+
+<p>When men came upon the earth, they soon began to<span class='pagenum'><a name="page152" id="page152">[Pg 152]</a></span> upset Nature's
+arrangements, and from that time until now matters of this kind have
+been growing worse. We have killed large numbers of the beneficial
+animals and birds that kept the harmful ones in check. We have carried
+others from the homes given them by Nature, where they were doing little
+harm, to new homes where they have become terrible plagues.</p>
+
+<p>The killing of large numbers of hawks and owls, all the species of which
+many people have wrongfully thought to be harmful, has been followed by
+a great increase in the numbers of rats and mice. We have killed off
+most of the coyotes, the chief food of which was rabbits and ground
+squirrels. The two latter animals have now become a serious pest. They
+do enormous damage to the crops, and we spend thousands of dollars
+fighting them.</p>
+
+<p>The common rabbit has in most parts of its native country so many
+enemies which are always on the lookout for a good meal, that it cannot
+increase enough to do much harm. Years ago a number of rabbits were
+taken to Australia, where there were none. Here they found a favorable
+climate and few enemies. They have now increased so that they overrun
+much of the continent and are a terrible pest which the farmers are
+unable to control.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago the gypsy moth and the browntail moth were introduced by
+accident into the New England states. Finding there a congenial climate
+and few enemies, they increased rapidly. They soon began to strip the
+leaves from the beautiful elms which make the streets and parks of this
+region so attractive. Now these moths have turned their attention to the
+white pine and are doing an ever-increasing amount of damage; and
+although they are being<span class='pagenum'><a name="page153" id="page153">[Pg 153]</a></span> fought by every means in our power, we are not
+certain that we can ever control them.</p>
+
+<p>The codling moth, whose larva is the little apple worm, causes an
+immense loss in our fruit orchards. The cotton-boll weevil, which
+destroys so much of the cotton, is, like the codling moth, an insect
+imported from another country. The San Jos&eacute; scale reached California
+from China and has now spread throughout our country. It has a special
+fondness for the sap of fruit trees, and, being so small, was not
+noticed until it had got beyond control. This scale causes more loss
+than any other of the tree insects.</p>
+
+<p>The Hessian fly, introduced from Europe more than one hundred years ago,
+causes during certain seasons a very great loss to the wheat crop. The
+Argentine ant has been brought to us from South America and is proving a
+most destructive pest. The Norway rat was brought to our country on
+sailing vessels and causes more loss than most of us realize. The
+English sparrow has spread over much of the country and is driving many
+of the native birds from their homes, because of its quarrelsome
+disposition. It makes itself a nuisance on all our city streets.</p>
+
+<p>The mongoose, in its home in India, is a great rat killer, but does not
+there increase so as to do much harm. Wherever it has been carried for
+the purpose of using it as a rat killer, this little four-footed animal
+has become a terrible scourge. After it destroys the rats it goes after
+the snakes. Then it attacks the other small animals and birds. Finally
+it begins upon the chickens, and even the vegetables in the garden are
+not safe from its voracious appetite.</p>
+
+<p>Men are now watching at every port to see that no more dangerous insects
+and animals are brought into the country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page154" id="page154">[Pg 154]</a></span> They are particularly on the
+watch for the Mediterranean fruit fly and for the mongoose.</p>
+
+<p>When we upset the balance of Nature, we start a whole chain of troubles.
+What can we do to escape the consequences of our ignorance and
+carelessness? In the first place we can protect the birds, for they eat
+enormous quantities of the harmful insects. In the second place we can
+see that no more of these dangerous pests are allowed to land on our
+shores. In the third place we shall have to fight, by every means that
+we can discover, those that are already here.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page155" id="page155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE COAL, OIL, AND GAS ARE GONE?</h3>
+
+<p>If coal, oil, and gas were suddenly taken away, all the nations would
+become poor and many of their industries would cease. Just think for a
+moment of the amount of work these things do for us and what an effort
+there would be made to find something to take their place!</p>
+
+<p>Wood once formed the chief fuel. It was used only to cook our food or to
+keep us warm. Now fuel is required for so many different purposes that
+with the decrease of the forests wood has been found insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>Peat is one of those substances that has been used in parts of Europe to
+take the place of wood, but it is used so little in our own country that
+many have never seen it.</p>
+
+<p>Peat is dug from bogs or marshes. We might say that a peat marsh is the
+beginning of a coal bed. Peat is the partly decayed vegetation which has
+slowly accumulated in wet places. In the colder countries it is formed
+largely of moss and similar water-loving plants, but where the climate
+is warm other kinds of marsh vegetation, and even trees, aid in forming
+peat. Sometimes floods bring earth and deposit it in the marshes, in
+which case the peat is less suitable for fuel, but forms a rich and
+productive soil instead.</p>
+
+<p>In many of the vast swamps of long ago, when there were no men nor even
+the higher animals upon the earth, vegetation grew very rank. It is
+believed that at that remote time the air contained more carbonic acid,
+a substance<span class='pagenum'><a name="page156" id="page156">[Pg 156]</a></span> which promotes the growth of plants. Thus the plants in the
+warm, moist parts of the earth grew more densely and luxuriantly than
+they usually do today.</p>
+
+<p>In the decay of this vegetation deposits similar to the peat marshes
+were formed, but they differed in being much thicker and more extensive.
+If the story of these ancient peat marshes had stopped here, we should
+never have had any coal. Fortunately it did not, for some of the swamps
+sank beneath the water of a lake or ocean and thick beds of gravel,
+sand, or clay were deposited over them. While buried deep in the earth,
+the decaying vegetation was heated and pressed together by the great
+weight of the earth above, and was finally changed to shining, black
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>After the coal was made, but before men came to the earth, parts of the
+sea bottom with its buried treasures were raised to form hills and
+mountains. Then the rainwater began its work upon the slopes, and after
+a time washed away so much of the overlying material that the coal was
+exposed at the surface. At last through some accident, such as lightning
+perhaps, men learned that this black substance would burn. Coal was
+little used, however, as long as there was an abundance of wood and the
+needs of people were few.</p>
+
+<p>As manufacturing and the use of the steam engine increased, coal grew in
+value. The business of mining coal finally became one of the great
+industries. The mining operations were carried on as carelessly as
+though the supply in the interior of the earth were inexhaustible. In
+the underground working it is customary to leave about one quarter of
+the coal in the form of pillars for the purpose of supporting the roof.
+At a little more expense other mate<span class='pagenum'><a name="page157" id="page157">[Pg 157]</a></span>rials could be substituted for these
+pillars and all the coal could be taken out.</p>
+
+<p>In using the coal we waste about another quarter. Stoves and furnaces
+are usually built so poorly that a large part of the value of the coal
+escapes as gas and smoke. In large cities and manufacturing districts
+the smoke becomes a great nuisance. In the making of coke from coal,
+enormous quantities of coal tar and gas have been lost. Most engines
+consume a far greater amount of coal than they should in doing a given
+amount of work. Most of us do not know how to use coal economically in
+our homes, and thus aid not only in wasting the coal supplies but in
+making the cost of living higher than it should be. All together, in the
+handling of coal we lose fully half of it. The coal supply of the earth
+is disappearing very fast, and at the rate at which its use is now
+increasing it may not last more than one hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>If we cannot use coal without wasting so much, would it not be wiser for
+us to turn our attention more fully to the sources of power in the
+streams which are flowing down all our mountain sides? The use of this
+power when turned into electricity would enable us to save a large part
+of the coal, oil, and gas that are now used, and so make them last
+longer.</p>
+
+<p>It is far easier to waste oil and gas than coal, for, when we have
+drilled holes in the earth, unless we are very careful the gas will
+escape into the air and the oil will become mixed with water, so that it
+will be difficult for us to get it.</p>
+
+<p>Oil and gas are confined under great pressure hundreds and often
+thousands of feet below the surface. To make clear how easy it is to
+waste them, we might compare them<span class='pagenum'><a name="page158" id="page158">[Pg 158]</a></span> to the compressed air in an
+automobile tire. If the tire is punctured by a nail, the air issues
+suddenly with a sharp, whistling sound until the pressure inside is gone
+and no more will come out.</p>
+
+<p>For many years we have been puncturing the crust of the earth, where oil
+has been discovered, and letting the oil and gas escape. We have saved
+most of the oil, but nearly all the gas has been wasted. The gas will
+finally stop coming out when the pressure is gone, just as the air did
+in the automobile tire.</p>
+
+<p>On the opposite page is a picture of a "gusher" in the Sunset oil field,
+California, which tells the story of how we are permitting the valuable
+substances within the earth to be wasted. In drilling this well the oil
+men suddenly struck a deposit of oil and gas under great pressure. The
+drilling tools were blown out of the well and a column of oil and gas
+shot up 150 feet. For a time the well flowed forty thousand barrels of
+oil each day, and an unknown quantity of gas. Much of the oil was
+scattered around the surrounding country, and all the gas was lost. Men
+worked for weeks making reservoirs of earth in an attempt to save the
+river of oil.</p>
+
+<p>Another well a few miles distant struck an enormous quantity of gas. It
+blew off for days with a roar like that of the steam from a giant
+engine. Then it took fire, and the column of flame at night was a
+fearful sight. There was gas enough lost from this one well to light a
+city for months.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page159" id="page159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image65.jpg" width="350" height="507" alt="image65" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Myrl's Studio, Bakersfield, California</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A "gusher" in a California oil field wasting great quantities of oil and
+gas.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Gas has been escaping during many years from hundreds of wells in the
+Pennsylvania, Ohio Valley, Oklahoma, Texas, and California oil fields.
+The gas from all these wells together<span class='pagenum'><a name="page160" id="page160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+has been estimated to be equal in value to a river of oil flowing
+several hundred thousand barrels each day. In many districts the gas was
+nearly gone before people discovered its great value. It is impossible
+for us to realize the waste which this represents.</p>
+
+<p>It has taken Nature a long time to make the oil and gas which we are
+losing. When she began this work, the oil regions which have been
+mentioned were beneath the sea. In its waters lived countless numbers of
+minute organisms, as well as fish of many kinds. As they died, their
+bodies accumulated in beds which finally became thousands of feet thick.
+Then the currents of the water changed and sand and mud were washed over
+these beds, burying them deeply.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the bottom of the sea was lifted and became dry land. The
+movement squeezed and folded the rocky layers made of the skeletons of
+the animals and plants. The soft parts of their bodies held in these
+rocky layers produced a greenish or brownish oil and gas. The gas tried
+to escape from the rocks, for they were hot and it wanted more room. In
+some places it found openings through the rocks and escaped to the
+surface, usually bringing some of the oil with it. The gas was lost, but
+a part of the oil remained, forming deposits of tar. In other places the
+oil and gas could not reach the surface, but found porous, sandy rocks
+into which they went and remained until the oil driller found them.</p>
+
+<p>The tar springs, or "seepages," indicate to the oil prospector where
+deposits of oil may possibly be found. He examines the country about
+and, selecting a favorable place, drills a well. If he is successful, he
+will strike oil-bearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="page161" id="page161">[Pg 161]</a></span> rocks. The oil may be a few hundred feet below
+the surface, or it may be a mile below. In the latter case it takes
+months to drill the well.</p>
+
+<p>If a robber came and attempted to take by force the coal, oil, and gas
+which we are daily losing through our carelessness and indifference,
+even though he might put it to better use than we put it, there would at
+once go up a great cry. We would raise an army and fight for our
+property, and perhaps suffer great loss in defending it. But, day by
+day, without making any serious objection, we are letting these natural
+resources go to waste.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps in some far distant future, after we have used up the stores of
+fuel in the earth, we may discover something to take its place; but wise
+and thoughtful people should make the most of what they have.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page162" id="page162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE</h2>
+
+<h3>NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER</h3>
+
+<p>Perhaps you think it is absurd to talk about caring for the creatures
+that live in the water, since they can so easily hide away in its depths
+where we cannot follow. Perhaps you think that because the ocean is so
+great it would be impossible ever to catch all the fish that live in it.
+It is easy to understand how all the fish might be caught out of the
+creeks, rivers, and shallow lakes, since fish are hungry and we put
+before them such attractive bait; but with the ocean it seems different.
+It stretches so many thousands of miles and is so very deep that there
+does not appear to be any danger of exterminating the animals of the
+ocean as we have some of those of the land.</p>
+
+<p>Is it true, however, that all the vast waters of the ocean are full of
+fish, or are they found only in certain parts? The fishermen can tell us
+about this matter. They know where to set the hooks and nets, and where
+they are most likely to get a good catch. They do not go far out where
+the water is deep but seek, instead, the shallow waters near the shore
+or about the reefs and islands. They know that the deep water of the
+ocean contains very few fish and none that are of any value as food.</p>
+
+<p>Each kind of fish has become adapted to certain parts of the ocean, for
+both the food supply and the pressure of the water differ with different
+depths. Fish caught in deep water are often dead before reaching the
+surface, because of the decrease in the water pressure.</p>
+
+<p>One reason why fish are not numerous far out in the ocean<span class='pagenum'><a name="page163" id="page163">[Pg 163]</a></span> is because
+there is little food to be had there. The reason no fish are found in
+the very deep parts of the ocean is because the water there contains no
+air particles. Strange as it may seem, although fish breathe water, they
+cannot live unless it contains oxygen from the air.</p>
+
+<p>The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for food, are
+found only in the shallow waters usually near the shore and in the lakes
+and rivers. Because of this fact it is possible, as we have learned from
+experience, to set so many traps and use so many nets and hooks as
+entirely to destroy certain species.</p>
+
+<p>The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare among them
+just as there is among the land animals. The larger and more powerful
+live upon the smaller ones, but, seemingly to make up for this, Nature
+has given the small fish quickness of movement&mdash;which the large fish do
+not possess&mdash;to aid them in escaping. They have also the power of
+increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which is the chief food of
+many of the large fish, maintains its countless numbers against all its
+enemies except the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, could obtain but
+few fish at a time and did not reduce their numbers. But civilized man,
+with his cunningly contrived hooks and nets, has the same advantage over
+the fish that the hunter, with his repeating gun, has over the land
+animals. Nature, not foreseeing how destructive man would be, has armed
+neither the creatures of the land nor the creatures of the water against
+him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page164" id="page164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image66.jpg" width="600" height="367" alt="image66" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Edward S. Curtis</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller">A rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, used by seals as a sunning place.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the hunter whose
+business it is to supply the market. He seems
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page165" id="page165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+to think no more about the effect upon next season's supply, of his
+stretching a net across a river and catching all the fish going up to
+spawn, than does the market hunter who would, if he could, shoot the
+last duck. Is it not strange that many fishermen will do anything in
+their power to evade the laws governing the catching of fish when by
+doing so they injure their own business?</p>
+
+<p>We have already nearly destroyed the mammals that live in the ocean.
+Among them are the whales, which were once numerous in the arctic
+regions. Few whaling ships now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or
+whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than
+that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also
+nearly extinct.</p>
+
+<p>No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal
+mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the
+mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the
+Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so
+reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia,
+Japan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of
+the fur seal for a number of years.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used
+by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot
+keep up the supply. For the purpose of assisting her, strict laws have
+been passed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from
+stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the
+passage of the fish when going to their spawning grounds. They also
+prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at
+all of some kinds to be taken for a given<span class='pagenum'><a name="page166" id="page166">[Pg 166]</a></span> time. Our government is now
+doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some
+varieties are still decreasing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image67.jpg" width="600" height="470" alt="image67" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">An Indian fish trap.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous
+numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of
+other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase
+rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that
+this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each spawning
+season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number
+hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This
+estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste
+of herring in<span class='pagenum'><a name="page167" id="page167">[Pg 167]</a></span> the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast,
+where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any
+wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?</p>
+
+<p>The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared
+from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised
+artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters
+on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high
+tide? The greatest oyster farms in the world are upon Chesapeake Bay.
+There are also oyster farms in other bays upon the Atlantic seaboard,
+and lately the oyster has been transplanted to the bays upon the Pacific
+Coast.</p>
+
+<p>The lobster was trapped so industriously that it also began to grow
+scarce. Finally the government took up the matter of protecting it. The
+eggs and the young were guarded, and now it is increasing in numbers.</p>
+
+<p>Once the sturgeon was very plentiful in the lakes and rivers of our
+country. For a long time it was thought to be of no value and was thrown
+away when caught in nets set for other fish. Then it was discovered that
+its flesh was delicious, and its eggs, known as <i>caviar</i>, became a very
+fashionable dish. After this there followed a period of most destructive
+fishing, and now sturgeon are quite scarce and high priced.</p>
+
+<p>Herring, shad, and salmon are migratory fish. By this we mean that they
+spend a part of their lives in the ocean but enter the bays and streams
+at the spawning season. You can readily understand that if the bays are
+blocked with nets the fish cannot reach the spawning grounds and their
+numbers must decrease. Chesapeake Bay contains such a maze of nets, many
+of them extending out ten miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="page169" id="page169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+from the shore, that it is a wonder that any fish get past them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page168" id="page168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image68.jpg" width="600" height="367" alt="image68" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>H. W. Fairbanks</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A fish wheel on the Columbia River, in which salmon are caught on their
+way to the spawning grounds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The waters of New England were once filled with striped bass, smelt,
+salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost gone. The shad are
+rapidly decreasing all along the Atlantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie
+extend out sometimes ten miles from shore, and the whitefish as well as
+the sturgeon have been greatly reduced in numbers there.</p>
+
+<p>When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the "salmon run" in the
+Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was a wonderful sight. The waters
+were fairly alive with these huge fish. Hydraulic mining so muddied the
+waters of the Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then came
+the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, so nearly
+blocking the channels that the salmon were rarely seen on their old
+spawning grounds. Now salmon fishing is carefully regulated and salmon
+are increasing.</p>
+
+<p>The shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, the ocean for some miles out
+from shore, and the waters about the islands of Southern California form
+very valuable fishing grounds, which, if they are taken care of, will
+furnish much larger supplies of fish than are now obtained.</p>
+
+<p>The interesting discovery has been made that the waters around the
+islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente form important spawning
+grounds for many food fish, including the great tuna. These waters were
+fished so destructively that many of the fish were found to be
+decreasing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve for
+three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this area no fish are
+allowed to be taken except with a hook and line. Some of the most
+valuable fish, which were almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="page170" id="page170">[Pg 170]</a></span> gone, are now becoming more numerous.
+The fact that the fish stay close about the island where the water is
+shallow makes the establishment of the preserve possible.</p>
+
+<p>The salmon and halibut fisheries of the Alaskan waters have long been
+the source of much profit. This region, owing to the many bays and
+islands, fairly swarms with fish of many kinds. Protection will soon be
+needed here if this great storehouse of fish is to be kept filled.</p>
+
+<p>The cod fisheries of the Newfoundland banks are among the most valuable
+in the world, and are almost the only ones where fishing has long been
+carried on and where the supply is not decreasing. The "banks" are
+formed by a great flat reef four hundred miles long, over which the
+water is shallow enough to offer a fine home for cod.</p>
+
+<p>Hatcheries have been established in many parts of our country for the
+purpose of collecting and hatching fish eggs. These are used for
+restocking those waters that have been fished out. After the eggs have
+hatched and the young fish have reached a certain stage, they are
+shipped to the streams where they are needed. The United States fishery
+on the McCloud River, California, has distributed rainbow trout all over
+the United States. Shad and striped bass have been brought from Eastern
+fisheries and planted in Pacific Coast waters, where they are now
+rapidly increasing.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we learn that valuable food fish live within certain narrow bounds
+instead of being distributed all through the waters of the globe. It is
+as easy, with our many ingenious devices of net and weir, to destroy the
+inhabitants of the water as it is to destroy those of the land with
+guns.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page171" id="page171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX</h2>
+
+<h3>MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS</h3>
+
+<p>We have learned something about the struggle among the plants and
+animals for food and for room on the earth. We must not think, however,
+that this struggle is at all like the war that is carried on between
+different nations. Wars are usually unnecessary and do more harm than
+good, for they result in the loss of the strongest and best men. But the
+struggle among the animals and plants has resulted in good, for it has
+crowded out the weakest and those less fitted to live.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle among all living things for food and a share of the
+sunshine has covered the earth with a far greater variety than there
+would otherwise be. Because so many more are born than there is room
+for, they crowd and elbow each other. Many are forced to make their
+homes in regions which they would not have chosen if they had been free
+to do as they pleased. It is partly because of this crowding that some
+of the animals which once lived on the ground became changed into birds
+and made their homes in the trees. A number of the mammals found more
+freedom in the water and finally became whales, seals, and walruses.
+Many moved into deserts and, in learning to live with very little water,
+developed curious bodies and habits. Some have found a home in the cold
+North, where they have become suited to a climate which would quickly
+kill those which had held their ground in the warm and moist tropical
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>Nature has thus filled the earth with an infinite variety of living
+things, each of which is doing its part in making<span class='pagenum'><a name="page172" id="page172">[Pg 172]</a></span> the world beautiful
+and attractive. Man is Nature's last and most wonderful creation. He has
+learned to fly like the birds, to swim under the sea like the fish, and
+to harness Nature's forces and make them work for him. But man, with all
+his wisdom, has too often forgotten that he is really a brother to the
+lower creatures. The inhabitants of the air, the land, and the water
+could, if they were able to talk, tell the most pitiful tales of man's
+cruel treatment of them.</p>
+
+<p>Of course we have to eat, as do all other living creatures, but for
+thousands of years people have supplied their wants largely from
+agriculture and from the domestic herds. Although very few of us now
+have to hunt for our food, and these few are those who live far out on
+the borders of newly settled regions, yet we have not forgotten the
+hunting instincts of our ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Our ancestors of long ago, like the savages on the earth today, seldom
+killed game unless they needed it for food. We, who think ourselves far
+better than they, now kill wild life for the pleasure of the chase. The
+professional hunter who seeks the glossy coats of the fur-bearing
+animals or the beautiful plumage of certain birds gives no thought to
+the wasted bodies that he leaves behind.</p>
+
+<p>Since men have become civilized and their needs have become so many,
+Nature's arrangements have been seriously disturbed. She has not armed
+the wild creatures against men, who, with all kinds of marvelous
+weapons, are able to take advantage of them. The wild creatures discover
+very quickly that they can find little protection against this new
+enemy, no matter how quick and sharp their senses are.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image69.jpg" width="250" height="341" alt="image69" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Eastman Kodak Company</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The only right way to hunt birds' nests&mdash;with a camera.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The blue jay has only his sharp eyes to help him when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="page173" id="page173">[Pg 173]</a></span> seeks the
+cunningly hidden nest of another bird with the hope of being able to
+dine upon eggs. The breakfast of the wolf depends alone upon his
+quickness in catching a rabbit. The mountain lion depends upon his
+stealthiness when stalking a deer. The Indian relies upon his skill in
+imitating the call or the appearance of an animal when he tries to
+approach near enough to use his bow and arrow. Civilized men have lost
+much of the keenness of sight and hearing they once had, but they have
+far more than made up for this through their ingenuity in making deadly
+weapons.</p>
+
+<p>We depend no longer upon the hunt for each day's supply of food. But the
+instinct to hunt which still remains we use to amuse ourselves while
+upon our camping trips. Some people even made a living by hunting for
+the market, although, fortunately for the wild creatures, little of this
+kind of hunting is now permitted.</p>
+
+<p>The desire to get out of doors and live for a time each year among the
+wild mountains is another instinct which comes to us from our savage
+forefathers. This is a beneficial instinct, for life in the fresh air
+gives us new strength. The hunting instinct is not wrong in itself. It
+is the manner in which we hunt that is wrong. But how much finer it
+would be if, instead of using an outing as an excuse to destroy the wild
+creatures, we should use it to learn about them and their curious ways.
+How much more real pleasure there is in studying the habits of the
+denizens of the woods and fields than there is in killing them!</p>
+
+<p>Many a boy wants to carry a gun, because he has read lurid stories of
+Indians and robbers, or of hunting in the jungles where lions and tigers
+abound. This often leads to the killing of harmless birds for the lack
+of bigger game.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page174" id="page174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Boys should be taught either at home or in school the
+sacredness of life, and a feeling of pity and love for the wild
+creatures that are surrounded by enemies on every side. They should be
+taught that animals have feelings and that they want to live. They
+should be taught how wrong it is to destroy life uselessly. The nest of
+eggs or helpless young left to their fate through the thoughtless
+killing of a mother bird is a sight which must arouse the sympathy of
+every boy who has been taught what it means.</p>
+
+<p>The killing of the mothers is the surest way to destroy a species. The
+laws in most of our states now regulate hunting during the breeding
+season and limit the number of wild animals or birds that may be taken
+in a given time. Whenever the numbers of any species become so reduced
+that it is in danger of extinction, all hunting of that species should
+be prohibited for a number of years.</p>
+
+<p>We should feel sorry for those men who live in a civilized land and get
+the benefit of its advantages and yet are worse than savages at heart.
+If these men who are so wasteful of wild life could be stripped of their
+destructive weapons and sent into the wilds to make their living as
+savages do, they would soon learn to be more careful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page175" id="page175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The animals prey upon each other because it is their nature to do so and
+because their lives depend upon it. Savages hunt because they must have
+food. We do not need to hunt, but, because of our higher intelligence,
+our hunting methods are far more destructive than are those of either
+animals or savages.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page176" id="page176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image70.jpg" width="250" height="278" alt="image70" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">"There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation
+or devastation&mdash;which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation
+of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent
+asset." <i>Western Wild Life Call</i>, published by the California Associated
+Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nature has done more for our land than for almost any other. She has
+given it vast forests, fertile soil, favorable climate, enormous water
+power, many minerals, and a wonderful variety of animal life.</p>
+
+<p>During all the centuries that the Indians lived here before the coming
+of white men, wild game furnished them their chief food, but in spite of
+this, the amount of game was not decreased. When our forefathers landed
+upon this continent, it fairly swarmed with animals and birds. With the
+clearing away of the forests and the settling of the prairies men could
+not help depriving many wild creatures of both their shelter and their
+food, but this was not the chief cause for their rapid decrease in
+numbers. Hunters followed them persistently into the wilder hills and
+mountains, and many, not needed for food, were killed for their furs.</p>
+
+<p>Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts
+of our country and see very little life of any<span class='pagenum'><a name="page177" id="page177">[Pg 177]</a></span> kind except birds and
+the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a
+deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come
+upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him
+before he is gone.</p>
+
+<p>The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good
+reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some
+species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection
+will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where
+man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this
+noble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.
+Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other
+thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone,
+people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not
+more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped<span class='pagenum'><a name="page179" id="page179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+the hunters were placed under protection and now they are slowly
+increasing.</p>
+
+<p>The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky
+Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the
+Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in
+California is proud of his great achievement.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image71.jpg" width="600" height="322" alt="image71" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont.</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Why the buffalo have nearly disappeared from the land.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of all the elk which once spread over the western part of our country,
+only a few remain outside of the Yellowstone region. A protected herd
+exists in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and another small herd
+roams through the wilder parts of the northern Coast Ranges. The
+antelope, so common on the plains only a few years ago, are all gone
+except for small, scattered herds in the more remote parts of the West.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page178" id="page178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image72.jpg" width="600" height="315" alt="image72" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Museum of Natural History</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A group of Roosevelt elk.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the many fur-bearing animals which once inhabited the Northwest,
+beavers were the most widespread and abundant. Their pelts were so
+valuable that they were used as money. For many years the trapping of
+these little animals was an important industry, until at last they were
+practically exterminated in every stream throughout the western half of
+the country. A few beaver are known to remain in the Yellowstone Park,
+where they are of course carefully protected. In Oregon a few escaped
+and have been carefully protected for some years. In certain places they
+are now quite abundant. In parts of New England and Canada they are now
+increasing under the protection of the game laws.</p>
+
+<p>The sea otter, now extremely rare, is so highly valued for its fur that
+it soon may become extinct, although completely protected by law.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page180" id="page180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image73.jpg" width="600" height="413" alt="image73" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>New York Zo&ouml;logical Society</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A beaver and its lodge.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The passenger pigeon, whose flights almost covered the sky at times not
+more than forty years ago, and whose numbers seemed so great that no one
+believed it possible of extermination, is now gone forever. The
+extinction of these birds was due chiefly to their being slaughtered at
+their roosting places.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;">
+<img src="images/image74.jpg" width="200" height="438" alt="image74" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A California condor.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The California condor, one of the largest of birds, is almost extinct.
+The prairie chicken has disappeared from the prairies and plains.
+Certain species of grouse, and especially the sage grouse, mountain
+quail, and others, which inhabit sparsely settled regions, are thought
+to be still holding their ground, but should be more carefully
+protected. The valley quail is, however, much reduced in numbers; while
+ducks, geese, and smaller shore birds are decreasing with each
+succeeding year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page181" id="page181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even in the jungles of far-away Africa, where we would think the animals
+are exposed to little danger of extinction, some of them, such as the
+elephant, are in urgent need of protection. In the far North the great
+polar bear will not long survive unless rigidly protected.</p>
+
+<p>What terrible scourge has so suddenly come upon the birds and animals
+that once adorned our country? How is it that in the short space of
+fifty years many of them have almost disappeared from their ancient
+haunts? We feel like hiding our faces in shame, for it is the same man
+scourge that for many hundreds of years has been destroying the forests,
+the animals, and the birds of many other countries.</p>
+
+<p>The helplessness of all the wild creatures before man's destructive
+weapons should arouse our sympathy, if nothing else does. Leaving out of
+account a few predatory animals that destroy large numbers of other
+animals, we should most earnestly try to protect those that remain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page182" id="page182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the birds, their sweet music, the companionship which they
+afford, and, last but not least, their great value to the farmer and
+fruit grower, should arouse our earnest efforts in their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>In our country alone an army of five million men and boys go out to hunt
+wild creatures every year. The animals are so defenseless against man's
+weapons that it is not a fair fight, in which the quicker or sharper
+escape, but a slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>If these hunters were savages armed only with bows and arrows, then the
+wild creatures would have a chance for their lives. Besides, savages do
+not kill for sport, nor do they purposely destroy Nature's most valuable
+gifts to them.</p>
+
+<p>The forest that has been cut down will grow again. The soil that has
+been made poor will, if let alone, sometime become fertile again. But
+those species of birds, animals, and fish which we have completely
+destroyed will never be restored to us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/image75.jpg" width="350" height="520" alt="image75" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The sage grouse, which is in danger of extinction.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page183" id="page183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE</h3>
+
+<p>Our savage ancestors depended largely for food upon animals, birds, and
+fish which they obtained. They used the skins and furs for clothing and
+the plumes for decorating themselves. They allowed no part of the bodies
+of the animals they killed to go to waste.</p>
+
+<p>We do not now have to depend upon the wild creatures for food, because
+our flocks and herds supply all that we require. But Dame Fashion has
+decreed that furs and feathers are still the proper thing to wear. Thus
+it has come about that those animals that have soft, furry coats and
+those birds that have bright plumage are hunted more eagerly now than
+they were long ago when food was the most important thing.</p>
+
+<p>The demand for furs has always been great and the trapping industry has
+employed thousands of men ever since our land was discovered, but in
+recent years feathers have become almost as important. No region where
+fur-bearing animals have their lairs, or birds of beautiful plumage have
+their nests, is too far away or too difficult for the hunters and
+trappers to go and hunt.</p>
+
+<p>The business of killing wild creatures for money makes beasts out of men
+and has led to most heartless cruelties. The savage, hunting for food,
+kills his prey at once; but the fur trapper with a circuit which takes
+sometimes a week to cover often has to leave his prey, tortured in the
+traps, until it starves to death.</p>
+
+<p>If the wearer of that handsome warm fur coat could know what was,
+perhaps, the story of the wild creature to which it<span class='pagenum'><a name="page184" id="page184">[Pg 184]</a></span> once belonged,
+would she enjoy it so much? Could the wearer of that gay hat, for the
+making of which not only a mother bird, but perhaps a whole family of
+little ones, gave up their lives, take so much pleasure in it if she
+knew the history of its plumes?</p>
+
+<p>It is not the desire for warm furs about our necks or for beautiful
+feathers in our hats that is wrong. It is the needless suffering that
+those who hunt and trap cause the wild creatures that we should be
+ashamed of and insist upon having stopped.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the trapper and hunter is nearly done. These men have
+despoiled for money the life of a whole continent in a few short years.
+The fur-bearing animals, if hunted in moderation, would have continued
+to people the wilds for all time to come. But neither the wearer of furs
+nor the hunter has given one thought to their preservation.</p>
+
+<p>In the getting of bird plumage for millinery purposes we find cruelties
+practiced which are almost beyond our belief. The lowest savage that
+ever lived on the earth could be no worse than many of our bird hunters.</p>
+
+<p>Birds have habits which make them easier to kill than fur-bearing
+animals. Although the modern fashion for feathers began less than fifty
+years ago, the birds that afford bright and graceful plumage have
+already been nearly exterminated. Now most of them are protected in our
+country, and the sale of feathers from other countries is prohibited in
+our markets. But there are some places where the law is not enforced, as
+well as many other countries where there are no laws, and thoughtless
+women still wear plumes. To supply the demands of fashion all the remote
+lands as well as islands of the sea are being searched.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page185" id="page185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image76.jpg" width="600" height="509" alt="image76" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Young great blue herons in their nest.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The slaughter began with the bright-colored songbirds, terns, gulls,
+herons, egrets, and flamingos. Then it extended to other sea birds,
+including the albatross, to bright-colored tropical birds, and to the
+wonderful birds of paradise. How true is the following statement made in
+a millinery store:</p>
+
+<p>"You had better take the feather for twelve dollars," said the clerk,
+"for it is very cheap at that price. These feathers are becoming scarce
+and very soon we shall not be able to secure them."</p>
+
+<p>Here is milady's beautiful cape glistening with all the colors of the
+rainbow. Of what is this gorgeous thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="page186" id="page186">[Pg 186]</a></span> made? Would you believe it
+possible that it is formed entirely of humming birds' skins, with the
+heads and long, slender bills? Perhaps a thousand of the tiny birds were
+sacrificed that some woman might have a beautiful cape. Does it seem
+possible that any gentlewoman could wear this cape, who had any
+realization of the tragedies that had to take place in humming-bird life
+in order that it might be made? Could she wear this cape if she knew of
+the forsaken nests and the hundreds of dying young ones waiting for the
+mothers that never returned?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image77.jpg" width="600" height="349" alt="image77" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But more terrible, if anything, than the story of the humming-bird cape
+is the story of the delicate egret plumes on yonder hat. They once
+adorned the mother bird at nesting time in some far marsh. The feathers
+are almost perfect at this time, and to get them the bird must be
+killed. Each bunch of egret feathers represents a family tragedy,&mdash;a<span class='pagenum'><a name="page187" id="page187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+nest of little birds left to die, because the mother has been sacrificed
+to satisfy the demands of fashion.</p>
+
+<p>The plume hunters invade the nesting places of the egrets, herons, and
+flamingos, often leaving not a single bird in what were once happy
+colonies, except the starving little ones. Millions of these plumes have
+been obtained along our seacoasts and about the interior lakes and
+marshes. Is it any wonder that the egrets are nearly extinct as a result
+of this merciless slaughter?</p>
+
+<p>Now, when it is almost too late, protection has been given these
+beautiful birds. Bird refuges have been established at different
+favorable points along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the
+Klamath and Malheur Lake regions of Oregon. These refuges are watched
+over by wardens, and we hope that the birds inhabiting them will thus be
+enabled to increase and again fill the almost forsaken marshes.</p>
+
+<p>In our plea for the protection of the birds of attractive plumage, we
+must not forget those of the tropical jungles. Remote as many of these
+jungles are, the plumage hunter is devastating them already. The bird of
+paradise, found in the East India islands, will soon be extinct unless
+protected.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page188" id="page188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COURT OF THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS</h3>
+
+<p>Once upon a time, not very long ago, the birds and animals were brought
+into court to be tried on the charge of committing all sorts of
+misdeeds. Some of their accusers wanted to shoot them for food. Others
+said they did much harm and should be destroyed, while still others
+envied their beautiful coats of fur or feathers. To settle the matter
+fairly, the judge decided that each prisoner should be tried by itself.</p>
+
+<p>The first case called was that of the English sparrow, who made such a
+noisy disturbance that the bailiff had to call for silence. All
+witnesses asserted that the bird was a foreigner and did not belong in
+this country. They further testified that the sparrow was a meddlesome,
+gossiping neighbor, always fighting the other birds and driving them
+away. The sparrow looked around, but not a single friend could he find.
+The court decided that he should be driven out and made the lawful prey
+of every one. He cautioned all present, however, always to be very
+careful to distinguish between the English sparrow and the other
+sparrows. The latter birds must on no account be molested, for they were
+without any exceptions most useful citizens.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the linnet the judge hardly knew what to say. The bird was
+shown to be a sweet singer, but very destructive of fruit. It was
+finally decided that a census of the linnets must be taken occasionally.
+Whenever their number was found to be so great as to endanger the fruit
+crop in any particular place, the farmers were to be allowed to dispose
+of a certain number.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page189" id="page189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The bobolink had many friends as well as enemies present. Every one that
+knew the bobolink in its summer home in the North insisted that this
+beautiful singer must be protected. But the people from the South, where
+it spends the winter, wished the privilege of shooting it. They said
+that its flesh formed a delicious morsel and also that in the rice
+fields, where it was known as the "rice bird," it did a great deal of
+harm. The judge refused to listen to the plea of the hunters and said
+that this attractive bird must be protected in both its winter and
+summer homes.</p>
+
+<p>The turn of the blue jay came next. Every one wondered what the charge
+against this bird with the beautiful blue plumage could be. Some thought
+that he was on trial for his discordant screeching, which alarmed all
+the inhabitants of the woods. The charge against the jay was, however,
+far more serious. He had been caught while making his breakfast of some
+baby birds which a mother robin had just hatched. The quail and every
+other small bird present called for vengeance on this ruthless destroyer
+of their homes. The gardener also added that the bird ate his cherries
+and apples.</p>
+
+<p>The jay now presented a strong defense, saying that most of his food was
+made up of harmful insects and worms. He proved that he did almost as
+much good as harm. The judge, knowing what a wise bird the jay was, told
+him to go but that he must thereafter look out for himself.</p>
+
+<p>The family of hawks was next examined. There were many witnesses who
+declared that they were the most destructive of neighbors and lived
+entirely upon small birds and chickens. The songbirds all raised their
+voices against hawks, saying that when they left their nests to hunt
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="page190" id="page190">[Pg 190]</a></span> food for their children, they were never sure of finding them alive
+upon their return. The judge inquired carefully as to the truth of these
+complaints, but found that only a few of the hawks were guilty as
+claimed. These included the peregrine falcon, sharp-shinned hawk, and
+Cooper's hawk. The other hawks proved that they were the farmers' best
+friends, for they waged endless war upon mice, rats, ground squirrels,
+gophers, and rabbits, and only occasionally caught other birds. They had
+evidence also that in those places where their numbers had been much
+reduced by the hunters, the small rodents increased enormously.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image78.jpg" width="600" height="441" alt="image78" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Full-grown young red-tailed hawks.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The court had to be held at night to accommodate the owls and give them
+justice. The judge decided from the evidence that, in this family as in
+the last, there were good<span class='pagenum'><a name="page191" id="page191">[Pg 191]</a></span> members as well as bad and he could not
+condemn them all to death. The owls proved that they were of even more
+benefit to the farmers than were the hawks, because of the large number
+of rats which they ate. The great horned owl and the barred owl only
+were singled out for punishment.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image79.jpg" width="600" height="482" alt="image79" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The screech owl at home. This is a well-known bird, of great economic
+value because it catches so many mice.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The case of the meadow lark was called next. An old farmer complained
+that this bird had destroyed his young grain. Then the hunters made the
+plea that the meadow lark was really a game bird and that they ought to
+be allowed to shoot it. In defense of these birds the stomachs of many
+of them that had been killed were shown in court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page192" id="page192">[Pg 192]</a></span> It was proved that
+two thirds of all their food was made up of harmful insects and that the
+farmers ought to be glad to have them about. It was further shown that
+if the insects killed by the meadow larks in one day in the San Joaquin
+Valley, California, were loaded on the cars and hauled away, it would
+take a train of twenty cars of ten tons each. The meadow lark, upon this
+showing, was allowed to go unmolested and at once began a happy carol.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image80.jpg" width="600" height="413" alt="image80" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A coyote, one of the keenest-witted animals of the Western plains.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The grizzly bear had been summoned, but could not be found, for all of
+his species had been killed except a few in the Yellowstone Park. But
+the black bear was brought in and accused of eating young calves and
+colts. The stockmen asked that all the black bears be killed. The judge
+decided, however, that as there are so few left, and they are so timid
+and rarely do any harm, and are, besides,<span class='pagenum'><a name="page193" id="page193">[Pg 193]</a></span> among the most interesting of
+the citizens of the woods, they should go free and be protected from the
+hunter.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image81.jpg" width="250" height="281" alt="image81" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A weasel in its summer coat.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The coyote was next dragged in and accused of all manner of evil deeds.
+He pleaded in defense that he helped to keep down the numbers of the
+rabbits and ground squirrels, and that if it were not for his tribe,
+these little animals would eat up everything. The judge decided that the
+coyote was on the whole a rather unpleasant neighbor and refused to
+afford him any protection. Every one knew, however, that the coyote was
+so sharp and keen that he was a match for most of the enemies about him
+and would get along very well.</p>
+
+<p>Those sly little animals, the skunk, weasel, coon, and mink, destroyed a
+great many birds, especially those that nested on or near the ground,
+according to the report of most of those present in court. But the skunk
+had some good friends who showed that his chief food was insects and
+worms, and that he did more good than harm. It was further proved that
+the fur of all these animals was so valuable that, while trapping them
+would be permitted, they must not be exterminated. In regard to the
+weasel, the testimony showed that he was a badly slandered animal. Most
+of his food appeared to be rats and mice, and only rarely did<span class='pagenum'><a name="page194" id="page194">[Pg 194]</a></span> he kill
+chickens. The judge added that these poor animals had too often been
+condemned offhand. Although they occasionally ate chickens, no one had
+tried to find out the good which they did.</p>
+
+<p>To hear the complaints against the great California sea lion, the court
+adjourned to the seashore. The fishermen declared that the sea lion ate
+the fish upon which their livelihood depended, and also broke their
+nets. They demanded that all the sea lions be killed. Careful search in
+the stomachs of some of them that had been taken for that purpose made
+it very clear that the fishermen were wrong. The sea lions ate almost no
+fish, but lived upon squid and other sea animals not valuable to the
+fishermen. As a result, these interesting animals were given full
+protection.</p>
+
+<p>The oyster farmers complained most indignantly to the court about the
+conduct of the wild ducks. They said that the ducks ate a large part of
+the young oysters on their oyster farms. They wanted the ducks shot
+without delay, for their business was almost ruined. This matter was
+carefully looked into, and it was proved that the ducks really ate very
+few oysters.</p>
+
+<p>The judge remarked as he adjourned court that if all the accusations
+were true, hardly a wild creature would be left. He said further that
+each one was entitled to fair treatment at the hands of men unless it
+was wholly bad.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page195" id="page195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER THIRTY</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BIRDS OUR GOOD FRIENDS AND PLEASANT COMPANIONS</h3>
+
+<p>As we lie partly awake on some bright spring morning, we hear through
+the open window such a chorus of music that it seems almost as though we
+must be in some enchanted land. This music, however, is the songs of the
+birds that nest about our homes.</p>
+
+<p>We can distinguish in the chorus the notes of many different birds. From
+the treetop come the sweet songs of the oriole and robin. Upon a low
+bush sits a black-headed grosbeak that never seems to weary of his
+refrain. From various hidden places in the dense foliage come the notes
+of the song sparrow and the lazuli bunting. From its perch upon some
+fence post the meadow lark adds to the cheerfulness of the morning. If
+your home is far enough south, you may hear the mocking bird pouring
+forth its melody in endless variation.</p>
+
+<p>Rising above all other sounds, as the morning advances, are the cheery
+calls of the quail who seems to say: "Where are you? Where are you? Stay
+right there; stay right there." Both in the morning and in the evening
+the almost heavenly music of the thrush echoes through the deep woods.
+In the quiet night the hoot of the owls is most entertaining.</p>
+
+<p>Would you for anything have the birds leave us? Would you for anything
+lose these airy creatures whose music, bright plumage, and graceful
+movements not only add so much to the pleasure of our daily lives but
+also serve us in so many ways? The woods, fields, and waters would be
+lonely without them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="page196" id="page196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Did you ever think that it is possible, that it is indeed likely, that
+many of these beautiful creatures will leave us for all time if we do
+not treat them kindly and give them every protection in our power? Did
+you ever think of all the enemies that are constantly on the watch for
+the birds,&mdash;the thoughtless boy who robs their nests, the angry farmer
+who mistakenly believes they injure him, the hunter who thinks only of
+how good they taste, the sleek cat lying so innocently by your fireside,
+which loves a bird above everything else, and last of all, the blue jay,
+butcher bird, and some of the hawks and owls?</p>
+
+<p>To realize how our home would seem without birds, let us take an
+imaginary journey far across the water to "sunny Italy." Here you will
+rarely hear bird music upon spring mornings, unless it be that of some
+poor caged creature. If you will walk through the country, you will see
+few birds where once they must have been abundant. But upon every
+holiday you will see the fields filled with hunters, who with keen eyes
+are watching for any stray birds that have happened to stop on their
+journey across the country to rest and to hunt worms or taste a bit of
+fruit. The Italian does not know the good the birds do his garden and
+that it would be the part of wisdom for him to let them have a little of
+his corn and fruit.</p>
+
+<p>We will now journey to Spain and learn something about the treatment of
+our bird friends there. This country was once rich and prosperous. From
+it came many of the early explorers of our own land. The people of the
+central highlands of Spain never loved to hear the birds sing, because
+they were always thinking of the grain which the birds took. Thinking to
+save their crops, they not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="page197" id="page197">[Pg 197]</a></span> killed and scared away all the birds
+they could, but they also cut down the trees so that the birds would
+have no places to nest.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the people freed themselves from the birds, but what was the
+harvest that they reaped? When the trees were gone they had no fuel, the
+soil dried out more quickly, and the insects increased until they
+destroyed far more of the grain and fruit than the birds could possibly
+have done. The people are now very poor and just manage to live from one
+harvest to another.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us learn a little about our own birds and what they are doing
+for us. We ought to know the habits of all the common birds that
+frequent our gardens and be able to tell each by its note. This would
+add greatly to our pleasure when out of doors and make us appreciate the
+services they are rendering.</p>
+
+<p>Go where you will through the open fields or among the trees and bushes,
+you will find different kinds of birds and all of them busily engaged.
+They are searching over every bit of ground as well as over the trunks,
+branches, and leaves of the trees. Some are after the seeds of different
+kinds of weeds. Others are getting the worms and insects that infest the
+trees. Watch a flock of the little titmice going carefully over all the
+leaves and branches of an oak tree. When they have finished, there are
+few insects or their eggs left upon it.</p>
+
+<p>How anxious are some of our farmers as well as the sportsmen to have the
+meadow lark classed as a pest or as a game bird. Would that the farmers
+knew how much good this bird does them! The stomachs of many of these
+larks have been carefully examined in order to find out what<span class='pagenum'><a name="page198" id="page198">[Pg 198]</a></span> they
+really do eat. The contents show that more than half of the food of the
+meadow lark is made up of harmful insects, including beetles,
+grasshoppers, crickets, Jerusalem crickets, cutworms, caterpillars,
+wireworms, bugs, bees, ants, wasps, flies, spiders, and many others.
+These birds also eat large quantities of the seeds of weeds and at times
+damage the grain fields. The good that they do, however, far outweighs
+the evil.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image82.jpg" width="600" height="463" alt="image82" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A young meadow lark.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Woodpeckers belong to another class of birds that are very useful to us.
+How often have we heard them hammering upon a dead tree as they drill
+holes in search of the worms and beetles that are hidden under the bark
+or in the heart of the wood. It has long been the habit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="page199" id="page199">[Pg 199]</a></span> hunters to
+shoot woodpeckers just for sport, although no one eats them nor are they
+known to do any harm. With a decrease in their numbers there has been an
+increase in insect pests which are now destroying so many trees in all
+parts of our country. The woodpeckers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are
+worth almost their weight in gold, for they destroy millions of beetles
+that are killing the great sugar pines and yellow pines. Here and there
+you will find a tree, attacked by the beetles, from which the
+woodpeckers have almost stripped the bark in their search for these
+insects.</p>
+
+<p>The food of the martins and swallows is wholly made up of insects. We
+have all seen them in their graceful flight and have noticed how they
+seize their insect prey while on the wing. The martins are of little
+value for food, and yet, in some parts of our country they have become
+almost extinct because of the pursuit of them by pot hunters.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image83.jpg" width="600" height="376" alt="image83" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A barn swallow.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page200" id="page200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+The shore birds form a group of very great value. They include those
+long-legged birds with slender bills which are found, usually along the
+shores of the ocean and of lakes and small bodies of water, but
+sometimes in the interior away from the water. The food of these birds
+is almost wholly insects, which are harmful in various ways. Among these
+insects are grasshoppers, army worms, cutworms, cabbage worms, grubs,
+horseflies, and mosquitoes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image84.jpg" width="600" height="387" alt="image84" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A least sandpiper or snipe, one of the shore birds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So cruelly and relentlessly have the shore birds been pursued by men who
+call themselves "sportsmen;" that many species are nearly extinct. We
+hope that the Migratory Bird Law will be enforced and that with the
+protection this gives them they will again increase and fill their old
+haunts. But we must ever be on the watch, for there will still be greedy
+hunters trying to evade the law until all our boys grow up with love and
+appreciation for the birds. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="page201" id="page201">[Pg 201]</a></span> killdeer, snipe, and other plovers,
+whose habits make them the most interesting of the shore birds,
+especially need our protection. We have all seen these birds in our
+walks along the shore. Small and delicate their bodies are; each one
+would make scarcely a mouthful, and yet the pot hunters have seemed
+determined to kill them all.</p>
+
+<p>How many people ever think of the quail in any other light than as a
+delicious morsel to be served up on toast for dinner? The quail is not
+only useful because of the insects which it destroys, but is a most
+wonderfully interesting and attractive bird. If you have ever disturbed
+a mountain quail with a brood of young, you will never forget what an
+interesting sight the mother presented as she strutted back and forth on
+a log, warning her little ones to keep out of sight.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image85.jpg" width="600" height="405" alt="image85" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A white heron.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Quail eat over a hundred kinds of insects, and happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="page202" id="page202">[Pg 202]</a></span> should be that
+farmer who can get them to come about his home. Can you find it in your
+heart to shoot the father bird, as, perched upon some sightly point, he
+watches for danger while the mother just off the nest with her little
+brood feeds trustfully under his care?</p>
+
+<p>The hunting of quail for market is now prohibited by law. But before
+protection came market hunters were known to carry out the most cruel
+methods in order to bag the quail in large numbers. In the drier parts
+of our country, the springs where quail came to drink were covered until
+the thirsty birds gathered in large numbers. In this way the hunters
+were able to obtain all they wanted.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image86.jpg" width="600" height="398" alt="image86" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>Finley &amp; Bohlman</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">Gulls and terns on their resting ground.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Let us henceforth show by our kindness and good will to the living
+things around us that we are not merciless savages, thinking only of
+something to eat, but rather that we appreciate their presence and the
+great good that they do.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page203" id="page203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN</h3>
+
+<p>In the preceding chapters we have learned something of the destructive
+warfare that men have carried on against wild creatures. We have learned
+that some species are already extinct and that many others have been so
+reduced in numbers that they are threatened with the same fate.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing that we can do will bring back those that are gone, but we can
+save those that are left. Throughout our own country as well as many
+foreign countries, people are waking up to the necessity of protecting
+wild life. Thousands of men and women are spending their time and money
+trying to save birds and other animals. Among the things they are doing
+is the establishing of refuges and game preserves, working for better
+laws, and teaching boys and girls to be careful of life and not wantonly
+to destroy it.</p>
+
+<p>The most important thing that we can do to bring wild creatures back
+again is to let them alone. Man is their worst enemy, and, if he can be
+kept from hunting, nearly all will be able to take care of themselves
+and increase in numbers. We can help Nature by supplying them with food
+when it is scarce and by protecting them from a few predatory animals
+and birds. The worst of these are the cougar or mountain lion, wild cat,
+lynx, wolves, and coyotes; the blue jay, butcher bird, and several of
+the hawks and owls. The cougar is the worst of all, for it has been
+estimated that one of these animals kills on the average fifty deer a
+year. Many of the states offer bounties for the killing of the mountain
+lion and coyote.</p>
+
+<p>Ordinarily birds are able to secure their own food; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="page204" id="page204">[Pg 204]</a></span> sometimes
+during long, snowy winters those that do not fly away South need food.
+There are also many trees which bear fruit that is not much used by us
+but which is very attractive to the birds. The planting of such trees
+aids in bringing birds to our homes and encourages their increase.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/image87.jpg" width="250" height="360" alt="image87" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller">We can help to conserve bird life by providing safe
+nesting places for our feathered friends.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The settlement of the lands suitable to farming has deprived some of the
+hoofed animals, such as the elk, of their natural feeding grounds. The
+elk that are found in the summer in the meadows of the Yellowstone Park
+migrate in winter to the lower valleys outside of the park. These
+valleys are mostly fenced up, and to keep the elk from getting into
+trouble with the farmers it is often necessary for the government to buy
+hay and feed them.</p>
+
+<p>In order to make sure that the wild animals shall be free to live and
+increase safe from the hunter, we have established great game preserves
+in different parts of the country. These are usually regions that are
+wild and unsettled and not useful for other purposes. All the great
+National Parks which we are trying to keep in their natural condition
+with their animals, birds, and plants are now game preserves. Among them
+are the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rainier, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="page205" id="page205">[Pg 205]</a></span> Crater Lake parks. Visitors
+to these preserves are not allowed to carry any guns, and wardens
+constantly patrol them.</p>
+
+<p>The life of the Yellowstone Park is wonderfully interesting. Here we
+find droves of many of the animals that were in danger of becoming
+extinct. Among them are the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Here the grizzly
+and all the lesser bears are safe from the hunter. They have almost lost
+their fear of man and come about the camps and hotels for food, as the
+domestic animals do. In the park are some colonies of beaver, too, which
+will never again be disturbed by the fur hunter. On the higher peaks are
+a few Rocky Mountain sheep.</p>
+
+<p>Another way in which we are protecting the wild animals is by making it
+legal to hunt them during only a short time each year. This is called
+the "open season." In the case of some of the animals that are nearly
+extinct we have made a "closed season" extending through a number of
+years. With this protection we are hoping that they will be saved and
+sometime become numerous again. All our states have made game laws which
+give more or less protection to the deer, elk, moose, antelope,
+squirrel, and other animals. In the case of some of these animals the
+females are absolutely protected, and the number of the males&mdash;as of the
+deer, for example&mdash;that may be killed in a season is often as small as
+two, and in two states it is only one. A heavy fine is imposed upon any
+one killing the protected animals or having their meat in his
+possession.</p>
+
+<p>We are trying to protect the birds in much the same manner as the wild
+animals. But because of their migrations this is much more difficult.
+Many kinds of birds<span class='pagenum'><a name="page206" id="page206">[Pg 206]</a></span> travel with the changing seasons from north to
+south across different countries. If the people of one country protect
+them and those of another do not, they may easily become exterminated.
+Some species have become extinct in the last fifty years, and others
+have been reduced to a few pairs in regions where they were once seen in
+thousands.</p>
+
+<p>There are three things that have brought about this slaughter of the
+birds. The first is hunting them for food. This was not so serious until
+the market hunters began their work. Then the small game birds that were
+salable quickly began to disappear. In most of our states the sale of
+game birds in the market is now prohibited.</p>
+
+<p>Another cause for the decrease in the birds is the wanton shooting of
+some just for sport, and the hunting of others that are mistakenly
+supposed to be harmful. We cannot wholly stop this until we teach people
+to respect the birds, to love them for their music, and to appreciate
+the great good which many of them do by their destruction of insects and
+small animal pests.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the birds which we have too often tried to kill or drive away
+are among the best friends we have. When we have learned all about their
+habits and their food, we shall find that only a very few are really
+harmful, and that the others abundantly repay the toll that they take of
+our produce. The farmer and the fruit grower should be particularly
+interested in protecting and encouraging the birds. If the birds pull up
+the sprouting seeds in your garden, do not kill them but protect the
+plants with wire screens. It is likely that these very birds feed
+largely upon the insects that are so harmful to your crops.</p>
+
+<p>If the children in our schools could spend a little of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="page207" id="page207">[Pg 207]</a></span> time in
+the interesting study of bird life, we are sure that when they grow up
+the wanton destruction of birds will almost cease. The Boy Scouts and
+the Camp Fire Girls are learning to love and respect life in the wilds
+and would not for anything injure its inhabitants. The children of the
+Agassiz Associations and the Junior Audubon Societies can also be proud
+of the work they are doing. They are not only saving the birds about our
+homes but are attracting others by putting out food, planting trees that
+bear attractive fruit, and making nesting places for the birds.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image88.jpg" width="600" height="408" alt="image88" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>American Forestry Association</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">The boys who are going to see that our wild life is protected.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The third important thing which has been bringing about the decrease of
+the birds is hunting them for their plumes. For fifty years the demand
+for plumes for millinery purposes has been growing. The trade has spread
+until it now reaches the most remote islands of the sea. No bird, be<span class='pagenum'><a name="page208" id="page208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+its home in the most remote and inaccessible jungles, has until recently
+been safe from the plume hunter.</p>
+
+<p>Now some of the foremost nations have passed laws for the protection of
+many of the water and jungle birds, which, unfortunately for themselves,
+are so beautiful that milady longs to have them for her bonnet. Nearly
+all the states of our own land offer more or less protection to birds of
+beautiful plumage. There is, however, much yet to be done, for in parts
+of our country birds that should be protected are still at the mercy of
+the plume hunter.</p>
+
+<p>The Migratory Bird Law recently passed by Congress is one of the most
+important things which we have ever done for the birds. This law
+protects the multitude of water birds as well as land birds, that
+migrate with the changing seasons. It is especially important that all
+such birds be protected in the regions where they nest.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the water birds the nests are often grouped in colonies
+in certain places and not scattered singly here and there as with most
+land birds. Thus when a colony, say of the heron, tern, or flamingo, is
+found it is very easy for the hunter to break it up and destroy all the
+birds. Among the water birds the gulls, terns, grebes, herons, egrets,
+osprey, flamingos, and pelicans have been so hunted for their plumes
+that some of them are almost extinct. Several of these species love the
+rocky coasts, where their nests are found upon the almost bare ledges of
+the cliffs. Others establish colonies about the marshy lagoons of the
+Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and about the marshy shore of the lakes
+of the interior.</p>
+
+<p>During recent years many bird refuges have been established in various
+parts of the country. Such refuges are<span class='pagenum'><a name="page209" id="page209">[Pg 209]</a></span> now scattered all along the
+Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as at various other localities
+throughout the country which are favorite nesting places for the birds.
+Some of these refuges have been established and are guarded by the
+government; others have been donated by wealthy persons who love birds
+and want to see them preserved.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image89.jpg" width="600" height="373" alt="image89" title="Illustration" />
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: right; font-size: smaller"><i>E. R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zo&ouml;logical Society</i></p>
+<p class="caption" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller">A flock of wild duck.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The most beautiful of the water birds have been so relentlessly hunted
+by the plume gatherers that at the time of the establishment of the
+refuges some of them were almost extinct and it was feared the birds
+would not be able to survive. But in most cases the effect of protection
+was magical. The bird refuges in the Southern coast islands and marshes
+which were almost deserted are now alive again with birds. Here we can
+get some idea of the wonderful richness of life before the bird hunters
+began their work. Even now, in spite of the watchful patrols, the
+hunters<span class='pagenum'><a name="page210" id="page210">[Pg 210]</a></span> sometimes succeed in getting at the colonies. In order to
+insure full protection the refuges must be extended and more patrols
+employed, for such is the value of the plumes that desperate men will
+undergo great risks for the sake of obtaining them.</p>
+
+<p>In order fully to stop this work, all those countries where plumes are
+in demand must forbid their sale. Only when there is no more demand can
+we get rid of the hunters.</p>
+
+<p>In our efforts to protect bird life, we must not forget to take into
+account the instincts of our friend Pussy. It hardly seems as though the
+quiet house cat could do much harm, but if you will watch one out of
+doors when the birds are around you will be convinced that Pussy is one
+of the worst enemies that small birds have. Cats destroy many thousands
+of birds throughout the country. It is believed that they each average
+at least fifty birds killed every year. If you will multiply this number
+by the number of cats in your neighborhood, you will get some idea of
+the great losses among the birds due to the cats. We must choose between
+Pussy and the birds.</p>
+
+<p>Arbor Day and Bird Day in our schools help call to mind the claims
+Nature has upon us. We might celebrate them by planting trees which
+furnish food that the birds like, for the trees and birds go together.</p>
+
+<p>How pleasant it will be when that happy time comes in which the wild
+creatures will cease to regard man as their worst enemy! How pleasant it
+will be to go out through the fields and woods and along the shores and
+find that they look upon us as friends!<span class='pagenum'><a name="page211" id="page211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>THE PRECEPTOR'S PLEA FOR THE BIRDS</h3>
+
+<table summary="poetry">
+<tr>
+<td><p>Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From his Republic banished without pity</span><br />
+The Poets; in this little town of yours,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">You put to death, by means of a Committee,</span><br />
+The ballad-singers and the Troubadours,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The street musicians of the heavenly city,</span><br />
+The birds, who make sweet music for us all<br />
+In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.</p>
+
+<p>The thrush that carols at the dawn of day<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">From the green steeples of the piny wood;</span><br />
+The oriole in the elm; the noisy jay,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Jargoning like a foreigner at his food;</span><br />
+The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Flooding with melody the neighborhood;</span><br />
+Linnet and meadow lark, and all the throng<br />
+That dwell in nests, and have the gift of song.</p>
+
+<p>You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of a scant handful more or less of wheat,</span><br />
+Or rye, or barley, or some other grain,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Scratched up at random by industrious feet,</span><br />
+Searching for worm or weevil after rain!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet</span><br />
+As are the songs these uninvited guests<br />
+Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts.</p>
+
+<p>Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught</span><br />
+The dialect they speak, where melodies<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Alone are the interpreters of thought?</span><br />
+Whose household words are songs in many keys,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught!</span><br />
+Whose habitations in the treetops even<br />
+Are halfway houses on the road to heaven!</p>
+
+<p>Think, every morning when the sun peeps through<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,</span><br />
+How jubilant the happy birds renew<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Their old, melodious madrigals of love!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="page212" id="page212">[Pg 212]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Their old, melodious madrigals of love!</span><br />
+And when you think of this, remember too<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Tis always morning somewhere, and above</span><br />
+The awakening continents, from shore to shore,<br />
+Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.</p>
+
+<p>Think of your woods and orchards without birds!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams</span><br />
+As in an idiot's brain remembered words<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!</span><br />
+Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Make up for the lost music, when your teams</span><br />
+Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more<br />
+The feathered gleaners follow to your door?</p>
+
+<p>What! would you rather see the incessant stir<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of insects in the windrows of the hay,</span><br />
+And hear the locust and the grasshopper<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play?</span><br />
+Is this more pleasant to you than the whir<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of meadow lark, and its sweet roundelay,</span><br />
+Or twitter of little fieldfares, as you take<br />
+Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake?</p>
+
+<p>You call them thieves and pillagers; but know<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They are the winged wardens of your farms,</span><br />
+Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And from your harvests keep a hundred harms;</span><br />
+Even the blackest of them all, the crow,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Renders good service as your man-at-arms,</span><br />
+Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,<br />
+And crying havoc on the slug and snail.</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">Henry W. Longfellow</span>,<br />
+<i>The Birds of Killingworth</i><br /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page213" id="page213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+<table summary="index" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="65%">
+<tr>
+<td>Abandoned farms,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page52">52</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Acacia tree, gum arabic made from,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page95">95</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Adobe soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&AElig;olian soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page66">66</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Africa, need for protection of animals in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page180">180</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Agassiz Associations, work of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page207">207</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Air, importance of pure,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page10">10.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Alaska, protection of fish in waters about,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page170">170</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Alkali soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Alluvial soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page64">64</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Animals, the first domestic,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page5">5</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">careless destruction of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page49">49</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">court of birds and,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page188">188</a>-<a href="#page194">194</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">predatory,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page203">203</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Antelope, disappearance of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Yellowstone Park,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Appalachian Forest, the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page133">133</a>-<a href="#page134">134</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Arabs, life of the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page25">25</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Arbor Day, celebration of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page210">210</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Argentine ant, a plague,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Australia, rabbits as pests in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Aztec Indians,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page20">20</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bacteria in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>-<a href="#page60">60</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Balance of nature,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page151">151</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of upsetting,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page151">151</a>-<a href="#page154">154</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Barren Lands,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page101">101</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bears, in early times,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page21">21</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Yellowstone Park,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Beaver, trapping of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">protection of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Big trees of California,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page99">99</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bird Day, observance of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page210">210</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bird of paradise, nearly extinct,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bird refuges,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>-<a href="#page209">209</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">patrols for,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page209">209</a>-<a href="#page210">210</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Birds,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page21">21</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">extinct species of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page176">176</a>-<a href="#page182">182</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">hunting of, for millinery purposes,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page183">183</a>-<a href="#page187">187</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">court of the,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page188">188</a>-<a href="#page194">194</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">our good friends and pleasant companions,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page195">195</a>-<a href="#page202">202</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">predatory,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page203">203</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">national protection of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>-<a href="#page206">206</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Black bears, case of the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page192">192</a>-<a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Blue jays,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page189">189</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bobolink, friends and enemies of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page189">189</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bone, implements of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page3">3</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Boy Scouts, love of, for wild creatures,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page207">207</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Broad-leaved and narrow-leaved trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page98">98</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bronze, making of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page5">5</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Browntail moth,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Buffaloes,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page21">21</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">slaughter of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page177">177</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Yellowstone Park,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>California, forests of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"big trees" of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>California condor, disappearance of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page180">180</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Camp Fire Girls, love of, for wild creatures,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page207">207</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Camping parties, forest fires started by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page122">122</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Canada, beaver in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Canada balsam,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Canals, use of water for,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page87">87</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cats, killing of birds by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page210">210</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Chesapeake Bay, fisheries of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Chestnut-tree blight,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page107">107</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>China, results of destruction of vegetation in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>-<a href="#page80">80</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Christmas decorations,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page149">149</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cigarettes, forest fires caused by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page122">122</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Citrus canker,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"City on the Plain, The,"</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page14">14</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Clay, a part of soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Clay loam,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Closed season for hunting,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Coal, care necessary in use of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page12">12</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">unequal distribution of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page27">27</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">deposits and mining of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page155">155</a>-<a href="#page156">156</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">waste connected with,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page156">156</a>-<a href="#page157">157</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cod fisheries,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page170">170</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Codling moth,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Colorado River, mud carried by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page73">73</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of water of, for irrigation,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page87">87</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cone-bearing trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page98">98</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">enemies of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page110">110</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Conservation, meaning of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page8">8</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Conservation commissions,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page138">138</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Coon, arguments for and against the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cotton-boll weevil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cougar, a predatory beast,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page203">203</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Coyotes, killing of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">defense of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Crater Lake National Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page140">140</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Deer, killed by cougars,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page203">203</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Deltas of rivers,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page55">55</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">alluvial soil in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page64">64</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Desert, results of lack of vegetation in the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page70">70</a>-<a href="#page71">71</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Digger pines,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ducks, complaints of oyster farmers against, disproved,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page194">194</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Egrets, killing of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Electricity, harnessing of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page8">8</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of water for making,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page88">88</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Elephant, urgent need of protection of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page181">181</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Elk,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page21">21</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">hunting of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding grounds of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page204">204</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class='pagenum'><a name="page214" id="page214">[Pg 214]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding grounds of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page204">204</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>English sparrow,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">should be driven out,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page188">188</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Erie Canal,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page87">87</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Eskimos, the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page25">25</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">wood lacking among,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page89">89</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Farmers, great value of work of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page51">51</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Feldspar, rock grains called,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page63">63</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fertilizers,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page11">11</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of herring for,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Field mice, plagues of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page151">151</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fire, ignorance of early people concerning,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page3">3</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">discovery of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page3">3</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> Forest fires.</span></td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fish, caring for,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page14">14</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">protection needed by,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page162">162</a>-<a href="#page165">165</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fish preserves,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page169">169</a>-<a href="#page170">170</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fish traps,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>-<a href="#page169">169</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Flamingos, killing of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Flowers, destruction of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page144">144</a>-<a href="#page149">149</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fool's gold,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page63">63</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Forest fires,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page110">110</a>-<a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>-<a href="#page124">124</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">steps taken by national government to prevent,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page131">131</a>-<a href="#page138">138</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Forest rangers, work of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page134">134</a>-<a href="#page137">137</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Forests, effect of cutting down of, on birds,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">unequal distribution of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page26">26</a>-<a href="#page27">27</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page34">34</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of destruction of, on soil,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page37">37</a>-<a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>-<a href="#page42">42</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">possible restoration of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page47">47</a>-<a href="#page49">49</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">importance of, to man,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page89">89</a>-<a href="#page95">95</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">location of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page96">96</a>-<a href="#page103">103</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">special sources of damage to,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page104">104</a>-<a href="#page111">111</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">various methods by which wasted,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page112">112</a>-<a href="#page118">118</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">government protection of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page131">131</a>-<a href="#page138">138</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">National Parks and Forests as playgrounds,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page139">139</a>-<a href="#page143">143</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>France, cutting of forests and careless pasturing in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fruit trees, enemies of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fuel, use of wood for,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page90">90</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of peat for,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page155">155</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Fur seals, destruction of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page165">165</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Game preserves,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page204">204</a>-<a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Gas, waste connected with,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page157">157</a>-<a href="#page161">161</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Glacial soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page65">65</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Goats, forests injured by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page111">111</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Grand Ca&ntilde;on National Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page140">140</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Grasshoppers, plagues of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Great plains,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page96">96</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Grizzly bears, destruction of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page192">192</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Yellowstone Park,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Gusher in California oil field,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Gypsy moth,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page106">106</a>-<a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Hardwood trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page98">98</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Hawks, arguments for and against,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page189">189</a>-<a href="#page190">190</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"Heart of the Tree, The,"</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page139">139</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Hens, early ancestors of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page5">5</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Herons, hunting of, for their plumage,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page185">185</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Herring, waste in capture of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page166">166</a>-<a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Hessian fly,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Houses, the first,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page3">3</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Huckleberry shrub, cutting of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Humming birds, use of skins of, for capes,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page186">186</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Humus, in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page57">57</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of, by forest fires,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Indians, life of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page19">19</a>-<a href="#page23">23</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">uses found by, for wood,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page90">90</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fishing methods of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page163">163</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Insect enemies of trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>-<a href="#page154">154</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">warfare waged against, by forest rangers,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page136">136</a>-<a href="#page137">137</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">eaten by birds,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page197">197</a>-<a href="#page202">202</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"In the Heart of the Woods,"</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page24">24</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Iron, found in quartz sand,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Irrigation, storage of water for,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Italy, results of destruction of forests in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page79">79</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">wild chestnuts valued in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page90">90</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">scarcity of birds in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page196">196</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Jays, arguments for and against,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page189">189</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Jungle fowls, wild,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page5">5</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Junior Audubon Societies, work of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page207">207</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Klamath Lake, bird refuge about,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Korea, results of destruction of vegetation in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>-<a href="#page80">80</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">dikes built along rivers in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page80">80</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lightning, an enemy of the forest,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page110">110</a>-<a href="#page111">111</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fires started by,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page121">121</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Limestone soils,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Loam, clay and sandy,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lobsters, protection of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Los Angeles, water supply of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page29">29</a>-<a href="#page30">30</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lumber, an important use of trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page90">90</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lumbering, waste of trees in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page114">114</a>-<a href="#page118">118</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Malheur Lake, bird refuge about,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Maple sugar,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Martins, insects eaten by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page199">199</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Meadow larks,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page191">191</a>-<a href="#page192">192</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Medicinal products from trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Metals, discovery of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page4">4</a>-<a href="#page5">5</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mica, in quartz sand,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Migrations of birds,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>-<a href="#page206">206</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Migratory Bird Law,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mills, the first,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page7">7</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class='pagenum'><a name="page215" id="page215">[Pg 215]</a></span>Mineral resources, destruction and new supply of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page49">49</a>-<a href="#page50">50</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mink, points against and in favor of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mississippi Valley, rich prairies of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page53">53</a>-<a href="#page54">54</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mistletoe, an enemy of trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page107">107</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mocking bird, song of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page195">195</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Mongoose, as a pest,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>, <a href="#page154">154</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Montenegro, results of destruction of soil in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>National Forests,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page133">133</a>-<a href="#page139">139</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>National Parks,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href="#page139">139</a>-<a href="#page143">143</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">are game preserves,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page204">204</a>-<a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Nets, catching of fish in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>New England, soil of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page51">51</a>-<a href="#page53">53</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">gypsy and browntail moths in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">beaver in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Newfoundland banks, fisheries of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page170">170.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Nitrogen, in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page57">57</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">stored in soil by plants,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page77">77</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Norway rat,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oil, waste connected with,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page157">157</a>-<a href="#page161">161</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Open season for hunting,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Orange orchards, citrus canker in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oregon, protection of beaver in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">bird refuges in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page187">187</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Owens River aqueduct,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page29">29</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Owls, good and bad points of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page190">190</a>-<a href="#page191">191</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oysters, raised on oyster farms,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Palestine, destruction of vegetation in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Panama Canal,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page87">87</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Passenger pigeon, extermination of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"Passing of the Forest, The,"</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page130">130</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Pear blight,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Peat, crumbling vegetation called,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page57">57</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of, for fuel,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page155">155</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Peat soils,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Phosphorus in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Pine beetles,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page110">110</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Pi&ntilde;on pines,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Plant food,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page45">45</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Plants, enemies of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page104">104</a>-<a href="#page111">111</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Plumage, hunting of birds for,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page183">183</a>-<a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>-<a href="#page208">208</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Polar bear, protection needed by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page181">181</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Potash in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Powder, discovery of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page8">8</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Prairie chicken, disappearance of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page180">180</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"Preceptor's Plea for the Birds, The,"</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page211">211</a>-<a href="#page212">212</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Pueblo Indians,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page19">19</a>-<a href="#page20">20</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Quail, need for protection of, to preserve from extinction,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page180">180</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">cheery call of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page195">195</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">value and attractiveness of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page201">201</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">insects eaten by,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page202">202</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Quartz, in sand grains,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Quinine, made from cinchona tree,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page95">95</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rabbits, as pests,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rainier National Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page140">140</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rats, plagues of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page151">151</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Redwood trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Refuges for birds,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Residual soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page64">64</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rocks, soil made from,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page58">58</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>-<a href="#page66">66</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rocky Mountain sheep, in Yellowstone Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rubber trees,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sage grouse, need for protection of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page180">180</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Salmon fisheries,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page169">169</a>-<a href="#page170">170</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>San Joaquin Valley,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page101">101</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>San Jos&eacute; scale,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Santa Catalina Island, fish preserve about,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page169">169</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sea lions,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page194">194</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sea otter, destruction of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">protection of, by law,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page179">179</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Seals, fur,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page22">22</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">hunting of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page165">165</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sequoias,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Shad, decrease in numbers of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page169">169</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sheep, damage done to forests by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page111">111</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Shingle makers, waste of trees by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page115">115</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Shore birds, value of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page200">200</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sierra Nevadas, "big trees" on,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page49">49</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">changes in climate in ascent of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page101">101</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">usefulness of woodpeckers in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page199">199</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Silt,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page75">75</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Skunks, friends and enemies of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Soda in soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page59">59</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Soil, care of the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page11">11</a>-<a href="#page12">12</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of destruction of forests upon,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page37">37</a>-<a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>-<a href="#page42">42</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">renewal of, by nature,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page45">45</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">story of formation of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page51">51</a>-<a href="#page56">56</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">real wealth of world formed by,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page56">56</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">things of which made,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page57">57</a>-<a href="#page60">60</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">plant food in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page60">60</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">how made,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page61">61</a>-<a href="#page66">66</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">how vegetation holds,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page67">67</a>-<a href="#page72">72</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">our most valuable possession,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page74">74</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">evil effects upon, of no protecting carpet of vegetation,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page74">74</a>-<a href="#page80">80</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of, on growth of trees,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page101">101</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Songbirds, hunting of, for their plumage,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page185">185</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Southern states, destruction of soil in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page77">77</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">turpentine from pine forests of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Spain, waste of resources of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page25">25</a>-<a href="#page26">26</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">results in, of loss of soil,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of birds in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page196">196</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class='pagenum'><a name="page216" id="page216">[Pg 216]</a></span>Spruce forest, destruction of, by forest fires,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page126">126</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Squirrels, nuts of trees eaten by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">ground, as pests,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page152">152</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Stone, implements of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page3">3</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sturgeon, destructive fishing of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page167">167</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Subsoil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page64">64</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sugar pines,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page99">99</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">nuts of, eaten by squirrels,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page109">109</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">careless cutting of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page115">115</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Swallows, insects eaten by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page199">199</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Switzerland, care of wood in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Syria, destruction of vegetation in,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page79">79</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Tamarack forests, use of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page126">126</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Trees, destruction of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page12">12</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">importance of, to man,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page89">89</a>-<a href="#page95">95</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of, in United States,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page96">96</a>-<a href="#page103">103</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">enemies of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page104">104</a>-<a href="#page111">111</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">the careless wasting of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page111">111</a>-<a href="#page118">118</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Tundras of far North,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page101">101</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Turpentine obtained from yellow pines,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page93">93</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Valley lands,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page40">42</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fertility of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page53">53</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">alluvial soil in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page64">64</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Vegetation, holding of soil by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page67">67</a>-<a href="#page72">72</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of lack of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page73">73</a>-<a href="#page80">80</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Walrus, nearly extinct,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page165">165</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Water, obtaining of pure,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page10">10</a>-<a href="#page11">11</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">home of, the ocean,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page81">81</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">use and care of,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page81">81</a>-<a href="#page88">88</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Water creatures, need for protection of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page162">162</a>-<a href="#page170">170</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Water power, use of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page157">157</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Water supply, effect upon, of cutting of forests,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page127">127</a>-<a href="#page129">129</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Weasels, defense of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page193">193</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>White Mountain Forest, the,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page134">134</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>White-pine blister,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page107">107</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Wild flowers, necessity for care of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page144">144</a>-<a href="#page149">149</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Wind, effect of, on soil,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page65">65</a>-<a href="#page66">66</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">an enemy of the forests,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page110">110</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Wood alcohol,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page117">117</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Woodpeckers, usefulness of,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page198">198</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Yangtse-kiang, soil carried away by,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page80">80</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Yellow Sea, reason for name,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page80">80</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Yellowstone National Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page140">140</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">a game preserve,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page204">204</a>-<a href="#page205">205</a>;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">animal life in,</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page205">205</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Yosemite National Park,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#page140">140</a>.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page217" id="page217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><i>NEW-WORLD SCIENCE SERIES</i></b><br />
+<i>Edited by John W. Ritchie</i></p>
+
+<h2>TREES, STARS <i>and</i> BIRDS</h2>
+
+<h3>A BOOK OF OUTDOOR SCIENCE</h3>
+
+<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Edwin Lincoln Moseley</span><br />
+<i>Head of the Science Department, State Normal College of Northwestern
+Ohio</i></p>
+
+<p>The usefulness of nature study in the schools has been seriously limited
+by the lack of a suitable textbook. It is to meet this need that <i>Trees,
+Stars, and Birds</i> is issued. The author is one of the most successful
+teachers of outdoor science in this country. He believes in field
+excursions, and his text is designed to help teachers and pupils in the
+inquiries that they will make for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The text deals with three phases of outdoor science that have a
+perennial interest, and it will make the benefit of the author's long
+and successful experience available to younger teachers.</p>
+
+<p>The first section deals with trees, and the discussion of maples is
+typical: the student is reminded that he has eaten maple sugar; there is
+an interesting account of its production; the fact is brought out that
+the sugar is really made in the leaves. The stars and planets that all
+should know are told about simply and clearly. The birds commonly met
+with are considered, and their habits of feeding and nesting are
+described. Pertinent questions are scattered throughout each section.</p>
+
+<p>The book is illustrated with 167 photographs, 69 drawings, 9 star maps,
+and with 16 color plates of 58 birds, from paintings by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes.</p>
+
+<p>It is well adapted for use in junior high schools, yet the presentation
+is simple enough for pupils in the sixth grade.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Cloth, viii + 404 + xvi pages. Price $1.60</i></p>
+
+<h3>WORLD BOOK COMPANY</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="page218" id="page218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>ELIZABETH V. BROWN'S</h3>
+
+<h2>NATURE AND INDUSTRY READERS</h2>
+
+<p>These books draw upon the world's best literature, and present
+well-selected nature material and stories of industry. They are adapted
+for use either as readers, or to supplement nature, geography, and
+history lessons.</p>
+
+<h3>STORIES OF WOODS AND FIELDS</h3>
+
+<p>Alluring stories of animals, with chapters on our national holidays For
+fourth and fifth grades.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Cloth. 192 pages. Illustrated in <i>colors</i>. Price 72 cents.</p>
+
+<h3>WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG</h3>
+
+<p>A fascinating story of the development of modern means of communication,
+transportation, agriculture, etc. Affords material for supplementary
+history lessons. For fifth or higher grades.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Cloth. 160 pages. Illustrated. Price 64 cents.</p>
+
+<h3>STORIES OF CHILDHOOD AND NATURE</h3>
+
+<p>Stories of unusual interest, by some of the greatest and most gifted
+authors. Much of the material is of pronounced geographic value. For
+fifth and sixth grades.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Cloth. 222 pages. Illustrated. Price 68 cents.</p>
+
+<h3>WORLD BOOK COMPANY</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,6073 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Conservation Reader, by Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Conservation Reader
+
+Author: Harold W. Fairbanks
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2008 [EBook #26935]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSERVATION READER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Verity White, Joseph Cooper and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: _Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies_
+  The passenger pigeon, an extinct species.]
+
+
+
+
+CONSERVATION SERIES
+
+
+CONSERVATION READER
+
+BY
+
+HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS
+
+  AUTHOR OF "HOME GEOGRAPHY, STORIES OF OUR
+  MOTHER EARTH," "ROCKS AND MINERALS,"
+  "THE WESTERN UNITED STATES,"
+  "PRACTICAL PHYSIOGRAPHY,"
+  "GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA,"
+  ETC.
+
+  ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND
+  WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF PAINTINGS
+  IN COLOR
+
+YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
+
+WORLD BOOK COMPANY
+
+1920
+
+
+
+
+WORLD BOOK COMPANY
+
+THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE
+
+Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson
+
+YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
+
+2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO
+
+
+The need for education in the principles of conservation is imperative.
+As Henry Fairfield Osborn states the matter, "We are yet far from the
+point where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and
+roll back the tide of destruction." The movement for the preservation of
+natural resources can succeed only with the establishment of an
+enlightened public sentiment on the subject. To create and maintain such
+a sentiment is the proper work of the schools. In making this
+_Conservation Reader_ available for school use, author and publishers
+have had in mind the great and lasting service that such a text might
+render. The publishers believe that this little volume and others
+forthcoming in the Conservation Series will rank high among "Books That
+Apply the World's Knowledge to the World's Needs"
+
+
+  Copyright, 1920, by World Book Company
+  Copyright in Great Britain
+  _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The wave of enthusiasm for the conservation of our national resources
+must reach the children or it will expend much of its force uselessly.
+
+It is from the education of the children in right ways of looking at
+Nature that everything is to be expected in the years to come. If they
+learn to understand the value of the things about them, as well as to
+appreciate their beauties, the carrying on and enlarging of the
+conservation program which is now so well under way can be safely left
+to their care.
+
+The West, although it has already been ruthlessly exploited, has lost
+less of its natural wealth than have the longer-settled Eastern states.
+
+In the newer parts of our country we can reasonably hope to save most of
+the forests and most of the wild life, and pass them on down to our
+children and grandchildren in something of their primeval beauty and
+richness.
+
+In the East we can hope to arouse a stronger sentiment for preserving
+what remains of the forests as well as for extending their areas, for
+proper forestation will lessen the danger of erosion of the soil and of
+floods, and will encourage the return of the wild creatures that are of
+so much economic importance and add so much to the joy of life.
+
+A book bringing out in a simple and interesting manner the principles of
+conservation has long been needed, for there has been little that could
+be placed in the hands of pupils. It is with the earnest hope of
+furnishing something which will answer in part the present need that
+this _Conservation Reader_ has been prepared.
+
+Acknowledgments are due the publishers of _American Forestry_ and the
+_Century Magazine_ for courteous permission to reprint poems taken from
+those publications. For their help in supplying photographic subjects to
+illustrate the book, thanks are extended to the persons to whom the
+various illustrations are accredited in immediate connection with their
+use in the text. The reproductions in color of two bird subjects have
+been secured through the friendly cooeperation of Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson,
+Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                            PAGE
+   1. HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED                                     1
+   2. HOW OUR NEEDS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF THE FIRST MEN                  9
+   3. THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF CIVILIZED MEN           18
+   4. NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS                       25
+   5. THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE                                      32
+   6. WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY                                39
+   7. HOW FAR WILL NATURE RESTORE HER WASTED GIFTS?                    44
+   8. THE SOIL--THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE                      51
+   9. THINGS OF WHICH SOIL IS MADE                                     57
+  10. HOW THE SOIL IS MADE                                             61
+  11. HOW VEGETATION HOLDS THE SOIL                                    67
+  12. WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE IS NO PROTECTING CARPET OF VEGETATION   73
+  13. THE USE AND CARE OF WATER                                        81
+  14. COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?                            89
+  15. WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?                              96
+  16. WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE TREES?                              104
+  17. HOW THE FORESTS ARE WASTED                                      112
+  18. HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES                               119
+  19. EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS                125
+  20. HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS               130
+  21. OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS                                          139
+  22. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS                           144
+  23. NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS          150
+  24. WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE COAL, OIL, AND GAS ARE GONE?          155
+  25. NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER         162
+  26. MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS                     171
+  27. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS                      176
+  28. THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE                          183
+  29. THE COURT OF THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS                              188
+  30. THE BIRDS OUR GOOD FRIENDS AND PLEASANT COMPANIONS              195
+  31. HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN                      203
+      INDEX                                                           213
+
+
+
+
+CONSERVATION READER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED
+
+  Before these fields were shorn and tilled
+  Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
+  The melody of waters filled
+  The fresh and boundless woods;
+  And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd,
+  The fountains spouted in the shade.
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, quoted in _American Forestry_, XIV. 520
+
+
+The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled with the most
+wonderful things. Although people have lived on the earth for many
+thousands of years, they have been very slow in learning the secrets of
+their treasure house. This is because early men were much like the lower
+animals. During all these years their minds have been slowly growing.
+Now we can learn and understand many things which our ancestors of long
+ago could not.
+
+In habits and appearance the first men that roamed the earth were little
+different from the other animals except that they walked upright. When
+they had enough to eat and a home safe from enemies, they seemed
+perfectly happy and contented.
+
+These early men lived in the same wonderful treasure house as we do, but
+they did not know how to make use of its riches. In truth, their wants
+were so few that they would have had no use for the things that now seem
+so necessary to us. The rich fields about them lay untilled. The gold,
+silver, copper, and iron in the earth remained undiscovered; and the
+animals and birds that we now use in so many ways then served them
+mainly for food.
+
+Since they had no furry coats to keep them warm as do the animals of the
+cold regions, and had not learned to make clothing, their homes must
+have been in the warm parts of the earth. While they were without
+weapons to defend themselves against the lion and tiger, yet they were
+sharp witted and very quick in their movements and thus were usually
+able to escape their more powerful enemies.
+
+Although these early ancestors of ours seemed so much like the other
+animals, they were in reality very different. They had the same keen
+senses of sight, hearing, and smell, but they were more intelligent.
+
+When the dog and cat have had enough to eat, they lie down perfectly
+happy and contented. But when early men had had enough to eat, they were
+often not satisfied. They had other longings which finally led them to
+make discoveries about the uses of things around them and how to make
+their lives more comfortable.
+
+The little bear cub, for example, as it grows up learns from its mother
+just what it should do on all occasions. It learns what its mother knows
+and that is all. But among the early people of whom we are speaking the
+children not only learned all that their parents knew, but a little
+more. In this way each generation of children came to know more about
+the world.
+
+Thus after many years had passed people came to understand something of
+the wonderful world in which they lived. They were no longer at the
+mercy of wild animals, storms, heat, cold, hunger, and disease.
+
+The first people, like the other animals, used only their hands and
+teeth in hunting and in fighting their enemies. Finally some of the
+brighter ones discovered that a stick or club served better than the
+bare hands.
+
+The use of flint knives may have been brought about through some one
+cutting himself accidentally upon a piece of flint sticking out of the
+ground. If he happened to be very bright, he would at once see the value
+of such a piece of stone tied on the end of an arrow or club. By such
+means, perhaps, implements of wood, bone, and stone came into use.
+
+We have discovered the sites of many of the villages as well as the
+caves in which the ancient inhabitants of the earth lived. The
+implements of bone and stone which we have dug up in such places enable
+us to learn a great deal about their lives.
+
+There was a time when people did not know the use of fire. What a
+fearful thing fire must have seemed to them, at first. Their knowledge
+of it probably came from lightning or from hot lava flowing from a
+volcano. After they had learned to control fire, and to make it by
+rubbing two sticks together, they must have felt rich indeed. The
+discovery of fire was one of their greatest triumphs. It kept the cold,
+damp cave warm and dry, even though it filled their eyes with smoke. It
+was a means of keeping them safe from the dangerous wild beasts when
+they had to sleep out in the open. It was useful in cooking their food,
+and by and by it was to prove valuable in still other ways, when they
+began to _make_ things as well as to _find_ things.
+
+They began, by and by, to build rude shelters,--huts and wigwams, low
+houses of dried mud, and dugouts in the hillside. They learned to weave
+simple coverings out of the fibers of certain plants, or hair or wool,
+to protect their bodies against the cold and the wet. They learned,
+somehow, to tan the skins of animals, so that they would not first
+stretch and grow slippery. They learned to hold things together by
+sewing, using sharp bones for needles and the sinews of animals or
+fibers of plants for thread.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The Laplander of the far North uses the reindeer to pull his sled, its
+  flesh for food, its skin for clothing, and its horns for various
+  purposes.]
+
+How did men discover that they could travel on the water? Some one may
+at first have made use of a log to cross a river and, afterwards, have
+tied several logs together, making a raft. When they had learned how to
+make a canoe out of a log, by burning or hewing it out with rude axes,
+they could then take long journeys on the water to new lands. Since
+paddling was very tiresome, some one, brighter than the rest, probably
+thought of making a sail of bark or skins and so letting the wind push
+the canoe along.
+
+We do not know how the metals were discovered. Perhaps fire melted some
+of the copper in a vein of ore. Perhaps pure copper was found, for
+Nature sometimes leaves it in this form. Copper could be easily hammered
+into various useful articles, but it was too soft for many needs. After
+tin was discovered, it was learned that by melting it and copper
+together a new and very hard metal, known as _bronze_, was formed. Next,
+we think, came the discovery of iron, which has become so important that
+we could not get along without it. Think what this must have meant for
+them! To get firewood, to make rude boats and simple houses, to fight
+wild animals, now became easier. After iron they discovered gold and
+silver, and began to take an interest in making beautiful as well as
+useful things.
+
+It is easy to see how, once these new ways of using the earth were
+found, men could move into other regions than the belt where it was
+always warm. They could store up food for the winter, they could build
+warm shelters and get warm clothing, and they could sit by a fire.
+
+Sometimes when the first people were out hunting, instead of killing the
+young animals that they caught, they took them home and cared for them.
+So the little creatures became quite tame and grew up about the camps.
+The wild jungle fowls were the ancestors of the domestic hens which we
+find so useful. The wild cow was tamed in like manner, and made to
+supply milk in addition to food and clothing. The colts of wild horses
+and donkeys were captured and used for carrying loads. Sheep and goats
+were tamed in the same manner, and became the most valued possessions of
+some of the ancient peoples as they are of some peoples today. When they
+had learned to weave the wool of these animals into clothing and
+blankets, they had taken another step upon the long road which leads
+from ancient times down to us.
+
+Did these early people live entirely upon meat? If they had done so, we
+should never have had the wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables
+that we now enjoy so much. We must not suppose that Nature grew these
+things wild just as they are found in our gardens today. Our ancestors
+grew them for many generations, gradually improving their size and
+flavor. By selecting the best and carefully cultivating them, we are
+still continuing to make them better.
+
+The horse, donkey, cow, and camel proved valuable in another way to the
+people who were learning to cultivate the ground. When harnessed to a
+crooked and sharpened stick they aided in breaking up the ground in
+which the young plants were growing.
+
+And so the long years passed while the early people were discovering and
+making use of the things around them. They came to building better and
+more permanent homes, because they did not have to move from place to
+place in search of food. Where there were forests, wood served for their
+buildings. Where there were few trees, stone or mud bricks were used.
+
+The brighter people learned to understand Nature more quickly than those
+who were dull. Each discovery of some new way of doing things aided them
+in making others, and in this way people finally came to have all the
+comforts of today. Those people less quick to learn the secrets of
+Nature, or those who lived in countries to which Nature had given
+little, gained few comforts and even now remain savage.
+
+After our ancestors had learned to cultivate the soil, to use the
+minerals and the forests, and had tamed the animals and birds, they were
+still unsatisfied. They attempted to make the forces of Nature work for
+them. For a long time people made flour by crushing grain in a mortar.
+Next, two flat stones were used, one being made to turn upon the other
+by a handle. After that some animal, such as an ox or a horse, was
+harnessed to larger stones which, as they slowly turned, ground the
+grain. This was a great deal of work, and so some one thought of making
+the water tumbling over a ledge of rock grind the grain for them. The
+water was made to go over a water wheel. This wheel then made the
+millstones go around. It was a great deal easier.
+
+  [Illustration: The wild home of early men.
+  _H. W. Fairbanks_]
+
+Where there was no water power, wind was made to do the same work. A
+crude windmill gathered the power of the rapidly moving air. After wind
+and water had been forced to serve them, some one who had seen the lid
+of a tea kettle dancing up and down, thought of using steam. Then
+electricity, which in the form of jagged lightning had seemed so fearful
+a thing to the early people, was harnessed and made the greatest servant
+of all the forces of Nature.
+
+The discovery of powder led to the making of guns so destructive that
+dozens of birds could be killed at one shot.
+
+Some people became greedy and used all these wonderful discoveries to
+rob Nature. It seemed as if in some places all the wild life would be
+destroyed. Fires were allowed to burn the forest unhindered. The soil
+was made to produce crops until it grew poor.
+
+If we become selfish and indifferent and neglect to care for the
+treasures which Nature has placed in our hands, very serious things will
+happen to us, as they have happened to other people. How to use the
+storehouse of Nature without wasting or destroying these treasures is
+what we mean by _conservation_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+HOW OUR NEEDS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF THE FIRST MEN
+
+
+We have seen that the first men, like the other animals, depended upon
+the food that Nature supplied them, and when this was lacking they went
+hungry. When men had learned the use of fire they took the first step in
+making Nature serve them better than she did the lower animals. Today
+she works for us in so many ways that we can hardly name them all.
+
+After the use of fire the next thing that men learned was to make better
+homes, to tame some of the wild animals, and to raise a part of their
+food supplies, instead of depending entirely upon what they could pick
+up here and there.
+
+As the number of people increased, the question of securing food became
+more and more important. Would it not seem pretty hard to have to go out
+and hunt for your breakfast in the woods, or fields, or along the water?
+If you were alone you might find enough to eat, but if there were
+thousands of other people doing the same thing, you would probably go
+hungry. For this reason people began to cultivate berries, fruits,
+roots, and grains, and to take better care of their herds.
+
+Living as they did, in those parts of the world where the climate was
+warm, they usually found an abundance of food. But when these places
+became too crowded, and some of them had to move to new regions, they
+often found less food and a climate not always comfortable.
+
+In this way people spread into the colder and drier parts of the earth.
+The need for things which they did not have there sharpened the wits of
+these people. It led to one discovery after another. New needs were felt
+and new ways of satisfying them were sought. They kept finding out more
+about Nature and how she works. After many years they knew much more and
+were also far more comfortable than those people who continued to live
+where Nature supplied everything.
+
+There are now so many more people on the earth than there were long ago
+that to furnish them all with food is a very great task. Besides, there
+are now many people engaged in work other than farming, hunting, and
+fishing. All such people have to be provided for by those whose business
+it is to get food. People of the great cities are dependent upon those
+in the country for all that they eat! We can picture to ourselves the
+suffering that would follow if for only one week every one had to get
+his own food.
+
+We need many things that the first people thought nothing about, because
+their manner of life was so much simpler than ours. Let us see now what
+they are.
+
+We live in tightly closed houses, and so have less trouble in keeping
+warm and dry. But we do not always get the supply of fresh air that we
+need. Many of us are sickly and weak because of this. Our ancestors
+lived in the open air, which is always pure and fresh. A supply of pure
+air, then, is one of the things that we must now provide for.
+
+People once gave no thought to the purity of the water that they drank.
+When there were few people, water did not easily become impure. One
+could drink water wherever one found it and there was small risk of
+harm. Now in many places there are so many thousands of people gathered
+together that they have to take the greatest care about drinking water,
+in order to keep in good health. To get pure water it is often necessary
+to bring it many miles from mountainous regions where no one lives.
+
+Clothing is another thing that concerns us very much. Our ancestors were
+not troubled about their clothing. In the warm countries they went
+almost naked. Where it was cold the skins of animals served very well.
+Changes of fashion did not disturb them and cause them to throw away
+warm covering. To supply ourselves now with clothing we call upon Nature
+for many things. As she cannot, without our help, furnish what we need,
+we have to keep a great number of flocks, for their wool and skins, and
+cultivate vast fields of cotton and flax.
+
+When Nature raised in her own way the berries, grains, and roots that
+the first men ate, no thought was given to the soil in which these
+things grew. In truth, it was not necessary to pay any attention to the
+soil. Nature is very careful in her way and never makes the soil poor by
+growing more plants than it can support. In her own gardens she always
+renews the foods in the soil which the plants require as fast as they
+take them away.
+
+The needs of men have increased so fast that the soil has often been
+forced to grow more than it ought. Men have been a long time in learning
+that they cannot keep on growing the same crops on the same soil year
+after year without supplying to the soil extra foods, or _fertilizers_,
+as we call them. The care of the soil is another thing to which we have
+to give attention, but which did not worry our ancestors.
+
+Nature clothes the earth with a carpet of grasses, bushes, or trees.
+When the rain falls on the ground, their roots hold the soil so firmly
+that it usually washes away only very slowly. When men first began to
+cultivate the soil, they paid no attention to the fact that water washes
+away the loose earth very easily. In this loose earth at the top of the
+ground is stored most of the food which the plants require. Care of the
+surface of the ground is, then, another thing which we have to keep in
+mind.
+
+Men at first made shelters for themselves from anything that was at
+hand, such as bark, skins, rock, or earth. When they learned to make
+sharp-edged tools, they began to use trees. Where it is cold, much wood
+is required to build warm houses. As the numbers of men increased, they
+used greater and greater quantities of wood. Wood also proved to be most
+useful for many other purposes than house building. In order to plant
+larger fields the trees were cut down or burned off, without thought of
+doing any harm. In time trees became scarce in many parts of the world
+and men began to realize that care must be used or the supply of wood
+might fail them.
+
+Coal was finally discovered and men said, "Now we have something that
+will last always, for there must be an inexhaustible amount in the earth
+beneath our feet. All that we shall have to do is to dig it out." When
+men grew wiser they learned that coal must not be used carelessly any
+more than the other gifts of Nature; otherwise the supply may give out
+and leave them with nothing to take its place.
+
+Hunting and fishing continued to be the business of many. They invented
+destructive weapons with which they were able to kill such large numbers
+of wild creatures that some kinds disappeared entirely. Fish, also, of
+which people thought the sea and the rivers contained a never failing
+supply, became scarcer. They did not know that fish live mostly in the
+shallow waters along shores, and that the great ocean depths contain
+very few.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Sierra junipers above Tuolumne Meadows, near the Yosemite Valley,
+  showing how roots will force their way in apparently most unfavorable
+  places.]
+
+Thus, as the earth became thickly settled with men and their wants
+increased, they discovered that they had to treat Nature in a very
+different way from that of their early ancestors.
+
+Because of our great numbers we have to be careful not to use the earth
+in such a way as to lessen its fertility and productiveness. Where
+people have been careless, famine has often resulted. Poverty and
+suffering have come to many parts of the earth, as we shall learn
+farther along in this little book.
+
+THE CITY ON THE PLAIN
+
+  Strange indeed were the sounds I heard
+      One day, on the side of the mountain:
+  Hushed was the stream and silent the bird,
+  The restless wind seemed to hold its breath,
+  And all things there were as still as death,
+      Save the hoarse-voiced god of the mountain.
+
+  Through the tangled growth, with a hurried stride,
+      I saw him pass on the mountain,
+  Thrusting the briers and bushes aside,
+  Crackling the sticks and spurning the stones,
+  And talking in loud and angry tones
+      On the side of the ancient mountain.
+
+  The tips of his goatlike ears were red,
+      Though the day was cool on the mountain,
+  And they lay close-drawn to his horned head;
+  His bushy brows o'er his small eyes curled,
+  And he stamped his hoofs,--for all the world
+      Like Pan in a rage on the mountain.
+
+  "Where are my beautiful trees," he cried,
+      "That grew on the side of the mountain?
+  The stately pines that were once my pride,
+  My shadowy, droop-limbed junipers:
+  And my dewy, softly whispering firs,
+      'Mid their emerald glooms on the mountain?
+
+  "They are all ravished away," he said,
+      "And torn from the arms of the mountain,
+  Away from the haunts of cooling shade,
+  From the cloisters green which flourished here--
+  My lodging for many a joyous year
+      On the side of the pleasant mountain.
+
+  "The songbird is bereft of its nest,
+      And voiceless now is the mountain.
+  My murmurous bees once took their rest,
+  At shut of day, and knew no fear,
+  In the trees whose trunks lie rotting here
+      On the side of the ruined mountain.
+
+  "Man has let in the passionate sun
+      To suck the life-blood of the mountain,
+  And drink up its fountains one by one:
+  And out of the immortal freshness made
+  A thing of barter, and sold in trade
+      The sons of the mother mountain.
+
+  "Down in the valley I see a town,
+      Built of his spoils from my mountain--
+  A jewel torn from a monarch's crown,
+  A grave for the lordly groves of Pan:
+  And for this, on the head of vandal man,
+      I hurl a curse from the mountain.
+
+  "His palpitant streams shall all go dry
+      Henceforth on the side of the mountain,
+  And his verdant plains as a desert lie
+  Until he plants again the forest fold
+  And restores to me my kingdom old,
+      As in former days on the mountain.
+
+  "Long shall the spirit of silence brood
+      On the side of the wasted mountain,
+  E'er out of the sylvan solitude
+  To lift the curse from off the plain,
+  The crystal streams pour forth again
+      From the gladdened heart of the mountain."
+
+MILLARD F. HUDSON, in _American Forestry_, XIV. 42
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  "'Where are my beautiful trees,' he cried,
+    'That grew on the side of the mountain?'"]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF CIVILIZED MEN
+
+  For ages, on the silent forest here,
+    Thy beams did fall before the red man came
+  To dwell beneath them; in their shade the deer
+    Fed, and feared not the arrow's deadly aim.
+  Nor tree was felled, in all that world of woods,
+  Save by the beaver's tooth, or winds, or rush of floods.
+
+WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, _A Walk at Sunset_
+
+
+The earth has not always been as it is now. Those parts now possessed by
+the more civilized peoples have been very greatly changed. If we could
+look back and see some of the countries as they were long ago, we should
+hardly know them. In certain lands the forests have been cut down, the
+wild creatures driven away, and the soil so carelessly cultivated that
+it has become poor. In other lands Nature's gifts have been carefully
+used; even the barren deserts have been turned into green fields and
+blooming gardens for hundreds of miles.
+
+Let us try to picture to ourselves how our own country looked when white
+men first found and explored it. A few hundred years ago it was the home
+of wild animals and Indians only. We have been given our freedom in one
+of the richest of Nature's gardens, and, like so many children, have
+tried to see who could gather the most treasures from it. We have given
+little attention to keeping up the garden.
+
+If you have been in some part of the country that is still wild and
+unsettled, it will help you to form a picture of how the entire land
+once looked. If you have been in one of our great natural parks, this
+will be a better help. In these parks everything remains just as Nature
+made it. There the animals, birds, and plants are free to live their
+lives unmolested. Is it not a good thing that our government has been
+wise enough to have large tracts of land left in just the condition in
+which the whole country was when our ancestors first came?
+
+We will think of our whole land, then, as a great wild park, rich in all
+kinds of animal and plant life. It was not an altogether happy family
+that lived in this park, for all were struggling for food, drink, and
+sunshine. But as none were possessed of such deadly weapons as those of
+civilized man, no one kind of animal was able to kill off all of any
+other kind.
+
+Neither the Indians in their wigwams, nor the wild animals in their
+lairs, nor the birds singing in the trees, nor the ducks quacking in the
+marshes dreamed of the change that was coming to their homes. They did
+not dream of civilized man with his terrible weapons and his many needs,
+who was to change the whole appearance of the country and nearly or
+quite exterminate many of them.
+
+The life of the Indians was almost as simple as that of the lower
+animals. Their clothing required little care. Their homes were easily
+made. Some of them had learned to cultivate the soil, but they depended
+mainly upon food obtained by hunting, and such roots, berries, and nuts
+as the women could collect. If we could have looked down on our land as
+the bird does, we should have seen little sign of human inhabitants.
+There were no roads or bridges, and only indistinct trails led from one
+village to another.
+
+In the far Southwest there were people quite different from those of
+whom we have been speaking. They were called the Pueblo Indians. In
+Mexico there were similar people called the Aztecs. All these Indians
+still live in permanent stone villages, as they did a thousand years
+ago. They learned more about Nature than the wandering Indians, but we
+do not believe they would ever become civilized if left to themselves.
+
+The only animal that the Indians had tamed was the wolf. They made
+little use of the wolf-dog except in the far North, where it drew their
+sleds over the snow.
+
+Some of the Indians of our country once knew of the use of copper, but
+it had been forgotten when white men first came.
+
+All about the Indians was the same world that surrounds us. In truth, it
+was a richer world in some ways, for since then many of its treasures
+have been lost through greed and waste.
+
+The rich soil of the valleys was almost undisturbed. The forests were
+uncut save for an occasional tree used in making a canoe or a rude
+cabin. The forests suffered only at the hands of the insects, storms,
+and fires. The flowers that covered the ground in spring went
+ungathered. The vast grassy prairies were disturbed only by the feeding
+of such animals as the buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope.
+
+A single great forest spread over all the mountains and valleys of the
+eastern part of our country. Now you can travel for many miles in the
+more thickly settled portions of this region and see not a single tree
+of the original forest.
+
+To the west of the forest came the prairies and plains. Still farther
+west came lofty mountains and desert valleys. On these Western mountains
+were other forests with trees of wonderful size.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The elk once roamed the valleys.]
+
+This great natural park, with its long seacoasts, rivers, lakes,
+marshes, dense woods, and open plains, was a paradise for wild creatures
+of every description, and the Indian was contented to leave it so.
+
+Grizzly and black bears roamed the thickets. Elk wandered through the
+mountains and valleys. Deer were abundant everywhere. The antelope raced
+over the plains, mountain goats and sheep lived among the rocks, and
+moose filled the Northern woods. Great herds of buffalo darkened the
+surface of the plains. When the first railroad was built across the
+plains, less than fifty years ago, the trains were sometimes stopped by
+herds of buffalo crossing the track.
+
+Most of the songbirds that filled the country then are still with us,
+for they were of little commercial value to the hunter. No other land
+has richer bird music than ours. Many of the birds that are valuable
+for food are, however, nearly extinct. Now we have laws for their
+protection, but these laws went into effect too late to save some
+species. The passenger pigeon is one of our greatest losses.
+
+The cutting down of the vast forests that once covered the Eastern
+states, and the cultivation of fields, has helped to drive many of the
+wild creatures away. We are just beginning to learn how poor our country
+would be if we lost them all. Refuges are being established in many
+places, where those birds and animals most in danger of extinction may
+live safe from the hunter.
+
+The coast waters, lakes, and streams of our country were once alive with
+fish. The Indians made use of them, but their rude traps did not catch
+enough to affect the number seriously. We have fished with every kind of
+trap that the brightest fisherman could think of. Many important food
+fishes are now very much reduced in numbers. The fur seal and sea otter
+are so nearly gone that only the most watchful protection will save them
+from extinction.
+
+The land, as the Indian knew it, was beautiful, and was filled with
+everything that one could wish. But the Indian did not know how to use
+it. He lived a poor life, suffering from cold and hunger.
+
+We came into the possession of a land unspoiled by its primitive
+inhabitants. It was just as Nature made it. In a few short years we have
+almost exterminated the Indian. We have swept away a large part of the
+forests. We have almost destroyed many of the species of animals and
+birds. We have robbed the soil and injured the flow of the rivers. Some
+of this loss we could not help, for when many millions of people occupy
+a land there must be many changes. But for the losses that we have
+needlessly and carelessly caused we shall sometime be sorry.
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  "Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and
+  the soft green moss."]
+
+Do you not think we are wise in seeking how to take better care of this
+land of ours?
+
+IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS
+
+  Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods!
+    Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss;
+  Such love of the birds in the solitudes,
+    Where the swift winds glance and the treetops toss;
+  Spaces of silence swept with song,
+    Which nobody hears but the God above;
+  Spaces where myriad creatures throng,
+    Sunning themselves in his guarding love.
+
+  Such safety and peace in the heart of the woods!
+    Far from the city's dust and din,
+  Where passion nor hate nor man intrudes,
+    Nor fashion nor folly has entered in.
+  Deeper than hunter's trail hath gone
+    Glimmers the tarn where the wild deer drink;
+  And fearless and free comes the gentle fawn,
+    To peep at herself o'er the grassy brink.
+
+  Such pledges of love in the heart of the woods!
+    For the Maker of all things keeps the feast,
+  And over the tiny flowers broods
+    With care that for ages has never ceased.
+  If he cares for this, will he not for thee--
+    Thee, wherever thou art today?
+  Child of an infinite Father, see;
+    And safe in such gentlest keeping stay.
+
+MARGARET E. SANGSTER, in _American Forestry_, XIV
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GIFTS
+
+
+Pure, fresh air is free to all of us, for, like an ocean, it surrounds
+the whole earth. We need pure water just as much as we do pure air, but
+it is not always easy to get. A large part of the earth is buried
+beneath water so salt that we cannot use it. Other parts of the earth
+are so dry that if we venture into them we may die of thirst. The solid
+land on which we make our homes is not all of the same value. Thousands
+of square miles are so rocky or so cold or so dry that they support no
+living thing. Other thousands of miles of the earth have been so favored
+by Nature that they are fairly alive with every sort of creature.
+
+We say that a country is rich in natural resources when it has an
+abundance of those things that men need or can make use of for their
+pleasure and comfort. A country is poor when it has few of these things.
+
+The first men were poor, although they lived in a rich part of the
+earth. They did not know how to make use of what lay around them. If
+civilized men are poor now, it is because they have wasted Nature's
+gifts or because they live in a country upon which she has bestowed
+little.
+
+When we say that the far North where the Eskimos live is a dreary,
+desolate region, we mean that it lacks most of those things necessary to
+make men comfortable and happy. When we read of the life of the
+wandering Arabs in the desert of Arabia, we think of a country to which
+Nature has not given its share.
+
+When we speak of Spain as poor, we have in mind a country once favored
+by Nature, but no longer prosperous because its resources have been
+wasted. Our own land is now rich and prosperous because of the abundance
+of its natural resources. We should guard these well lest we meet a fate
+similar to that of the people of Spain.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Where Nature has supplied little rain; desert sand dunes.]
+
+If we journey over our own land, we shall discover that Nature has been
+very partial to certain parts, giving them more than they need. Other
+parts have been left with little. We shall also discover what wonderful
+things men are doing to make up for the failures of Nature, and to make
+habitable many of those places which she left uninhabitable.
+
+The forests of the eastern half of the country have been thinned out.
+West of the Mississippi River there are thousands of square miles of
+prairies where there are almost no trees. In such places the first
+settlers had difficulty in getting firewood, and had to build their
+houses of earth or stone.
+
+Upon the northwest coast there is fog and rain and little sunshine.
+There the forests grow so dense that it is difficult to travel through
+them. In the deserts of the Southwest the sun shines out of a cloudless
+sky almost every day in the year. The ground becomes very dry and the
+living things found there have strange and curious habits.
+
+In the Central and Eastern states there is much coal; and because of
+this, millions of people have gathered there to engage in manufacturing.
+In California coal is scarce and has to be brought from other parts of
+the earth.
+
+The vast prairies of the Mississippi Valley are covered with fields of
+waving grain, much of which is shipped to distant regions. In New
+England much of the soil is rocky and not enough grain is raised there
+to supply the needs of the population.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Office of Farm Management (J. S. Cotton)_
+  A farming scene in the fertile valley of the Missouri River.]
+
+The work that people do in different places is determined by the way in
+which Nature has distributed her resources. The farmers are mostly found
+in the valleys where the soil is best. Cattle are pastured on those
+lands not suited to farming. The miners go to the mountains, where they
+can more easily find the minerals they are after. The lumberman finds
+his work where the climate favors the growth of forest trees. The
+manufacturer seeks the waterfalls, where there is power to turn his
+mills.
+
+Now let us try to discover in how far we can change Nature's plan and
+make habitable those places which she left uninhabitable. There are some
+things which we cannot do. We cannot make the air warmer or colder. We
+cannot cause rain to fall even though the fields are parched with
+drought. We cannot stop the rain falling, and we cannot stop the winds
+blowing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The prickly pear in its desert home.]
+
+While we cannot stop the water falling from the clouds, we can drain the
+lowlands and marshes and so make them fit for the farmer. We can raise
+great dikes or embankments along the rivers and so shut out the flood
+waters. The people of Holland have saved thousands of acres from the sea
+by building dikes and pumping out the water from the inclosed fields.
+
+While we cannot make it rain where not enough rain falls, we can do that
+which is just as good or better: we can carry water by ditches and pipes
+to the land that needs it. Much of the soil of the great deserts in the
+southwestern part of our country is rich in plant food. All that it
+lacks is water.
+
+The Indian roamed over the rich lands of the great delta of the Colorado
+River. He often went hungry and thirsty. He did not think of taking the
+water out of the river in a ditch and allowing it to flow over and wet
+the rich soil. The white man came and turned the river out of its
+channel and spread the water over hundreds of square miles of the
+richest land on the earth. Now, where once you would have died of thirst
+and hunger, there are green fields and growing crops as far as you can
+see.
+
+  [Illustration: The Owens River aqueduct, through which water is carried
+  to Los Angeles from a source more than two hundred miles distant.]
+
+The city of Los Angeles is situated in a dry region where there is not
+water enough for the needs of a great city. There has now been completed
+a great aqueduct which brings a river of water through deserts and
+mountains from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, over two hundred miles away.
+There is now sufficient water for hundreds of thousands of people.
+
+When it rains too much, many rivers rise and overflow their banks. The
+farmer's crops are destroyed, his cattle drowned, and his buildings
+washed away. We can lessen the danger from these floods, which are very
+bad in such river basins as those of the Ohio and Mississippi, by
+building reservoirs in the highlands where the rivers take their start.
+If when summer comes these rivers are too shallow for safe navigation,
+the reservoirs can be opened and the streams supplied with this stored
+water.
+
+The lack of trees upon the prairies was once a serious matter for the
+settler. We must not think, however, that because Nature placed no trees
+on the prairies that trees will not grow there. She may not have had
+handy the seed of the kind suitable for such dry lands. Our government
+has found in the dry regions of other countries trees that will grow
+upon our prairies. In their own home these trees had become used to a
+dry climate like that of our prairies.
+
+Steep canons and cliffs of rock once kept people, living on the opposite
+sides of mountain ranges, from becoming acquainted with one another. Our
+ancestors were afraid to venture out on the boundless oceans with their
+small, frail boats. Because of this the continent that we live on long
+remained unknown. Those who first found it, the ancestors of the present
+Indians, came here by accident. Storms probably blew their boats across
+the North Pacific Ocean, and thus they found a new home. Now railroads
+enable us to cross the deserts in perfect comfort. Tunnels have been
+made through the mountains, so that we can go easily from one valley to
+another. Boats of giant size carry us safely and quickly across the
+stormy oceans. Nature did not intend us to fly through the air or swim
+beneath the water, but we are learning so much about her laws that we
+shall soon be almost as much at home in the air and the sea as the birds
+and fish are.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE
+
+  My squandered forests, hacked and hewed,
+    Are gone; my rivers fail;
+  My stricken hillsides, stark and nude,
+    Stand shivering in the gale.
+  Down to the sea my teeming soil
+    In yellow torrents goes;
+  The guerdon of the farmer's toil
+    With each year lesser grows.
+
+ROBERT M. REESE, _The Spendthrift_; quoted in _American Forestry_,
+XIV. 269
+
+
+This is the story of a land of plenty that became almost a desert. Long
+ago there dwelt in this land a people wise in all the things that
+concerned their home. Through many hard years of toil and struggle they
+had learned to take the very best care of what Nature had given them.
+Although Nature seemed to them to be wasteful, she punished waste in her
+children. As long as they obeyed, they had comfortable homes, fertile
+fields, and sleek herds.
+
+The country of which we are speaking was very beautiful. There were
+lofty mountains and broad, fertile valleys. Many streams, fed by clear,
+cool springs, flowed through the land. There were also green meadows and
+deep, dark forests.
+
+The forests contained many wild animals, for in the forests the animals
+found both food and protection. Birds of every sort abounded, and their
+music filled the air. Trees overhung the streams, shading them from the
+hot sun, so that they did not dry up in the summer. The springs never
+failed, for the carpet of leaves and decaying vegetation underneath the
+trees of the forests held much of the rainwater from running away, so
+that it sank into the ground. Instead of making floods in the rivers, it
+fed the springs gradually and steadily through the long, dry summers.
+
+The people of this land had learned the secrets of the growing plants
+and how these plants could be made better by cultivation. They had also
+learned to tame the wild animals and make them useful. The farms were
+managed with great care so that they never grew poor. The soil never
+refused to grow their crops. The people had learned during their earlier
+years of struggle that they must not clear the forests from the
+hillsides, for, if they did, the soil would begin to wash away. They had
+learned that they must leave the forests on the mountains in order to
+save the springs.
+
+Rain did not always come when it was needed for the crops, and at other
+times it rained too much. Reservoirs were built to hold the surplus
+water for use in time of drought. Canals were dug to carry it to the
+fields.
+
+The wild animals and birds bothered the crops, and the first thought of
+the people was to kill them. But it was soon discovered that this was
+not wise. Those who destroyed the wild creatures about their farms began
+to suffer from rats, mice, rabbits, and a multitude of little insects
+that all but devoured the crops.
+
+It did not take these people long to learn that Nature was not to be
+trifled with. If they took too much from the earth one year, she made
+them pay for it the next. They not only became wise enough to take care
+of every good thing that Nature had given them, but improved upon many
+things that she had left unsuited to their use.
+
+Thus the land was kept beautiful and fertile. The inhabitants became
+rich, and, instead of fearing Nature as they once did, they came to love
+the rocks, the woods, the streams, and the wild creatures.
+
+Let us now leave this rich and fertile land and come back to it after
+hundreds of years have passed. We find a new people living there and the
+country so changed that we can hardly believe it is the same land.
+
+Yet it must be the same, for there are the very mountains that were
+there long ago. To be sure, they do not look just as they did. When we
+last saw them they were covered with forests, but now they are barren
+and scarred with many gulches. Here is the same river, but it also looks
+different. While it was once overhung with trees and its waters were so
+clear that we could see the fish in the bottom, it now has a broad,
+sandy bed; the trees are gone, and the water is shallow and muddy.
+
+The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and discouraged
+appearance. They have a hard struggle to get enough to eat. The soil is
+rocky, and it takes much labor to raise the scanty crops. They never
+seem able to gather all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes
+away and new ones are constantly uncovered.
+
+Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in their stead only a
+few stunted trees and bushes. There is little grass and almost no
+flowers, even in spring. Sheep and cattle wander far for their forage
+and do not have the sleek appearance they once did.
+
+There are few wild creatures of any sort, for since there are no woods
+there are few hiding places. Neither do we see any birds, and we listen
+in vain for a song or note of any kind.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The women carry home the fuel.]
+
+The houses are made of mud or stone and look cold and cheerless. The
+people must suffer from cold in winter. The only wood they have is small
+brush which the women and children gather upon the far hills and bring
+home in huge bundles upon their backs.
+
+In the towns of this country the only fuel now to be had is charcoal.
+This is brought upon the backs of burros from the distant mountains,
+where the few remaining trees give work to charcoal burners. The
+charcoal is peddled through the streets and sold in tiny quantities at
+each door. The people are too poor to buy much at a time and are very
+careful in its use. It is burned in a metal or earthen dish called a
+brazier, and a double handful may last a family a whole day.
+
+Rains still fall in this country of the Poor People, as they did long
+ago. But the waters gather quickly upon the unprotected slopes and run
+off in muddy torrents, taking along some of the soil. Thus each
+succeeding year there is less plant food for the crops.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rocky land of the poor people.]
+
+How did this country, once rich and fruitful, become so barren? We are
+sure from what we know of Nature's ways that she is not the cause of the
+trouble. Through greed and ignorance of how to take care of their land
+the present inhabitants have wasted and squandered its wealth until it
+has become almost a desert.
+
+We can do things with Nature, and direct many of her forces so that they
+will work for our good. We cannot, however, as we have learned, change
+the amount of rain that falls, nor can we make it warmer or colder.
+
+How, then, are these poor people to blame for the condition of their
+country? The troubles which overtook them came from two things. In the
+first place they did not know how to take care of their rich land, and
+in the second place they were greedy and wanted to become wealthy faster
+than they ought.
+
+Why does the rain, which once made this country fruitful, now wash away
+the soil and make it barren? It is because in those earlier times much
+of the land was covered with cool forests. The rain then fell more
+gently because of the forests. More of it soaked into the ground and the
+springs were larger. Now the rains are delayed by the hot air of the
+thirsty land until, when they finally do come, the water falls in
+torrents. Such rains or cloudbursts, as we often call them, carry away
+the unprotected soil faster than Nature can renew it.
+
+  [Illustration: _Bailey Willis_
+  The shallow, rock-filled river along whose banks the trees have been
+  destroyed.]
+
+The strangers in the land, under whose rule it became poor, thought they
+knew better than Nature. They did not look upon her as the great wise
+mother of them all. Soon after these people came into possession of the
+land, they found that in other places there was a demand for their
+grain, cattle, and wool. They began to increase their fields and herds.
+To do this it was necessary to cut down the forests which had stood so
+long. It seemed to them too bad to leave valuable land covered only with
+trees.
+
+The people began to look askance at the birds, for they thought they
+were eating too much grain. Because they did not know what good the
+little creatures were doing, they killed them. Since most of the birds
+nested in trees, they got rid of them faster by cutting down the trees.
+
+The steep hillsides were finally cleared of trees and the soil began to
+wash, and the rocks soon appeared. No plant food was given to the soil
+to replace that taken by the growing plants, and the crops soon began to
+show the effect of starvation. The cattle began to suffer for lack of
+food. They ate the grass down so closely that much of it was killed.
+
+The rainwater, instead of feeding the springs, now ran swiftly away. The
+clear, steady rivers turned to muddy floods during the rainy season.
+They swept through the valleys, washing away houses and crops. In the
+summer they dried up so that the fish died.
+
+When these people at last discovered their mistake, they strove by hard
+labor to repair the damage which they had done through years of
+ignorance and greed. This was such slow, difficult work that the land
+still remains a dreary place in which to live. It is known as the Land
+of the Poor People.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY
+
+
+Would you like to know something about what I am doing? Would you like
+to know why my waters are yellow with mud? I am accused of being a
+noisy, roistering fellow, of robbing people of their wealth and of doing
+all sorts of wicked deeds. But, worst of all, I am accused of carrying
+away the tiny particles of soil in which the plants find their food and
+of dropping them in the depths of the sea.
+
+Perhaps, when you really understand my work, you will say that I have no
+evil intentions at all. I am only one of Nature's servants. Each one of
+us has a work to do. Sometimes we have to do things that seem to be bad,
+but that is because some one on the earth has broken Nature's laws.
+
+Nature has many servants. To each one of us is given a different kind of
+work. I am the great leveler of the land. No mountain is too great or
+too high for me to tear down. I can carry it all away grain by grain and
+leave it in the lowlands or in the sea. Many mountains I have destroyed
+so completely that you would hardly believe they ever existed. Long
+before there were any animals and men on the earth I was busy, and I
+shall be busy when they are all gone.
+
+The farmer believes me his enemy, but if I do injure his fields it is
+because I cannot help it. The work that has been given me to do is the
+carrying away of the loose earth wherever I can find it. If the farmer
+does not want his hillsides made poor, he should take care of them.
+
+The farmer does not know that he has me to thank for the richest of his
+lands, those lands where the soil is deep and dark, and filled with
+plant food. I and my brother rivulets have been thousands of years in
+collecting the soil which forms the fertile lowlands in the valleys
+through which we flow. We all unite to form the mighty river which
+finally ends in the sea.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Because some farmer was careless, a rivulet has nearly destroyed this
+  rich valley.]
+
+Upon all the slopes which drain toward the river we rivulets are at
+work. Other servants of Nature are working here. Some of them are making
+the rocks soften and fall apart. Others are bringing seeds of the
+grasses and trees that they may take root in the crumbling rock. It is
+their business to make a carpet of plants over the earth and thus stop
+my work. But wherever the slopes are steep we rivulets have our way. We
+pick up and carry away the particles of sand and clay so that only the
+bare, hard rocks remain.
+
+When the steep slopes become gentle, and we can no longer carry away all
+the particles of crumbled rock, then the carpet of plants spreads over
+the surface. Now our waters become clear. We seem like different
+beings. Once in a while, when the rains fall very heavily, some of us
+break through the protecting carpet and dig great hollows and gullies
+into the earth.
+
+Would you like to know how we rivulets get rid of the load we carry from
+the mountain slopes? When we are muddy and swollen with the heavy rains,
+we turn the river into a flood. The river then breaks its banks and
+spreads out over all the lowlands along its course. Now the river flows
+more slowly and drops a part of the sand and mud which we rivulets
+brought to it. Finally, when the storm is over and the river goes back
+into its channel, there is left on the surface of the valleys a layer of
+earth rich in plant food. We brought the river the finest of the rock
+particles, together with the leaves and stems of plants that lay in our
+way.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rivulets have united to form the broad, shallow river loaded with
+  the soil from the farms along its upper course.]
+
+As year after year we made the river overflow, the soil of the lowlands
+grew deeper and deeper until it became as you see it today. Now the
+slopes about the head of the river are not so steep as they were once.
+Our waters do not run away so rapidly and the river seldom overflows.
+Thus the farmer can use the land for his crops, which grow so
+luxuriantly that he is envied by his less fortunate neighbors who live
+upon the hills.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Office of Farm Management_
+  The soil of this valley has been washed to its present location by flood
+  waters.]
+
+Upon the slopes about the valleys we rivulets did not leave so much
+soil. The farther one goes up the slopes the thinner one finds the soil,
+until at the top the bare rock may appear.
+
+But our work, says the muddy rivulet, was not finished with the making
+of the fertile valley lands. We carried a part of our load of sand and
+mud on to the mouth of the river. Here in the bay into which the river
+empties we began another great task. It seemed hopeless at first to try
+to turn the bay into dry land, but year after year we kept at work,
+through a time so long that I have forgotten when we began. At last we
+succeeded in bringing so much material to the bay that the waters
+became shallow. Then the soft mud began to show itself when the water
+was low. At last the water was replaced by dry land, which appeared much
+like the lowlands which we had made along the river.
+
+Now you who think we muddy rivulets do only harm see what we have
+accomplished. We have built a great delta of the richest land that
+extends away on every hand as level as a floor and almost as far as you
+can see. The soil of the delta is hundreds of feet deep and the richest
+to be found on the whole earth. It is on such river deltas that the
+first civilized men made their homes, and became rich and powerful.
+
+Now I have told you what Nature has appointed the muddy rivulets to do.
+Is not the good that we do far greater than the harm? When we do harm it
+is because people have not learned how, or have not tried, to obey
+Nature's laws. If we make people poor, it is their own fault.
+
+We still find much to do upon the earth. Nature is still making
+mountains which we have to tear down. We are still building deltas which
+will sometime be inhabited by rich and prosperous people. We do not
+willingly spoil the lands of the farmers on the hills and make them
+labor hard for a living.
+
+In those happy lands where people understand Nature we rivulets have a
+different kind of work to do. We become pure and clear. We furnish a
+home for the fish, drink for the thirsty flocks, and a never-failing
+power to turn the mill wheels. Our waters are of service to every living
+thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+HOW FAR WILL NATURE RESTORE HER WASTED GIFTS?
+
+
+The natural wealth of our country is its soil, water, forests, minerals,
+animal and bird life, and, finally, its climate and scenery.
+
+Of all these, _climate_ and _scenery_ are the only ones which we can use
+and enjoy as much as we like without any danger of their ever failing
+us. The sun will shine through the blue sky, the winds will blow, and
+the storms will come just the same, no matter what we may do.
+
+Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to make the wonderful
+world in which we live, and place upon it the mountains and valleys,
+lakes and oceans? Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to
+make the rocks and store away in them gold, silver, copper, and iron?
+Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to cover the rocks with
+soil, and spread over the surface the flowers and trees and to stock it
+with uncounted numbers of animals and birds?
+
+Nature usually works very slowly, but she never rests. The earth and all
+things on its surface, have always been changing, but changing so slowly
+that we do not ordinarily notice what is going on. When there is an
+earthquake, or a slide of rock on a mountain side, or an eruption of a
+volcano, we are astonished and often terrified.
+
+Stories that have come down to us from the distant past tell us that the
+earth looked then much the same as it does now. If we could look away
+back to a time long before the first men lived, when even the animals
+and plants were different from those around us, we should discover that
+the surface of the earth was quite different from that of today. We
+should then see mountains and hills where now we find valleys, and dry
+land where now lies the blue ocean.
+
+Nature has been such a long time making the beautiful world in which we
+live, that we ought to treat it with great consideration. It is also a
+wise thing for us to be heedful of her requests, for, if we will work
+with her, the earth with all its treasures will be at our command.
+
+Shall we not now seek to learn which of the natural resources of our
+land will never be replaced if we squander them? Let us also learn which
+may be made good again by Nature, if we are willing to wait long enough,
+as well as to assist her in her slow work.
+
+Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It
+is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the
+fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water
+to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be
+our lot for many years.
+
+Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks
+will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a
+foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even,
+for a new and fertile soil to come again.
+
+During the early years of placer mining in California thousands of acres
+of rich lands in the foothills were destroyed. Only boulders were left.
+Now fifty years have passed and a new soil is being formed, but it will
+be a long time yet before it will be as good as it was in the first
+place.
+
+Upon the Western prairies only grain has been raised for so many years
+that in many places the soil will scarcely grow a crop worth gathering.
+Many farmers have never thought of this, but the wise ones understand
+that they must frequently add plant food to the soil to replace that
+taken by crops. They understand also that it is a good thing to change
+the crops grown upon any particular field from year to year, since
+different plants take different substances from the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The miner in his search for gold ruins the beautiful valley, leaving it
+  a mass of boulders.]
+
+Water goes through a ceaseless round. It rises from the sea and lakes to
+form the clouds, falls as rain or snow, and then flows back down the
+slopes to the sea. Although we have learned that we cannot change the
+quantity of rain that falls in any place, we can influence the way in
+which it runs back to the sea. This in turn affects the lives of people.
+We can store water in reservoirs, and by building canals have it to use
+on the land during the summer. We can also keep it from flowing back to
+the sea as rapidly as it otherwise would, by leaving uninjured the
+covering of vegetation which has been spread over the mountain slopes.
+The water will run from bare rocks and bare soil much more quickly than
+it will from soil that is covered with leaf mold and held by plant
+roots. Do you not see, then, that we have almost as much control over
+water and its distribution as though we could increase or decrease the
+rainfall?
+
+What about the forests? If we cut them down, will they ever come back?
+All through the eastern part of our country and in the mountains of the
+West are lands once forested which have been cleared and turned into
+farms. Many of these farms, when abandoned, have in a few years been
+covered with a growth of young trees. The scattering trees that had been
+left in the vicinity of the clearings furnished the seed. The winds and
+the birds carried the seed to the open fields and so the forests began
+again.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  But Nature, after a lapse of fifty years, has spread a new carpet of
+  soil over the valley.]
+
+It will be hundreds of years before the trees are as large and
+valuable as those of the first forest. The "big trees" of the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains are found nowhere else in the world, for they are the
+last of their race. Some of these trees are more than 4000 years old.
+They stood here when our forefathers were still savages and lived in
+trees or caves. Much of the region where these trees are found has now
+been reserved as a park. If the lumberman had been allowed to get at
+them, they would have soon been gone forever.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Uncle Sam has preserved both forests and water power.]
+
+It is far more difficult to destroy completely most of the species of
+forest trees than it is to destroy the species of animals and birds. We
+can cut down the trees and in some cases they will grow again from
+sprouts. Many will hide away in remote places and furnish seed for new
+forests.
+
+The animals as well as the plants have had a long history. They have had
+a harder struggle than the plants, because many of them prey upon one
+another. We often dig up the skeletons of strange animals unlike any now
+living. These must have all been killed long ago. Each species or kind
+of animal now living must have come off victorious in the struggle with
+its enemies.
+
+Does it not seem a heartless thing for us, who call ourselves civilized,
+to destroy so completely any species of animal or plant that not one of
+its kind remains alive? No species which we destroy will ever come back
+again, and its place will always remain empty. There are a few predatory
+animals and birds that destroy vast numbers of useful ones. We should
+keep these in check by every means in our power, but for our thoughtless
+destruction of the valuable ones the world will always be poorer.
+
+What of the mineral treasures hidden away in the earth? Will these be
+replaced when once they have all been used up? It took Nature a very
+long time to make coal out of the vegetation which had gathered in some
+ancient swamp. It took her fully as long to make the oil and gas from
+the bodies of the little organisms that once lived in the sea.
+
+The bodies of the little creatures from which oil is made are still
+gathering upon the bottom of the sea, and there are many swamps where we
+find vegetation and peat accumulating. But it is a long story from these
+substances to oil and coal. I am afraid we should get tired of waiting
+for Nature to make a new supply.
+
+Gold, silver, copper, and other minerals, so useful to us, are found in
+very small quantities scattered throughout most of the solid rocks of
+the earth. It would be impossible for us to obtain these from rocks,
+because there is so little in any one place. But Nature has collected a
+part of them in veins in the rocks. We sink shafts upon these veins and
+mine the ores. It will be a long time before we shall have mined all
+there is of these minerals. Because they are so hard to get we are not
+likely to waste them. But it is quite certain that there is a limit to
+the supply of mineral treasures, and equally certain that they can be
+renewed either very, very slowly, or not at all. Shall we cause our
+remote descendants to suffer for our carelessness?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+THE SOIL--THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE
+
+
+An ancient story tells us that men were made from the dust of the earth.
+This dust under our feet, which soils our shoes, this dust which the
+wind sometimes sweeps along in blinding clouds, is indeed precious. The
+delicate tissues of our bodies are made from the food we eat. If it be
+plant food, it comes directly from the soil. If it be meat or eggs or
+milk, it comes from animals which live upon the plants, that in turn got
+their nourishment from the soil.
+
+This soft, dark substance which covers the rocky skeleton of the earth
+we call the _soil_. How common and cheap it looks when it is placed by
+the side of a piece of gold! But how much more wonderful it would seem
+if we could know all about it. The soil is far more necessary to our
+comfort and prosperity than gold. Gold, silver, or precious stones
+cannot keep us alive. They are of little worth to us compared with food
+and clothing. The soil, then, is the real wealth of the world. The
+farmer, who tills the soil, is the one worker we could not possibly do
+without. All the wealth of the world, all the comforts which we have,
+all the luxuries brought from far corners of the earth, come in the
+first place from the soil.
+
+We do not have to journey far over the earth to learn that there are
+many lands where the fields are not fruitful, and yet such lands are
+often rich and prosperous. How can this be if the soil is so necessary?
+Let us go to New England and ask the people living there if they can
+tell us why rich people sometimes inhabit lands which do not raise
+enough for them to eat.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  These jagged rocks are formed of once molten lava. By and by they will
+  crumble and be covered with a layer of soil.]
+
+Much of New England is hilly and has a poor, rocky soil. The farmers who
+first settled there toiled hard, working early and late, and yet got few
+of the comforts of life. Most of the farmers did not know how to improve
+the soil or even to keep it in as good condition as it was when they
+first cleared away the forests and began cultivating it; so many left
+their farms to seek a living elsewhere. There are now many abandoned
+farms that are growing up to forests again.
+
+In spite of this poor land, the New England states form one of the most
+wealthy and prosperous parts of our country. There are many great cities
+containing hundreds of thousands of people in this territory. The
+inhabitants enjoy luxuries of every kind sent from all parts of the
+world. The farmers of New England certainly do not produce this wealth
+from their rocky soil. Where, then, does it come from?
+
+Industries of almost every sort except farming are carried on in the
+cities of New England. All these people have to be fed and the farms of
+this region would hardly support them even if the soil were very
+productive. So much food is needed every day that if the supply were cut
+off for only a short time, there would be great suffering.
+
+Somewhere there must be farmers at work raising food supplies for the
+people of the great cities. The many beautiful and wonderful things made
+by the workers in the cities must be exchanged with the farmers for the
+real necessities of life.
+
+Somewhere there must be vast fertile fields which produce much more than
+their owners require. We will journey westward to the prairies of the
+Mississippi Valley. Here for hundreds of miles we can see hardly
+anything but fields of waving wheat and corn. Here are hundreds of
+granaries and flour mills. Upon the rivers and lakes there are many
+boats, and upon the land railroads, all carrying flour and other farm
+products to feed the people of New England. Here are great stock ranches
+with thousands of cattle and hogs, which, when fattened upon the grain,
+are also shipped to New England to help feed the people there.
+
+  [Illustration: A field of wheat on one of the Western prairies.]
+
+We must conclude, then, that if it were not for the vast fields with
+their deep, rich soil, where the farmers are able to grow much more than
+they need for themselves, it would not be possible for the people of New
+England to become wealthy by working at other things than farming. The
+articles which they are making add to their own comfort and pleasure as
+well as to that of the farmers, but they have to have the products of
+the soil to keep alive.
+
+If the farmers of the Mississippi Valley and of all the other valleys
+that help support the city people are careful of their soil and keep up
+its fertility, our country will remain prosperous. But we are sorry to
+say that the farmers have not always been careful. Many have wanted to
+make more than they should from their lands. The plant food with which
+Nature has filled the soil has been taken away year after year faster
+than she has been able to renew it. Many fields do not produce the crops
+they once did. The smaller the yield becomes, the higher the prices the
+produce brings. This makes it more difficult for the workers in the
+cities to live comfortably. The less abundant the supply of food
+becomes, the less prosperous is the country.
+
+There are countries, such as England, that have neglected agriculture
+but have, in spite of this, become rich and powerful through devoting
+their time to manufacturing articles to sell to other people. But those
+who work in the factories of England have to be fed, and so they must
+depend upon other countries to supply much of their food. If, for any
+reason, they were cut off from trade with these countries, not only
+would their manufacturing be ruined, but they would be in danger of
+starvation.
+
+To the first men, who lived entirely upon hunting and fishing, the soil
+was of little consequence. Now things are different. The wild game has
+mostly gone and we have to depend upon the products of the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  At the top of the bank we see a layer of dark, rich soil.]
+
+The people of those lands where the climate is unfavorable and the soil
+poor and rocky lack most of the comforts of life, unless they are able
+to obtain them through trade. It does not follow, however, that people
+living in lands favored by Nature are always happy and prosperous.
+
+You must remember that when the first men increased in numbers over the
+earth, the soil was fresh from the hand of Nature. Although they had
+everything about them that could be asked for, yet they were poor. There
+are men living today on the rich deltas that we have learned about who
+have few of the comforts that we have. This is because they are lazy and
+ignorant, and do not make proper use of this valuable gift, the rich
+soil.
+
+We conclude, then, that the soil forms the real wealth of the world. All
+our comforts and luxuries come in the first place, as we have seen, from
+the soil. The more crowded people become upon the earth, and the greater
+the number that engage in manufacturing and trade, the more important
+becomes the care and cultivation of the soil. If we do not take the best
+of care of the soil, there may come a time when there will not be food
+enough for us all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+THINGS OF WHICH SOIL IS MADE
+
+
+Let us take a spadeful of soft, dark earth from the garden and see if we
+can find of what it is made.
+
+We will first put the earth in a dish of water and stir it thoroughly.
+We notice that the water at once becomes muddy and that little particles
+of a dark substance rise to the surface. These particles appear to be
+pieces of stems and leaves.
+
+This crumbling vegetation is _peat_, a substance which fills many swamps
+and, when cut into blocks and dried, is used for fuel. When scattered
+through the earth peat has a very different use. As the leaves and stems
+of plants die and slowly mingle with the earth, they give it the dark
+color, which usually extends down for two or three feet. As this
+vegetation changes, or decays, as we usually say, it furnishes a number
+of substances which supply food to the roots of growing plants. One of
+the most important of these is _nitrogen_, an invisible gas.
+
+The decaying vegetation which we find mixed with the soil has other
+uses. It holds water and so helps to keep the soil moist. It makes the
+soil loose and more easy to cultivate. It absorbs heat from the sun and
+so helps to warm the soil. This vegetable matter, when it is completely
+decayed, we call _humus_. Soils that are rich in humus are usually very
+fertile.
+
+We will now turn the muddy water into another dish, pour more clear
+water upon the material that remains in the bottom of the dish, and wash
+it again, repeating the work until the water is no longer muddied. We
+will set aside the dish containing the muddy water and examine what
+remains in the bottom of the dish that once contained the earth or soil.
+This is mostly sand, but with it are rough fragments of rock which can
+be crumbled in the hand. The greater number of the little sand grains
+are _quartz_. Some of them are clear like glass, others are reddish. In
+this quartz sand are a few grains of _iron_ which the magnet picks out,
+and a number of scales of yellow _mica_.
+
+After standing a few hours the muddy water has become clear, and a
+deposit of a yellowish substance has collected in the bottom of the
+dish. We will carefully pour off the water and examine what remains.
+This fine soft mud we call _clay_. As it dries and becomes hard it
+shrinks and cracks, and thus breaks up into little pieces. Clay forms a
+greater or lesser part of all soil. Clay soil is very sticky when it is
+wet, as you will be sure to remember if you have tried to walk over it.
+When soil is formed largely of clay we speak of it as a _heavy soil_. In
+the West it is called _adobe_ and is sometimes used in making houses.
+When adobe soil dries, great cracks form in it. These cracks are
+sometimes large enough for small animals to fall into. When there is a
+large amount of sand, we speak of the soil as _light_ or _sandy_. A soil
+composed of sand and clay is sometimes called _loam_. If it is nearly
+all clay it is a _clay loam_; if there is much sand it is a _sandy
+loam_.
+
+Soils found in low, swampy places are sometimes formed almost wholly of
+decaying vegetable matter. Such soils are known as _peat soils_. They
+are usually very fertile.
+
+We have now learned about three things that the soil contains that are
+bulky and easy to discover: decaying vegetation, sand, and clay. These
+are, however, far from being all that compose the soil. There are still
+many other things, some of which are invisible to the unaided eye and
+difficult to find.
+
+We will next take the clear water that remained after the mud settled.
+We will pour it into a dish, place the dish over a fire, and let the
+water boil slowly until it has all evaporated. There will remain in the
+bottom of the dish a thin white coating. Moisten this with a drop of
+vinegar or other weak acid and it will disappear in a mass of little
+bubbles. Such behavior teaches us that the white substance is probably a
+mixture of _lime_ and _soda_. Besides these there are tiny particles of
+_potash_ and _phosphorus_, which we cannot distinguish by the means we
+have used.
+
+Some soils contain a great deal of lime, and because they have been
+formed from limestone, are called _limestone soils_. Plants need a
+little soda, but when there is much in the soil it will kill them. Soils
+rich in soda are known as _alkali soils_. They were formed in the bottom
+of lakes the waters of which contained soda. Salt is another harmful
+thing found in the soil. You can sometimes see faint whitish deposits of
+soda and other salts on the soil in flower pots.
+
+There is one more thing that the soil contains that we must not forget,
+for it is one of the most important of them all. This is a living
+organism so small that we cannot see it with the unaided eye. Many
+thousands of these organisms are contained in a bit of earth such as you
+could take up on the point of a small knife blade. We have named them
+_bacteria_.
+
+Plants cannot make use of most of the substances in the soil without the
+aid of these organisms. The bacteria live upon the materials of the
+soil and change them into such form that plants can digest them.
+
+Soil may be supplied with all kinds of plant food in just the right
+amount and yet, if it is packed hard and is not watered, no living thing
+can take root in it and grow. Plants drink their food and so we must
+supply water. They also require oxygen, as do other living things. For
+this reason we must leave the soil loose, so that the air can enter it
+and the roots get the oxygen which it contains.
+
+Thus we learn how wonderfully the soil is made. We learn that it
+contains many things required by plants. In order that the plants may be
+thrifty, there must be enough but not too much of these different
+things.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+HOW THE SOIL IS MADE
+
+
+The substances which we found in the soil teach us that it was formed
+from the rocks. If we could take the sand, clay, potash, soda, lime, and
+iron that we found in the soil and put them together as Nature knows how
+to do, we should have rock again.
+
+But if we should take a piece of rock and crush it to a fine sand, that
+would not be soil, because soil cannot be made in that way. It takes
+Nature many, many years, as the rocks slowly crumble and decay, to
+change the materials of which they are composed into true soil with its
+swarms of bacteria and its plant food.
+
+If we should dig down through the soft earth under our feet, we would at
+last come to solid rock. This is the rough and jagged crust of the earth
+on which rests the carpet of soil. In the mountains where the slopes are
+steep the rocks stick up through the soil. The outer parts of this solid
+rock are, however, always crumbling. Little particles, as soon as they
+become loosened, either fall by their own weight or are washed away.
+Some of the rock fragments collect upon the gentler slopes and finally
+turn to soil. This soil is not rich and it dries out quickly, because it
+is shallow. The soil in the valleys, as we have already learned from the
+muddy rivulet, is deep and rich.
+
+Nature is slowly spreading her mantle of soil over the earth. In some
+parts of the earth one can travel for hundreds of miles and see no
+rocks. One might think that in time Nature's work would be finished. But
+before the mountains in one place have crumbled and been washed away,
+she raises up new ones somewhere else so that the tearing-down work
+begins again.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Little by little the great rocks break in pieces and crumble finally to
+  form soil.]
+
+Let us, in imagination, sit down by the side of a rock, prepared to stay
+there many years, that we may learn just how Nature makes the soil. It
+will be a long, long time before we can see any change in the rock. Each
+bright day the sun warms the cold rock and makes it expand a very
+little. At night the rock grows cold and shrinks. In this way minute
+crevices are finally formed between the grains of the different minerals
+that make up the rock.
+
+When it rains, water creeps into the tiny crevices. The water carries
+with it a little carbonic acid which the raindrops took from the air.
+This substance aids in dissolving some of the rock materials. If the
+nights are very cold, the water in the crevices freezes and opens them a
+little wider, for ice, as you know, takes up a little more room than it
+did when it was water.
+
+Plants also aid in breaking the rock. Often seeds are dropped by the
+wind, and the rootlets of some of these seeds, when they sprout, may
+find a crevice large enough and deep enough for them to push their way
+into the rock. In these crevices they find a little food and slowly grow
+larger and stronger. By and by some of the roots are strong enough to
+push apart large pieces of rock.
+
+If the rock which we are studying is granite, we shall after a time be
+able to pick out the different minerals of which it is composed. We can
+tell the grains of quartz, because they look glassy and remain very
+hard. Other grains, which we call _feldspar_, soften and change into
+clay, which makes the water muddy as it runs over the rocks. We see also
+little scales of yellow mica, sometimes called "fool's gold," and a few
+grains of iron. There are tiny quantities of other things which we shall
+not be able to see, for the rainwater dissolves them and carries them
+away.
+
+As the rock slowly crumbles to sand and clay, the bacteria begin to make
+their home in it. Hardy plants, that are not particular about what they
+grow in, get a foothold, and when they die their stems and leaves decay
+and mix with the rock particles until at last this material begins to
+look like soil. It has become dark in color and rich in plant food.
+Then, many other plants that require a good soil take root there. The
+rock has at last completely disappeared under the layer of soil and its
+carpet of vegetation.
+
+Suppose, now, that we dig down and find how deep the soil is and what
+lies below it. When we have gone down two feet the soil is harder and of
+a lighter color, for there are fewer plant remains in it. This poorer,
+lighter-colored soil we call _subsoil_. If we dig a little deeper, we
+shall find pieces of rock in the subsoil. Below these we come to soft,
+crumbling rock and last of all the solid rock.
+
+The soil that is found resting on the rocks from which it was formed is
+known as _residual soil_. This name is given to such soil, because it is
+what remains after long years of rock decay during which the rains have
+washed away a part of the finer material.
+
+What has become of the soft earth that the water washed away? The muddy
+rivulet has already told us its interesting story. We have learned that
+a part of this earth (or soil) is borne to the distant ocean. There it
+is forever lost unless the sea bottom should some day become dry land.
+Stranger things than that have happened on this ancient earth of ours.
+The part of the soil which the water carried away to form the rich
+valley lands and deltas is known as _alluvial soil_.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Department of Agriculture_
+  A flood plain, where alluvial soil has been deposited by the river.]
+
+Long ago the northern part of our country was covered with a sheet of
+ice. This ice crept slowly southward, and as it moved along it tore off
+all the soil and loose rocks on the surface of the earth over which it
+passed. When it melted it left them spread roughly over the country.
+Such material forms _glacial soil_. It is often deep but not very rich.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Geological Survey_
+  Soil brought by a glacier and deposited as the ice melted.]
+
+There is another kind of soil, formed by the wind. If you have ever been
+in a dust storm you have seen the fine, powdery substance that settles
+over everything and creeps into the smallest cracks. In some countries
+where there are strong winds and not much rain there is little
+vegetation on the surface to hold the soil. Year after year the winds
+pick up particles of the dusty soil, whirl them high in the air, and do
+not let them down again until they have been carried many miles. In some
+far-off land where the winds go down the dust particles settle again to
+the earth. After a long, long time, enough dust collects to form a
+thick layer of the richest soil. This is called aeolian soil, from the
+word _AEolus_, meaning the "wind."
+
+There is one more kind of soil which we ought to know about; that is
+_peat soil_. It is found in marshy or swampy lowlands and is formed
+largely of plant remains. When lands with such soil are drained, they
+prove very rich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+HOW VEGETATION HOLDS THE SOIL
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  What the rivulets did to the hillside pastures where the grass was
+  destroyed.]
+
+
+A walk up the mountains on a rainy day is not a pleasant one. There are
+mud and water under our feet, and overhead are the dripping branches
+which, if touched, send down a shower of drops. But if we keep our eyes
+open we shall learn something which will be of great value to us. We
+shall learn how it is that Nature holds the soil on the slopes--the
+wonderful soil which it takes her so long a time to make and which is
+the source of all our wealth.
+
+Our way up the mountains is by a winding road. We first pass the
+foothills upon which there are scattered oaks. The rain is steadily
+pouring down and rivulets loaded with mud are eating little gullies all
+over the slopes. Along the roadside, where they have united, the
+rivulets form a torrent which is making a deep ditch that threatens to
+render the road impassable.
+
+These slopes were once covered with grass and the rivulets ran down them
+without doing any harm. But so many sheep were pastured here that the
+grass was killed. The roots, which once formed a thick protecting sod,
+are now decaying. How quickly the rivulets have taken advantage of the
+unprotected slopes!
+
+The road leads still upward until it brings us to where there were once
+pine forests. The lumbermen cut off all the trees, and then fire came
+and burned the decaying vegetation which once lay spread over the
+ground. Now all that remains is bare earth and blackened stumps.
+
+What are the raindrops doing here? They gather in rivulets just as they
+do on the once grassy hillside; but because there are so many roots
+still remaining in the ground they have not done much work. They are not
+loitering, however, and by and by, when the roots have rotted, they will
+seize their chance and begin tearing away the soil from the mountain
+side.
+
+But this is not the end of the road. Farther up we come to the primeval
+forests, where the giant trees stand just as they did before men came.
+Here we can see how the slopes are protected, for in making the road the
+workmen cut deep into the hillside. They first removed a layer of pine
+needles and decaying branches. Then they cut through a layer of soil
+about two feet thick which was completely filled with little roots of
+trees and bushes. Below this they came to the soft subsoil, which
+contained only a few roots, and at the bottom they reached the solid
+rock.
+
+The layer of roots and soil at the top of the bank, you can see from the
+picture, now overhangs the road, because the raindrops which beat
+against the bank have washed away all that they could reach of the
+unprotected earth at the bottom. How plainly we can see the network of
+roots. What a hard task it must be for the water to get at the soil in
+which these roots are growing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The layer of roots holds the soil on the mountain side.]
+
+We will now leave the road and, although it is still raining hard, we
+will walk a distance through the forest and see if there is anything
+more that we can learn. We are soon in the deep woods where, perhaps, no
+one has ever been before. Around us are trees of all ages and sizes,
+from little seedlings to great giants six feet through. Among them are
+the crumbling stumps of trees long dead. Their trunks lie on the ground,
+and many are so soft and rotten that we can kick them to pieces with our
+feet.
+
+As we walk our feet never touch the real earth. It is always on the
+soft, yielding leaves and crumbling branches that we step. These leaves
+and branches form a thick layer completely hiding the soil. But the
+strangest thing is that, although the rain is still falling, we can
+discover no rivulets. What, then, becomes of the water? The soft,
+decaying vegetation on which we are walking and the rotting stumps and
+logs act like a great sponge. As long as this sponge can take up the
+falling drops, none have a chance to run away. If it rains a very long
+time and the sponge becomes saturated, the drops that creep away and
+finally unite in rivulets in the hollows do no harm to the soil, for
+they cannot get at it.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The roots of the tree grip the soil like the fingers of a great hand.]
+
+Long after the storm has passed, the earth underneath the trees remains
+wet, while the ground out in the open has become dry. A part of the
+water held by the decaying vegetation evaporates. Another part creeps
+down through the earth to the crevices in the rocks and feeds the
+springs.
+
+Let us now put aside our storm clothes and journey, in imagination, far
+away to where it seldom rains--to that land which we call the desert.
+Here the bare rocks of the mountain slopes are burned brown by the hot
+sun. Here there is little soil and only a few little bushes that somehow
+manage to live. Why does not the soil gather over the rocks as it does
+in other places? The rocks are surely crumbling, for we can crush some
+of the pieces in our hands.
+
+Once in a long time it rains in this desert. Then the drops descend
+furiously. The water gathers in rivulets and these turn to torrents
+which sweep down the slopes. They carry away the particles of sand and
+clay which would in time, if there were plant roots to hold them, turn
+to soil.
+
+The winds also help keep the desert rocks bare and free of soil. Have
+you ever been in a dust storm or have you read of caravans caught in
+such storms in the Sahara Desert? The fierce wind picks up the particles
+of sand and clay from the bare earth and sweeps them along as it does
+the snow in winter, or it whirls them in clouds high in the air. The
+dust clouds are often so dense that they hide the sun and all landmarks
+by which the traveler can guide his way. But have any of us ever seen
+the winds pick up much dust from the green fields where the vegetation
+protects the surface?
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The vegetation prevents the wind from blowing the sand away, so that
+  wherever the roots obtain a hold there a little mound is formed.]
+
+If we turn now to a very wet country, such as that upon our northwest
+coast, where often nearly eight feet of rain falls in a year, we shall
+find the vegetation so dense that it hides both soil and rocks. Here
+water can do little in wearing away the soil, even upon the steepest
+slopes, while the wind cannot get a peep at the earth.
+
+Does it not seem strange that where little rain falls the earth washes a
+great deal faster than where it rains very heavily? The reason is that
+the more it rains the more dense becomes the carpet of vegetation. If we
+wish to preserve the soil, we must preserve the natural growth on the
+hillsides.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+WHAT HAPPENS WHERE THERE IS NO PROTECTING CARPET OF VEGETATION
+
+
+Not all of the muddy streams are due to the carelessness of men. It is
+the business of some of the servants of Nature, as we have already
+learned, to tear down the mountains and fill up the hollows in the
+earth. It is the business of others to spread a carpet of vegetation
+over the surface, and wherever they have already succeeded in their work
+the waters run clear most of the time.
+
+Where it is dry so much of the time that few plants can live, the
+destructive servants have their own way when the occasional rains come.
+Where there is a warm sun and frequent rains, a green carpet is spread
+over all the slopes. But when men destroy the carpet and take no care of
+the soil underneath, the raindrops are able to do as much damage as they
+do during the cloudbursts in the deserts.
+
+The Colorado is one of those rivers in the basin of which few people
+live. Much of its journey is through a land in which there is little
+vegetation. Here, the waters from the melting snows upon the lofty
+mountains about the basin and those of the occasional heavy rains have
+things their own way. They are always yellow with mud. The amount of mud
+which this river carries has been measured. You will hardly believe me
+when I tell you that it amounts to sixty-one million tons every year.
+This is enough to cover 164 square miles one foot deep. We might call
+this the cream of the soil from all the slopes of the great basin of the
+Colorado River.
+
+In other parts of our land, where abundant rains fall, the streams tell
+a different story. Before men came the water of these streams was clear
+throughout the greater part of the year. It was only when the rains were
+very heavy that the soil washed away, for the vegetation held it well.
+Now the gullies on the hillsides and along the roads tell us as plainly
+as though they could speak that our country is losing wealth here.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The roots of the tree form a wonderful network underground from which
+  the water cannot tear the soil.]
+
+The soil is our most valuable possession. The people of many lands are
+suffering from poverty today because their forefathers did not take care
+of the soil as they should. In such lands the people who live on the
+mountain sides are poor, because the best of their soil has been washed
+away. Those who live in the valleys are often poor because of the sands
+and gravels which floods have spread over their fertile fields.
+
+While it is raining, let us fill a bottle from some muddy stream and
+allow it to stand until the water settles. In the bottom will then
+appear a layer of fine mud, or _silt_ as it is usually called. How much
+soil do you suppose the rivulets washed from my garden and from yours
+during the last severe storm? How much do you suppose all the rivulets
+which make up the rivers of your state washed from all the gardens and
+fields during the same storm? Make a guess and then multiply your answer
+by the number of storms in one year and that by fifty years, and you
+will get a quantity greater than you would believe possible.
+
+This is the way Nature takes her toll for our carelessness. So quietly
+does she do it that often the farmer does not have any idea of what is
+happening. She is like a thief that comes and steals his goods while he
+is sleeping.
+
+  [Illustration: _Bailey Willis_
+  The soil on the hillsides of China is being washed away because of the
+  thoughtlessness of the people.]
+
+When the farmer finally awakes and begins to wonder why his crops grow
+smaller each year, he has already lost the cream of his soil. He must
+at once stop plowing the steep hillsides and leaving the ground bare for
+the winter rains to wash it away. To save the slopes he can either
+terrace them or he can sow grass or clover, which will form a sod and
+hold the soil. If the farmer can get peas, beans, alfalfa, or clover to
+grow upon his wasted lands, they will make it fertile again, for these
+plants have the wonderful power of taking nitrogen from the air and
+storing it in the soil.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The farmer who owns this land will soon be made poor because of his
+  carelessness in destroying the covering of the soil.]
+
+More earth has been washed from the hillsides of our country during the
+last fifty years than during thousands of years before white people
+came. The farm lands have been injured, the bays have been made
+shallower, and many river channels have been so filled up that it is
+more difficult to navigate them now than it was in the early days.
+
+The farmer, the stockman, the lumberman, and the miner has each been
+selfishly doing his share in the destruction of the soil. Each one has
+thought only of how he could make the most money in the shortest time.
+It has not occurred to them that they are making it difficult for their
+children and grandchildren to live.
+
+In the Southern states thousands of acres are being gullied by the
+rains, and the soil destroyed. The floods of spring have become worse in
+late years, because of the destruction of the forest cover in the
+Appalachian Mountains. Buildings and bridges are frequently carried
+away, and gravel and boulders are washed over the rich bottom lands.
+
+In the mountains of far-away Italy the soil is poor, and so are the
+people. They have cut down nearly all the trees and for hundreds of
+years the brush and grass have been eaten so closely by the sheep and
+goats that few roots remain to hold the soil. It does not need to rain
+heavily there to cause the rivers to become muddy and swollen. The soil
+which once covered the slopes has been carried to the bays, and now
+there is land where ships floated two thousand years ago.
+
+  [Illustration: _U. S. Forest Service_
+  Terraces of rock built by natives of China to aid in holding the soil.]
+
+In Spain so much of the best soil has been lost that the people now do
+not raise enough food to support themselves, and much has to be imported
+from other lands.
+
+France is a rich country still, in spite of the cutting of so much of
+the forest and the careless pasturing of the mountain slopes. The people
+are industrious and hard working and thus make a living in spite of the
+loss which they are suffering.
+
+The Montenegrins are among the bravest people of Europe, but their land
+is barren and they enjoy few luxuries. Their country consists largely of
+limestone mountains, from which they have been cutting the trees for
+hundreds of years. There is but little soil and that is to be found in
+the hollows of the rocks. This soil is so precious that every bit, be it
+ever so small, is carefully cultivated.
+
+In the mountains of Palestine and Syria the people have so completely
+destroyed the trees and grasses which Nature once planted there that it
+is difficult for them to raise enough to live upon. The rivers are muddy
+after every rain, and even the water from the melting snows picks up
+some of the soil and flows away with a dirty, yellow color.
+
+When we reach China and Korea, we find that there the people have been
+most severely punished for their carelessness. The mountain sides have
+been torn by the rains and deeply gullied. The once smooth slopes upon
+which grew trees and grasses are now a mass of sharp ridges and deep
+hollows of bare earth. The water falling upon these mountains runs off
+in torrents, carrying even large boulders as it does in our Western
+deserts. Here and there the natives have built terraces of rock to aid
+in holding the soil, but many parts of the country are almost wholly
+deserted. The waters run off the mountains so quickly that they often
+form vast floods which spread over the lower valleys and plains. The
+floods destroy the crops and drown the people.
+
+Eastward of China there is an arm of the Pacific Ocean known as the
+Yellow Sea. Why do you suppose this name was given to the sea? One of
+the great rivers of China, the Yangste-kiang, empties into it. The river
+rises in the barren mountains of which we have just been speaking, and
+it is continually bringing so much mud and sand that a whole sea is
+being filled. Long before a ship comes within sight of the land the
+waters are seen to be of a muddy, yellow color.
+
+In the smaller valleys of Korea the natives build dikes along the rivers
+to keep the mountain floods from spreading sand and gravel over their
+rice fields. Every year they have to make the dikes higher as the river
+beds fill up.
+
+Thus we see that all over the world people are suffering because they
+have not obeyed the laws which Nature has made for the protection of the
+soil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+THE USE AND CARE OF WATER
+
+
+The ocean is the home of the water. The water would always remain in the
+ocean if it could, but the sun and air are continually at work stealing
+little particles away and sending them on long journeys.
+
+The water particles are so small as they rise from the ocean that we
+cannot see them. By and by they crowd together and make the clouds that
+float across the sky. As soon as the clouds meet colder air, the little
+water particles rush together and thus become larger and larger until
+they grow so heavy that they can no longer float in the air, but must
+fall. Some of them fall into the ocean again, but others drop upon the
+land.
+
+The raindrops that reach the land have many sorts of stories to tell
+before they again get back to the ocean. Some of them are at once
+snatched up again and are started upon another journey. The thirsty air,
+whether over the ocean or over the land, is ever in search of water
+particles.
+
+If the air is very cold, the clouds turn to snow instead of rain. The
+feathery flakes fall slowly through the air and form a soft white mantle
+over the earth. Those that fall on lofty mountains form great banks
+which may not entirely melt and turn to water until late in the summer.
+
+The raindrops that fall where the slopes are steep, where Nature has
+grown little vegetation, or where men have destroyed the earth cover,
+have little to detain them and are soon on their way back to their home.
+In their hasty journey they do much damage to the unprotected soil.
+
+If the drops fall upon gentle slopes, or where there are marshes and
+lakes, or upon the forest with its decaying vegetation, or upon deep
+beds of gravel and sand, they are a long time getting back to the ocean.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  The cool and shady stream before men came and cut the trees away so that
+  the hot sun could get at it.]
+
+We can in no way change the amount of rain that falls upon any part of
+the earth. We cannot call up a storm when we wish it, nor can we send it
+away when there has been rain enough. But there are many ways in which
+we can hasten or delay the return of the water to the ocean. Nature
+shows us some of these. The spongelike carpet underneath the forest
+holds the water until it has had time to soak into the earth from which
+it later emerges as springs. Nature forms basins on the heads of the
+rivers where a part of the water, instead of immediately flowing away,
+collects in the form of lakes. From these lakes the water runs away
+slowly instead of in torrential floods.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The rotting tree trunks take up the rainwater like a sponge.]
+
+Only a few places in our country have more rain than is really needed.
+One of these is the region about the mouth of the Mississippi River
+upon the Gulf of Mexico. Another is upon the Northwest coast. Throughout
+the central part of the country the summer rains are sometimes too light
+to afford a full harvest. The rainfall upon the plains and valleys of
+the Southwest is so small that the only plants that can live there are
+those strange and curious forms that have become used to desert
+conditions. The only way in which these lands can be made useful to the
+farmer is by means of irrigation. To obtain water for irrigation we have
+either to go to the distant mountains and build reservoirs to collect
+the rains which fall there and then dig canals to carry the water to the
+desert valleys, or to make use of some river flowing through them, if
+they are fortunate enough to have such a river. Can you think of any
+rivers that are used in this way?
+
+  [Illustration: _Brown Brothers_
+  The great Roosevelt Dam, in the Salt River irrigation project,
+  Arizona.]
+
+Although water sometimes seems the greatest blessing that we have, yet
+it may prove a curse if it is not looked after. If you give the water a
+chance to make gullies in your fields, you lose not only the water but
+the best of the soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most
+of the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise farmer you
+know also that cultivation of the soil helps to hold the water, for it
+cannot escape through loose soil as it can through compact soil. Thus if
+you know how to handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a
+little rain, accomplish a great deal.
+
+  [Illustration: Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield,
+  Idaho, showing a field irrigated by means of canals and ditches.]
+
+We can, then, hold or _conserve_ the water, first, by leaving the
+steeper slopes covered with vegetation; second, by keeping the soil
+loose; and, third, by building reservoirs to hold the floods. We can
+make use of the conserved water by carrying it in pipes or ditches to
+those regions where it is needed. We can get rid of too much water by
+draining the swamps, and building dikes to protect lowlands from river
+floods.
+
+Let us now learn something of the different uses of water. Every one of
+our homes has its water supply. In the city the water comes through
+pipes from some distant reservoir. In the country the homes are so far
+apart that it is difficult to supply them in this way. The water in the
+streams is often not suitable for drinking, and if there are no springs
+near by it has to be obtained by some other means. Nearly everywhere in
+the earth under our feet water can be found by digging or boring a well.
+Sometimes we have to go only a few feet, at other times many hundreds of
+feet. This water in the earth, or _ground water_, is of very great
+importance. It enables us to build our homes where we wish. Spring water
+is that which finds its way to the surface through some tiny crack or
+fissure in the rocks. How delicious is the pure, cold water that comes
+out of the shady hollow in the hills! You can form in your minds a
+picture of the rain falling on some distant mountain, of its soaking
+into the ground and finally reaching the little crevices in the rocks.
+Along these crevices it may have crept for days and perhaps years until
+at last it found an outlet in some spring.
+
+The great river flows by so quietly that we often forget in how many
+ways it is serving us. It serves not only those upon its banks but those
+who live hundreds of miles away and who, perhaps, have never seen it. It
+was the first and easiest means of travel used by our forefathers before
+there were any roads or railroads through the wilderness. It now aids
+in carrying on trade between different regions. If large and deep
+enough, it permits boats from all parts of the world to reach the very
+heart of our country.
+
+Canals might be called artificial rivers. They serve an important
+purpose in nearly level countries where Nature has placed no navigable
+river. Although canal boats usually move slowly, yet they can carry
+goods cheaper than railroads can. The Erie Canal, in connection with the
+Great Lakes and the Hudson River, makes it possible for us to go all the
+way by water from the heart of the continent to New York City. The Erie
+Canal has helped make New York City the greatest city in our country.
+The canal across the Isthmus of Panama saves ships a journey of many
+thousand miles around South America.
+
+Rivers serve us in yet another way by affording water for irrigation. A
+great river like the Colorado flows through regions of many different
+climates. Some rivers become so small in the summer that it is necessary
+to build great reservoirs at their headwaters in order to insure a
+supply when the crops need it. But in the case of the Colorado this is
+not necessary. The headwaters of this river are among lofty mountains,
+where the melting snows and summer showers make the waters of the river
+higher in the early summer than at any other season of the year. Thus
+its great delta, the Colorado Desert, has become the home of many
+thousands of people.
+
+Another use which we make of rivers is by putting the water to turning
+mill wheels. If you will turn to your geographies, you will find that
+nearly all the great manufacturing cities of our country have grown up
+around rapids or waterfalls, where some river tumbles over a ledge of
+rocks.
+
+Once we had to build our mills close to the rivers to use the water
+power, but this is no longer necessary. Now we build electric-power
+plants by the rivers and carry electric energy more than a hundred miles
+to any place where we wish to use it. Electricity made from the distant
+mountain waterfall will do any kind of work for us wherever we carry it.
+Thus we see that the river works for us in more than one way. After it
+has created power for our factories, it can be turned on to the thirsty
+fields, where it will serve us equally well.
+
+  [Illustration: _Great Western Power Company of California_
+  Electric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for
+  generating electricity which is carried to distant places.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?
+
+
+We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we
+could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than
+Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the
+steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the
+springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and
+she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter
+and a home.
+
+It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only
+useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors
+may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild
+people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth
+stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of
+the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.
+
+We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few
+articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance
+at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than
+the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no
+communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood,
+however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their
+shores.
+
+From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than
+his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of
+purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making
+their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their
+rude homes.
+
+The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving
+baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes
+that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to
+another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or
+burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier
+than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians
+learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in
+making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap
+of the maple until it turned to sugar.
+
+The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came
+as natural to early men as it does to the other animals. They shared
+with the birds the wild fruits, and divided with the squirrels the many
+kinds of nuts. So highly do the Italians still value the wild chestnut
+that this tree, almost alone of all the forest trees that once covered
+their country, has been saved.
+
+The most important uses of trees in our country are for lumber, for
+fuel, and for the edible fruits and nuts which they bear. There are
+several purposes to which logs are put without being sawed into lumber,
+such as for telegraph poles and for piling for the support of great
+buildings and for wharves. Long ago nearly all our houses were made of
+logs. There was then an abundance of clear, straight trees but very few
+sawmills. It was easy to cut the logs, peel and notch them at the ends,
+and then lay them up in a house of just the size that was wanted. From
+the logs that split easily rough boards and shingles were made, as well
+as chairs and tables. Blocks of wood were set in the openings cut for
+windows, because of the scarcity of glass.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada
+  Mountains.]
+
+Our forefathers had all the wood they wanted just for the cutting, and
+so they warmed their houses by means of fireplaces large enough to hold
+great logs. They made of wood every tool and household convenience for
+which this substance could be used. Indeed, they had more wood than they
+wanted. Trees covered so much of the land that the ground could not be
+cultivated until they had been cut away. Now we wish that we had the
+oak, hickory, black walnut, and other kinds of trees, that the pioneers
+of our country burned in order to get them out of the way, for they have
+become very valuable.
+
+Now, partly because wood is becoming scarce, and partly because our
+large buildings must be made very strong and safe from fire, we are
+using other materials for them. Stone, brick, and concrete, when tied
+together with iron beams, are more suitable material for great
+buildings. Our land now contains so many people, and so many new homes
+are needed every year, that the lumber required for houses alone is
+almost more than we can believe.
+
+The forests are now disappearing so fast that unless we use wood more
+carefully we may have to give up our attractive wooden homes and cheery
+fireplaces and live in houses of stone or concrete. In many parts of the
+world people have so completely destroyed the forests that they have not
+only to make their homes of mud bricks or stone, but have little wood
+left for fuel and other purposes.
+
+We cannot mention all the purposes to which wood is put in our homes and
+in our industries. It would take a whole page in this book merely to
+make a list of them. What we ought to remember, however, is that it is
+not so much the amount of wood that we actually _use_ as it is the wood
+that is _wasted_ that is likely to bring us to want. Two thirds of the
+wood of the trees cut throughout our country is wasted in its
+manufacture into lumber and other objects. Besides this, as much wood is
+burned every year in needless forest fires as is cut by the lumberman.
+The waste of trees that are cut merely for their bark which is used in
+tanning leather is a wrong for which Nature will sometime call us to
+account.
+
+In Switzerland, where the forests are given the care that we bestow upon
+a garden, not a particle of wood is allowed to go to waste. The branches
+are all picked up and saved. Even the sawdust is made use of in the
+manufacture of wood alcohol, which has an important use as fuel.
+
+There are many kinds of trees the sap of which has great value. If care
+is used in tapping the trees, they are not greatly injured and will live
+for years. Sap of the maple affords delicious maple sugar. The sticky
+sap of the coniferous trees is obtained by making a cut in the bark.
+Canada balsam, thus obtained, is a clear liquid from a fir tree of the
+same name. It is the finest of all the turpentines and is used for many
+purposes in the arts. Enormous quantities of turpentine are obtained
+from the yellow pines. The pine forests of the Southern states supply
+nearly all our turpentine. From this by a process of distillation is
+obtained resin and spirits of turpentine.
+
+The rubber tree found in the tropical forests has become one of the most
+necessary of trees. Rubber made from the sap of this tree is now used
+for many purposes for which we have been able to find no other material.
+
+We sometimes forget how valuable trees are for various substances used
+in medicine. Our lives may depend on having such medicines within
+reach. Quinine made from the bark of the cinchona tree is perhaps the
+most important. Camphor gum is furnished by another tropical tree. The
+acacia supplies gum arabic. The poison, strychna, comes from a nut tree.
+The eucalyptus, birch, and other trees too numerous to name, supply
+various other medicinal products.
+
+  [Illustration: _Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"_
+  When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only
+  about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine
+  trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quantities of
+  resin, and other products.]
+
+While we are trying to find other substances to replace wood as far as
+is possible, so as to keep the forests from being used up, we are
+requiring more and more for the manufacture of paper. The spruce forests
+are fast disappearing in pulp mills, from which the blocks of wood
+emerge as sheets of paper. Perhaps after a time we shall find something
+to take the place of wood in the manufacture of paper.
+
+The one use to which we put the trees, which does not destroy or injure
+them in the slightest, is growing them for their fruit and nuts. We take
+great care of such trees, selecting the best varieties and cultivating,
+trimming, and spraying them in order to keep them healthy and strong.
+The better the care that we give them, the finer and larger become their
+fruits.
+
+Trees are valuable to us in so many ways and appeal so deeply to our
+love of the beautiful things in Nature that we should all be interested
+in them. If we give the trees a chance, they will do their share toward
+making our lives comfortable and happy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?
+
+
+Our forefathers who came across the water to America found forests
+stretching away from the water's edge into an unknown wilderness. The
+settlements spread very slowly into the pathless woods, for there lurked
+danger from the Indians and wild animals. The Allegheny Mountains also
+held the settlers back for a long time.
+
+The pioneers found the country, as far as the Ohio River and beyond,
+still forest covered; but by and by openings or _prairies_ began to
+appear. By the time they had crossed the Great River the forests had
+been left behind, except for fringes of trees upon the lowlands along
+the streams.
+
+From this point westward the open prairies stretched away to the
+horizon. Antelope, deer, and buffalo were often seen feeding on the rich
+grasses. The adventurous pioneers pushed on across the fertile prairies,
+coming at last to a drier and higher region which we have called the
+_Great Plains_. On these plains the Rocky Mountains came in sight. These
+mountains gradually became higher as the travelers approached, until
+they rose before them like a mighty wall. Here they again met vast
+forests, which covered all the higher slopes.
+
+Beyond the Rocky Mountains they crossed a broad land of deserts where
+little rain fell. The vegetation was so scanty and springs so far apart
+that many of their horses and cattle died. The dreary and barren deserts
+were followed by another lofty range of mountains. Entering these
+mountains, the pioneers came upon the most magnificent forest that had
+yet been seen upon our continent. After traveling for some days over
+rugged mountains, they at last emerged from the forests upon the Great
+Valley of California.
+
+  [Illustration: A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite
+  Valley.]
+
+Scattered over portions of the valley were oak trees, giving it the
+appearance of a park. When the valley had been passed the pioneers
+climbed the last mountain range, and from this range looked down upon
+the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here they found forests again, some of
+the trees being of enormous size. Thus we see that the eastern part of
+the continent was nearly all forested, but that in the West the forests
+grew chiefly on the mountains, because there is not enough rainfall upon
+the plains and in the valleys.
+
+The trees that make up most of the forests of our country are of two
+very different kinds. There is one kind that has narrow or needle-like
+leaves which they keep through the winter. These we commonly call
+_narrow-leaved_ trees or _conifers_. The most important of the
+narrow-leaved trees are the pines, firs, spruces, and hemlock. Such
+trees form the forests of the greater part of the highlands of the
+northern and northeastern parts of our country. The pines also find a
+congenial home upon the lowlands of the Southern states. Trees of the
+second kind have broad leaves, and usually their wood is rather hard.
+Hence we call them _broad-leaved_ or _hardwood_ trees. Since most of
+these trees drop their leaves in winter, we often speak of them as
+_deciduous_ trees. By far the larger part of the lands of the Eastern
+states that are now cultivated were found by the first settlers to be
+covered with hardwood trees. We are familiar with many of the hardwoods
+through their use in furniture and various household utensils and farm
+implements. The most important varieties are the walnut, hickory,
+chestnut, beech, maple, ash, oak, elm, locust, and linden.
+
+There are not many broad-leaved trees in the forests of the West. The
+children of the West miss all the nut trees that the boys and girls of
+the East enjoy. But to make up for this lack there are some in the West
+that are not found in the East. The sugar pine, the pinon pine, and the
+digger pine afford delicious nuts which once formed an important article
+of food for the Indians. In the West the broad-leaved trees do not form
+dense forests. They are scattered among the pines on the lower mountain
+slopes, in the valleys, and along the streams. The most important of
+these trees are oaks of many kinds, soft maple, alder, cottonwood,
+sycamore, and laurel.
+
+The dense forests of the Western mountains consist almost wholly of
+narrow-leaved trees. Among them are the pines and firs of different
+kinds, spruce, cedar, redwood, and "big trees." The redwoods and "big
+trees" are both known as sequoias; they grow to an immense size upon the
+mountains of California. The coniferous forests of which these trees
+form a part are among the most wonderful and interesting ones on the
+earth.
+
+If you will take a forest map of our country and place it beside a
+rainfall map, you will quickly discover why the forests are found where
+they are. You will see that the forests are found where there is more
+than thirty inches of rain each year, except in the far North, where it
+is very cold. You can say, then, that the climate is the chief thing
+that determines where the forests shall grow.
+
+If the climate is warm and the rainfall heavy, the forest vegetation
+is so dense and rank that you can hardly travel through it. Such forests
+are found in the tropical parts of the country. Where little rain falls
+there is scanty vegetation, as upon the deserts of the Southwest. But
+where it is very cold, even if there is much snow or rain, you will find
+no trees.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  Mountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all
+  conifers.]
+
+We must not forget that there is another thing that affects the growth
+of trees, and that is the soil. Pines like a sandy soil, while most
+other trees do not. Certain cedars and cypresses like swampy places
+where no other trees will grow. Many beautiful meadows and prairies have
+no trees, because the soil is not well drained.
+
+It is very easy to understand why trees cannot grow where it is dry, but
+how shall we learn of the effect of cold upon them? Shall we have to
+take a journey of thousands of miles into the far North, until we
+finally come to the land called the _Barren Lands_ or _tundras_, where
+the trees become stunted and at last disappear--a land where they cannot
+longer fight against the cold and live?
+
+Fortunately such a long journey is not necessary. All we have to do is
+to climb a great mountain range, like the Sierra Nevadas, to pass
+through all the different climates which we would experience on a long
+journey to the arctic regions.
+
+It is only a few miles from the hot San Joaquin Valley, at the base of
+the Sierras, where it is so dry that irrigation is necessary, to the
+summit of the range, where the winter climate is as cold as it is in the
+arctic regions.
+
+In going up the mountains we first come to the foothills, where there is
+a little more rain than in the valley. Here we find oak trees growing.
+Farther up there is still more rain and we come to the pines. Soon we
+reach the most wonderful coniferous forest in all the world. Here not
+only is there a great variety of trees, but because of the favorable
+climate they grow to a great size. As we approach the summit of the
+mountains the trees become smaller, and at an elevation of about two
+miles they shrink to the size of little bushes and finally disappear.
+They can no longer stand the fierce winds and cold storms of this arctic
+region.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  East Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we
+  approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.]
+
+We have learned now that the trees do not grow haphazard over our
+country, but that the rain, the temperature, and the soil determine
+where they can live.
+
+Within the heart of the forest the trees will come again if we cut them
+down, but upon its borders, where the air is drier, it is more difficult
+for them to spring up anew. If we cut them down carelessly and allow
+fires to burn over the surface, and the water to wash away the soil,
+they may never come back.
+
+It is important, then, that we understand why trees grow in some places
+and not in others, in order that we may know how to take care of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE TREES?
+
+
+Every living thing is engaged in a struggle for air to breathe and for
+something to eat. Those that make their homes on the land also have to
+struggle for water. The stronger rob the weaker; for, among all of them
+except man, might always makes right. Men are learning that
+unselfishness is the better way, although they do not always practice
+it.
+
+In this struggle the animals have an advantage over the plants, for if
+food fails in one place they can move to another. Among the animals also
+the mother tries to protect her children; and, in the case of some,--the
+wolf, for example,--a number will hunt together for the common good.
+
+It is quite different with the plants. They must grow where the seeds
+take root. If there is little sunlight or water or the soil is poor,
+they must make the best of what they have.
+
+The plants have to struggle not only with such enemies as insects,
+winds, fire, and browsing animals, but with each other, for every tree
+is the real or possible enemy of every other tree. Brother seeds
+sprouting under the same parent maple struggle with each other for the
+food and moisture in the soil and for the best place in the sunlight.
+The one that gets the most of these will grow the faster and choke some
+of its weaker brothers.
+
+  [Illustration: _Edward S. Curtis_
+  Trees that struggle with cold and storm.]
+
+In yonder grove of pines there are trees of all ages and sizes. The
+older ones have much the advantage and take a part of the food and
+sunlight that the smaller ones require. How the little ones stretch
+up and grow tall and slender in their attempt to get the sunlight!
+But in spite of all their efforts some of them must die.
+
+Some kinds of trees grow faster than others. Where a number are
+springing up together, the slow-growing ones will stand less chance of
+ever becoming great trees. In this way the yellow pine sometimes chokes
+out the cedar, and the fir gets the advantage of the sugar pine.
+
+The bright, warm sun is the enemy of the tree that loves the shady
+hillsides. The swamp is the enemy of the tree that must have loose, dry
+soil. The cold is the enemy of the tree that is used to a hot climate.
+Is it not strange that what is good for one tree is an enemy of another?
+
+Many kinds of trees have their own particular insect enemies which
+attack them and no others. Some of these insects live upon the leaves,
+others eat the sapwood under the bark, while a few attack the roots.
+Certain insects burrow in and eat the heartwood. Although this does not
+always kill the tree, it weakens it and makes the wood unfit for use.
+The cedar and the hickory are among the trees injured in this manner.
+
+The foliage of the broad-leaved trees is the delight of many insects.
+They sometimes eat the leaves so closely that the tree is killed; for
+the trees breathe through their leaves and can no more do without them
+than they can without their roots.
+
+The gypsy moth, which did no great harm in its European home, was
+brought to this country and accidentally set free. It at once began to
+attack the leaves of the elm, that beautiful tree of the old New England
+villages. Now it is destroying other trees and, notwithstanding the
+fight which we have made against it, we have not yet been able to
+exterminate it.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  Insects are destroying the trees of this forest.]
+
+The chestnut tree, which every Eastern child loves for its nuts, is now
+being destroyed by a fungus which may kill every one of these trees in
+the country.
+
+The white-pine blister, also brought over from Europe, is now
+threatening all the white pines and the related trees of our country.
+This disease has already such a start in the East that we may not be
+able to stop it.
+
+The dainty mistletoe, about which there are so many pretty Christmas
+legends, is a deadly enemy of many trees. The seed of this fungus is
+carried, by the birds or by the wind, from one tree to another. When it
+sprouts, tiny roots go down through the bark to the sap, on which it
+feeds until the tree is killed.
+
+All our fruit trees have their deadly enemies which cause a loss of
+many millions of dollars every year. Among the worst of these is the San
+Jose scale, which was carelessly brought into the country from China.
+
+ [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+ A dwarf white pine which has found a foothold in the rocks on a
+ mountain top.]
+
+The pear blight has destroyed whole orchards of pear trees in the
+Western states. The citrus canker is now threatening the orange orchards
+of the Southern states.
+
+For years we have been searching over the world for new and better
+varieties of fruit trees. With the shipments of such trees we have
+brought some of the worst of the diseases that we have just mentioned.
+We should have all foreign trees most carefully inspected before
+admitting them to the country. We should also be very careful about
+shipping fruit or other trees from one part of our country to another.
+Diseases are often carried in this way into places which otherwise they
+could not reach.
+
+Field mice, gophers, and rabbits eat the bark of young fruit trees and
+kill those which are not carefully protected. In some parts of our
+country the apple and peach tree borers are a serious menace to young
+orchards. Grasshoppers occasionally come in dense swarms and eat the
+leaves from every tree or plant in their path.
+
+The valuable sugar pine of the Western mountains is not seeding itself
+as rapidly as it should, and we fear it will become extinct. The
+beautiful silver-gray squirrel loves the nuts of this pine, and it is
+said that he eats so many that few are left to sprout and make new
+trees. For this reason some people would like to make it lawful to kill
+all the gray squirrels that one wished. This would be too bad, for we do
+not believe the gray squirrel is the cause of the trouble. It is more
+likely that the lack of young sugar pines is due partly to its struggle
+in the forest with more rapidly growing trees and partly to the less
+frequent occurrence of forest fires to burn off the humus on the ground.
+We know that the seeds of certain trees find difficulty in sending their
+roots down through the humus to the soil beneath.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  An avalanche has passed through this forest.]
+
+The narrow-leaved or cone-bearing trees, which are the main source of
+our lumber, also have other enemies. The most destructive of these are
+the little pine beetles which lay their eggs in the bark of the yellow
+pine, sugar pine, and tamarack pine. From these eggs there hatch worms
+which burrow under the bark until they cut off the flow of the sap. This
+kills the trees. The trees that are young and strong are sometimes able
+to pour out enough sap into the wounds to drown the insects, but many
+thousands of trees in the Western mountains are destroyed every year by
+these insects.
+
+Wind and lightning are both enemies of the forests. Hundreds of forest
+fires are set every summer by thunder storms, but the rangers usually
+discover such fires soon enough to put them out before they have done
+much harm.
+
+The pasturing of forests by stock does great injury, because of the
+browsing and trampling underfoot of the young trees. Sheep and goats are
+the worst of all the animals and should be kept out of those forests
+where the surface particularly needs protection and where the young
+trees require all the encouragement that Nature can give them in order
+to make a successful start in life.
+
+We have learned something about the many enemies of the trees, but the
+worst one has not yet been mentioned. Can you guess what it is? This
+terrible enemy is man,--not savage man or Indian, but civilized man.
+Although man has more need for forest trees than has any other animal,
+he is at the same time more ruthless in his treatment of them. Man
+destroys more trees every year, as a result of fires which he sets and
+of his wasteful methods of lumbering, than all the other enemies of the
+trees put together.
+
+The forest area of the world is constantly growing smaller, and we must
+soon learn to treat the trees with more care or they may, like many of
+the wild creatures, nearly disappear from parts of the earth where they
+are most needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+HOW THE FORESTS ARE WASTED
+
+  O forest home in which the songbirds dwell!
+  The squirrel and the stag shall miss the spell
+  Of thy cool depths when summer's sun assails,
+  Nor more find shelter in thy shadowed vales.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  All will be silent; echo will be dead;
+  A field will lie where shifting shadows fled
+  Across the ground. The mattock and the plow
+  Will take the place of Pan and Satyr now.
+  The timid deer, the spotted fawns at play,
+  From thy retreats will all be driven away.
+
+  Farewell, old forest; sacred crowns, farewell!
+  Revered in letters and in art as well;
+  Thy place becomes the scorn of every one,
+  Doomed now to burn beneath the summer sun.
+  All cry out insults as they pass thee by,
+  Upon the men who caused thee thus to die!
+
+  Farewell, old oaks that once were wont to crown
+  Our deeds of valor and of great renown!
+  O trees of Jupiter, Dordona's grove,
+  How ingrate man repays thy treasure trove
+  That first gave food that humankind might eat,
+  And furnished shelter from the storm and heat.
+
+PIERRE DE RONSARD, translated by BRISTOW ADAMS; _American Forestry_,
+XVI. 244
+
+
+When our grandfathers came to America they found the country so covered
+with forests that they had to cut and burn the trees in order to obtain
+the ground on which to raise their crops. The Eastern states could not
+have been settled without clearing the land, and we cannot blame the
+pioneers for doing under those circumstances that which today would be
+very wrong.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The farmer wastes the trees by girdling them and then allowing them to
+  rot.]
+
+There is now enough land so that it is no longer necessary to destroy
+the trees in order to raise our food supplies. The forests constitute
+one of the great natural resources of our country and men should not be
+allowed to waste them for private gain.
+
+Although the need for more land has long passed, the habit of reckless
+tree cutting still continues. There are now parts of the East where none
+of the primeval forest remains and very little of the second growth.
+Firewood is expensive and many a farmer has to buy coal, who, if he and
+his ancestors had been careful, might have a woodlot to supply not only
+fuel, but lumber for his buildings.
+
+Many of the lands once cleared were found not suited to farming and have
+been left to grow up to brush. If the farmer were wise he would replant
+some of these lands with such trees as spruce, hickory, walnut, or
+maple. Although his ancestors toiled early and late to get these trees
+out of the way, a few acres of them now would be a fortune.
+
+There are parts of our country, particularly in the South and West,
+where the settlers are still cutting the trees to get them out of their
+way. In distant mountain valleys where there is no market for lumber,
+men are chopping down the great pines. They would make fine lumber, for
+they are tall and straight, but instead of being put to some useful end
+their fate is the bonfire. It makes no difference to these men that they
+are wasting what it has taken Nature hundreds of years to produce nor
+that in other parts of the country timber is scarce and expensive.
+
+In Germany and Switzerland the forest resources are carefully looked
+after. As fast as the grown trees are cut from a field, young trees are
+planted in their places. The keeping of a certain part of the land in
+forest is held to be of advantage to all the people. For this reason men
+are not allowed to cut trees upon their own land without permission from
+the forest officer.
+
+Many years ago, when lumbering became an important industry and the
+mills began to turn out immense quantities of boards and beams of every
+sort needed by the growing population of our new country, it was
+believed that the supply would never be used up. Only the best and
+clearest logs were sawed into lumber, and a large part of each tree was
+left on the ground to rot or to feed the first fire that occurred. Now
+lumber is scarce and expensive; and the poorer grades also are in much
+demand.
+
+Have you ever seen the giant sugar pines on the slopes of the Western
+mountains? Next to the sequoias they are the largest of our American
+trees. A single tree has furnished lumber enough for a house. Sugar
+pine has now become so valuable that it is used only for such purposes
+as window sash, doors, and similar articles. We have taken no care of
+these wonderful trees until recently, but have allowed them to be cut
+and wasted in the most reckless fashion.
+
+If you could go through the sugar-pine forests, you would find hundreds
+and even thousands of these mighty trees lying on the ground rotting.
+This is the work of the shake or shingle maker. He has been as
+thoughtless in his cutting of these giants which have been hundreds of
+years growing as is the farmer of the stalks of grain that springs up
+and ripens its seed in one season. The shingle maker must have material
+which splits well. He hunts for the straightest and cleanest trees. At
+most he does not use over fifty feet of the trunk, and if the tree does
+not split to suit him, then all, or nearly all, of the tree is left to
+rot.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  In turning this giant sequoia into lumber more than half the tree is
+  wasted.]
+
+The waste of the lumberman is not so great, but it is enough to open our
+eyes to one of the reasons for the rapid disappearance of our forests.
+On the average only about one third of the wood of every tree cut is
+actually used. The rest is lost in the logging operations and during the
+various processes through which it passes before it reaches our hands.
+
+In addition to the waste of the trees actually cut, there is the loss of
+the young trees due to careless logging. Too often the lumbermen do not
+care in what condition the logs leave the forest. They want only the
+trees now fit for lumber, and they want to get them in the easiest way
+possible.
+
+Instead of going through the forest and picking out only the ripe or
+mature trees and leaving the rest for a later cutting, the lumbermen
+usually take everything that has any present worth. Trees that are less
+valuable for lumber, such as the firs, are used for skidways and
+bridges, and when no longer needed for these purposes are left on the
+ground. No care is taken to see that the great trees fall with the least
+possible damage to the young growth. Upon the preservation of the young
+trees, which almost everywhere occupy the open spaces between the large
+ones, rests our hope of a future forest.
+
+When the work of lumbering in any particular region is finished, the
+sight is such as must make Nature weep, for it almost brings tears to
+our eyes. The young trees are broken and crushed to the ground, branches
+and fragments of the trunks lie scattered about, while above the ruin
+rise those trees not considered worth cutting. The once beautiful and
+majestic forest is now ready for fire. Some passer-by may drop a
+lighted match or cigarette, and you can easily form a picture in your
+mind of what happens.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The shake maker wastes the larger part of a great sugar pine that has
+  been a thousand years in growing.]
+
+In the countries of Europe lumbermen are very careful; not a particle of
+the cut tree goes to waste. The logs are sawed without removing what we
+call "slabs." The sawdust is saved and used in the manufacture of wood
+alcohol. If we saved all the present waste in the logging and milling of
+our pines, we could make all the turpentine needed in our country. If we
+saved what is now wasted of the poplar and spruce, we should have
+material enough to make all the paper we use.
+
+There are still large and valuable forests in the Southern Appalachian
+Mountains, in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, and
+the Coast Ranges. These regions were settled later than the Eastern
+states, and parts of them are yet remote from markets.
+
+Our wise lumbermen are beginning to understand that it is better to cut
+over the forest carefully, so that by and by there will be another crop.
+Nature is doing all she can to keep up the supply of trees, and, if we
+give her half a chance, there will be timber enough both for us and for
+those that come after us. The forest crop is like any other crop, except
+that it cannot be cut every year.
+
+Every one should understand that he has an interest in the forest.
+Although he may not own a foot of land, yet his prosperity depends in
+part on how the forests are managed.
+
+If the forests are not taken care of, there will sometime be a wood
+famine. If the mountain slopes are stripped of their trees, the streams
+will no longer run clear and the low streams in summer will lead to a
+water famine, which in turn might easily cause a bread famine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+HOW THE FORESTS SUFFER FROM FIRES
+
+  He who wantonly kills a tree,
+  All in a night of God-sent dream,
+  He shall travel a desert waste
+  Of pitiless glare, and never a stream,
+  Nor a blade of grass, nor an inch of shade--
+  All in a wilderness he has made.
+  O, forlorn without trees!
+
+  He who tenderly saves a tree,
+  All in a night of God-sent dream,
+  He shall list to a hermit thrush
+  Deep in the forest by mountain stream,
+  With friendly branches that lead and shade,
+  All in a woodland that he has made.
+  O, the peace of the trees!
+
+  He who passionately loves a tree,
+  Growth and power shall understand;
+  Everywhere he shall find a friend.
+  Listen! They greet him from every land,
+  English Oak and the Ash and Thorn,
+  Silvery Olive, and Cypress tall,
+  Spreading Willow, and gnarled old Pine,
+  Flowering branches by orchard wall--
+  Sunshine, shadow, and sweetness of glade--
+  All in a Paradise he has made.
+  O, the joy of the trees!
+
+_The Dryad's Message_
+
+
+Have you ever seen a forest fire? It is a terrible sight to see the
+flames sweep up a mountain side. They run along the ground licking up
+the leaves and dead branches. They leap from tree to tree, and then with
+a roar the sheet of flame goes to the top of a tall pine. The air is
+like the breath from an oven and is filled with sparks and with
+suffocating smoke. The birds and animals flee away in every direction.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The forest fire sweeps everything in its path.]
+
+It is no wonder that those whose homes are in the forest gather quickly
+to fight the fire, for if they cannot control it, they may lose
+everything that they possess. If there is a wind blowing, the fire will
+probably sweep over many miles of country. At night, though, when the
+air becomes cooler and more quiet, the men can get the advantage of it.
+
+You can understand, of course, that it is impossible to use water
+against such a fire, for water is not to be had throughout most parts of
+the forests. Instead of using water, the men fight fire with fire.
+Taking shovels, hoes, and rakes to a suitable place some distance ahead
+of the fire, they rake away the dead litter on the ground, making a
+broad, clean path through the forest. Then they set "back-fires" along
+that side of this clean path which lies toward the coming fire. These
+back-fires burn slowly toward the main fire, and when they meet both
+must die out for lack of fuel.
+
+For many years forest fires have caused as much damage as the lumbermen;
+but now most of the forests are patrolled by rangers during the summer,
+and there are fewer serious fires.
+
+How do the fires start in the forest? It is supposed that long ago the
+Indians set many fires to keep the woods open for their hunting.
+Lightning has always been a frequent cause of forest fires. As many as a
+dozen fires are known to have started during a single thunderstorm. But
+such fires are not as serious as they once were, because the rangers are
+on the watch for them and put them out before they get well started.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Fires destroyed the forest that once covered this region and its place
+  is now mostly occupied by small bushes.]
+
+Aside from those due to lightning, most forest fires are now either set
+purposely or come from engine sparks or from somebody's carelessness.
+Many fires are set purposely by stockmen who think by this means to
+clear away the brush and thus obtain better feed for their cattle and
+sheep. These men often care nothing for the forests or for the
+preservation of the summer water flow. They would, indeed, be pleased to
+see all the forests burned away if by that means they could increase
+their feed. If you could travel through some of the mountainous portions
+of the Southwest, you would see how much harm has been done in this way
+to the trees, the streams, and the soil.
+
+It is a hot summer day and two men are riding along a mountain road. One
+of them thoughtlessly throws away a lighted cigarette, which falls upon
+some dry pine needles. In a few moments the pine needles are ablaze. The
+fire spreads with incredible rapidity and a great column of smoke rises
+above the treetops. Before any one can reach it, the fire is sweeping up
+the mountain side, and it may not be stopped before it has destroyed
+thousands of acres of valuable timber. All this terrible loss is due to
+one careless man who, in the first place, should not have been smoking
+cigarettes, and in the second place should have known better than to
+throw a spark into the forest powder magazine.
+
+Some campers, enjoying the summer in the mountains, go away leaving
+their fire burning. By and by a stick burns outward until the fire
+reaches the leaves, or a gust of wind comes along and carries a spark to
+them. In the hot sun the leaves and needles are almost as easy to ignite
+as powder, and in a few moments another fire is making headway into the
+surrounding forest.
+
+A farmer clearing land thinks he can get rid of the brush and young
+trees more easily by burning. But the undergrowth is drier than he
+thought, and, the wind coming up unexpectedly, the fire is soon beyond
+his control. It may destroy his own fences and buildings and, sweeping
+on, ruin those of his neighbors also.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The dead stubs of a once beautiful forest.]
+
+Few people have perished from fires in the West, for there the forest
+regions are generally thinly inhabited, but in some of the Eastern and
+Northern states there have been terrible fires that have destroyed whole
+villages together with their inhabitants.
+
+In many mountain regions of our country there are large areas now
+covered with useless brush where there were once valuable forests. In
+regions where the lumbermen have not utterly destroyed the forests, but
+have left some seed trees, the forests will come back again, but in
+these large burned areas conditions are not favorable. The destruction
+of the humus as well as the trees has been so complete that the seeding
+of a new forest is slow work. It may be hundreds of years before the
+trees will spread over and again take possession of the waste land.
+
+A single fire often destroys more timber than would be destroyed by a
+whole camp of loggers working for years. In the Northwest there are many
+sad and desolate pictures of the destruction caused by forest fires. We
+may travel for miles through forests of tall, dead stubs, the remains of
+once noble trees. Where they have fallen the trunks lie piled many feet
+high and trails had to be cut through an almost solid mass of timber.
+
+Here is wood enough to supply thousands of people with pleasant winter
+fires. But there are, alas, no people living near these vast woodpiles
+and often no road to them. The logs must lie there and rot.
+
+Now let us see if we can state the chief reasons why we should be
+exceedingly careful about setting fires in the woods:
+
+1. Fires destroy an enormous amount of valuable timber every year.
+
+2. Between fires and lumbermen our forests are disappearing faster than
+they are growing.
+
+3. Fires destroy the young trees, and if they happen often enough will
+keep them from growing up to replace the mature trees.
+
+4. Fires do not permanently help the cattle ranges, but injure them by
+burning the humus and grass seeds.
+
+5. Fires leave the ground bare, so that it will dry out quickly.
+
+6. Fires leave the soil unprotected, so that it will wash away quickly.
+
+7. Fires destroy property and endanger lives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS
+
+
+We have already learned something about the poverty of the people in
+those lands where the forests have been destroyed. This poverty is due
+not so much to lack of wood for fuel and other purposes, but to a whole
+series of troubles which the removal of the forests has brought upon
+them.
+
+The burning of the humus, when a fire sweeps the forest, is the next
+greatest loss to that of the timber itself. Where there has been no
+fire, the ground under the trees is covered with decaying leaves and
+stems which are slowly mixing with the soil and becoming a part of it.
+The more there is of this humus in the soil, the more thriftily plants
+will grow.
+
+Many people purposely burn over their pasture lands in the fall,
+believing that this will make the grass better the following year. They
+should know that every time this is done the soil is made poorer, and
+that it kills the seeds lying on the ground ready to sprout when the
+warm spring days come. Instead of a better pasture there is more likely
+to be a crop of almost worthless weeds. The ground is full of worthless
+seeds which are always ready to take the place of the grasses when they
+have a chance.
+
+Before the fire came, the roots of trees, bushes, and grasses kept the
+earth from washing; and the humus helped to hold the rainwater from
+running away rapidly, so that more of it had time to soak into the
+ground. How well this is shown on yonder hills which were once covered
+with brush. A fire swept over these hills and burned every living thing.
+What a barren appearance they presented after the heavy winter storms!
+The slopes were completely covered with little furrows and gullies where
+the rainwater had done its work. It will be a long time before
+vegetation will again gain a foothold there and stop the washing of the
+earth.
+
+When a fire occurs in the dense forests of the Cascade Range, all the
+trees are killed and the thick layer of decaying vegetation underneath
+is burned. The spruce, which is one of the most important lumber trees
+of this region, does not at once spring up again. Its seeds may be
+scattered there, but the soil is not now in a condition to nourish them.
+In its place springs up the tamarack pine, which, because it can grow in
+poor soil, has the whole burned area to itself.
+
+If we should return to the same place perhaps one hundred years after
+the fire, we should find that the tamarack pines had formed a thick
+forest. The lumbermen have little use for the tamarack and so have
+passed it by. In looking carefully through the tamarack forest, we find
+that other trees are now springing up. They are already struggling for
+the food, the moisture, and the sunlight which the tamaracks are making
+use of.
+
+During the many years that have passed since the fire swept this region,
+decaying vegetation has been slowly accumulating and forming humus
+again. Now at last the seeds of the spruce find the soil rich enough
+again to sprout and grow. Here and there are thrifty young trees which
+will in a few years grow up and choke out the tamarack. Thus the
+tamarack, though of so little value itself, has done a great work in
+preparing the soil for a new growth of the valuable spruce.
+
+Upon the drier slopes of the Western mountains shrubs, such as the
+manzanita and chaparral, spring up and cover the surface after a forest
+fire. Nature does not seem to want the surface left bare and usually has
+something at hand, even though it be nothing better than brush, with
+which to clothe it again. As the years pass humus begins to collect upon
+the ground and finally restores it to much the same condition it had
+before the fire. Now, if by any means seeds can reach such places,
+scattering trees will first spring up in favored spots and, after a
+time, the trees will become thick enough and large enough to shade the
+ground and the brush will be killed out.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry_
+  The work of the water where the forest has been cut away.]
+
+The cutting of the forests, especially from the steeper mountain slopes,
+has in many parts of the world changed water, one of Nature's most
+valuable gifts, into an agent of destruction. Throughout the Eastern and
+Southern states the floods are higher in spring and lower in summer than
+they used to be, because of the removal of so large a part of the
+forests that once covered this whole region.
+
+In the West it is even more necessary that the forest cover be disturbed
+as little as possible. One reason is that the greater part of the
+forests are found upon the lofty mountains in which the streams rise. If
+we deforest these steep slopes, water is going to injure them much more
+than it would the gentler slopes of the lower lands, if they had been
+deforested. Another reason is that since little rain falls in the summer
+in this region, we must do nothing to lessen the summer flow of the
+streams, which is so much needed for irrigation.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  This beautiful valley in the Southern Appalachian Mountains has been
+  ruined by the floods due to cutting off of the forests upon the
+  headwaters of the river.]
+
+The more water that can be held back in the mountains of the West for
+summer use, the more prosperous the farmers are. There is nothing that
+helps to hold the water better than the forests. They help to equalize
+the flow of the streams so that the floods are not so high in the spring
+nor the water so low in the summer as they would be if there were no
+forests.
+
+One of the first questions asked by a man who is thinking of buying a
+farm is about the water supply. He wants to know whether there are
+wells, springs, or living streams on the place. Almost everything
+depends upon the water supply. If there is an abundance, the farmer is
+likely to be prosperous. When he is prosperous all the rest of us are
+prosperous, no matter what our business is.
+
+Are you not ready now to say that the Swiss are right in not permitting
+tree cutting upon any land except under the supervision of a forester?
+The careless removal of the forests from the mountain slopes may affect
+the farmer in the valley fifty miles away. Do you not think that this
+farmer is very much interested in the management of the forest, although
+he does not own a foot of it?
+
+Trouble always follows the destruction of the forests on the headwaters
+of the streams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+HOW OUR GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO SAVE THE FORESTS
+
+  As long as the forest shall live,
+     The streams shall flow onward, still singing
+     Sweet songs of the woodland, and bringing
+  The bright, living waters that give
+     New life to all mortals who thirst.
+     But the races of men shall be cursed.
+
+  Yea, the hour of destruction shall come
+     To the children of men in that day
+     When the forest shall pass away;
+  When the low woodland voices are dumb;
+     And death's devastation and dearth
+     Shall be spread o'er the face of the earth.
+
+  Avenging the death of the wood,
+     The turbulent streams shall outpour
+     Their vials of wrath, and no more
+  Shall their banks hold back the high flood,
+     Which shall rush o'er the harvests of men;
+     As swiftly receding again.
+
+  Lo! after the flood shall be dearth,
+     And the rain no longer shall fall
+     On the parching fields; and a pall,
+  As of ashes, shall cover the earth;
+     And dust-clouds shall darken the sky;
+     And the deep water wells shall be dry.
+
+  And the rivers shall sink in the ground,
+     And every man cover his mouth
+     From the thickening dust, in that drouth;
+  Fierce famine shall come; and no sound
+     Shall be borne on the desolate air.
+     But a murmur of death and despair.
+
+ALEXANDER BLAIR THAW, _The Passing of the Forest_; in _Century
+Magazine_, June, 1907
+
+
+For many years it was thought the forests were inexhaustible and needed
+no special care. The national government encouraged people to acquire
+forest land and practically gave away 160 acres to every one who would
+build a cabin upon the land and live there for a short time.
+
+Suddenly some of the wise people among us awoke to a realization of what
+was going on. They discovered that the forests were going very fast and
+that soon we should have none if something were not done. Between the
+fires that swept them every year and the wasteful lumbering, the forests
+were in a fair way to leave us as they had the wasteful and careless
+peoples of other parts of the world.
+
+How fortunate it is that some of us did look ahead before it was too
+late; for, although the Eastern forests have largely disappeared, there
+still remain millions of acres of government-owned forests in the West.
+These forests have now been withdrawn from sale and are to be held for
+the use and benefit of all. They are not to be permitted to pass into
+the hands of a few, to be cut and sold for private gain.
+
+Our government is acting like a wise father who is interested in the
+welfare of his children, and who understands the need of taking care of
+their treasures until they are wise enough to manage them for
+themselves.
+
+We are all concerned in many ways in the welfare of the forests. Whether
+we own any forest land or not, we are affected by the way in which the
+trees are managed. Because we are all dependent more or less upon the
+forests, they should be regarded as the property of us all, just as the
+air and water are. But because some of us do not yet know how, or do not
+care, to protect them, it is best that the government should do so for
+us.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  These men are replanting a mountain slope from which fire once swept the
+  forest.]
+
+It may be that you live in a brick, or stone house and burn coal in your
+stoves. You think that it makes no difference to you whether or not
+there are any forests. But stop and think a moment. Are you sure that
+you are really independent of them? How many things do you use every day
+that are made of wood? The list is surely a long one. If wood is rare
+and expensive, the articles which are made of it add to your cost of
+living and allow you less money for other things.
+
+Let us suppose for a moment that you have no use for wood in any form.
+Will this take away all interest that you may have in the forests? In
+any event you are dependent upon the fertility of your fields for the
+food that you require. Now, if there is a lumber company stripping the
+mountains at the head of the river upon which your home is situated, and
+as a result of clearing the timber from the slopes the floods become
+worse, your garden is buried beneath gravel and sand, and your orchard
+washed away, will you not think it _does_ make a difference to you in
+what way the forests are treated?
+
+The timbered lands which the government is holding and caring for are
+known as National Forests. About two thirds of the forests yet remaining
+in the West are included in them. These lands are mostly mountainous and
+not suited to agriculture.
+
+In the East the government has no lands except those which it buys.
+Because of the great damage which is being done to the streams and
+valleys of the Appalachian Mountains by careless lumbering, a great
+tract of land is being acquired by purchase. This is called the
+Appalachian Forest. The timber in this region will be carefully cut and
+those areas from which it has been stripped will be replanted.
+
+In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, with Mt. Washington as the
+center, is a remnant of a once beautiful forest, which has been acquired
+by the government. This is known as the White Mountain Forest. It will
+be enlarged as the years pass and carefully guarded. It will serve for
+all time as a beautiful pleasure and camping ground.
+
+It is not the government's plan that the National Forests shall remain
+unused, but they are to be used wisely, so as to be of the greatest
+permanent good to the greatest number of people. The men who have been
+placed in charge of these lands are called "forest rangers," and their
+duties are of many kinds.
+
+The rangers supervise the sale and cutting of the mature or ripe trees
+as they are needed for lumber, mining timbers, or posts. They see that
+the waste parts of the cut trees are piled so as to lessen the danger
+from chance fires.
+
+During the long summers the forests become as dry as tinder and the loss
+from fire amounts to millions of dollars every year. It is the chief
+duty of the rangers at this time to patrol the roads and trails leading
+through the forests and keep a sharp lookout for fires.
+
+Stations have been established upon high points from which there is a
+view over a wide extent of country. In each of these stations there is a
+man constantly on watch for columns of smoke which indicate the
+beginning of a forest fire. When smoke is seen a message is telephoned
+to the ranger station nearest the fire, and from this station men are
+sent as quickly as possible with the object of putting out the fire
+before it spreads beyond the power of control. The forests are now
+watched so carefully that hundreds of fires are thus stopped before
+there has been any serious loss of timber.
+
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  | STOP                                                              |
+  | Forest Fires                                                      |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  They are a Curse to the People                                   |
+  |  of Pennsylvania                                                  |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  FOREST       Existing Forests                                    |
+  |  FIRES        Possibility of Future Forests                       |
+  |  DESTROY      Possibility of Labor                                |
+  |               Beauty of a Region                                  |
+  |               Comfort                                             |
+  |               Homes                                               |
+  |               Lives                                               |
+  |               Prosperity                                          |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Protected Forests Increase in Value                              |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  They Furnish Labor, Promote Industry, Afford Recreation and      |
+  |  Sport, Make a Region Beautiful, Make Home Safe and Comfortable,  |
+  |  Make Life Worth Living, and a Prosperous State                   |
+  |  Inhabited by a Contented and Industrious People.                 |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Which Would You Rather Have                                      |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  FOREST FIRES }    { GREEN FORESTS                                |
+  |  FLOODS       }    { PURE WATER                                   |
+  |  DISEASE      } OR { HEALTH                                       |
+  |  DESTRUCTION  }    { THRIVING INDUSTRIES                          |
+  |  DEVASTATION  }    { PROSPERITY                                   |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  For Information Respecting Pennsylvania Forests and              |
+  |  Tree Planting, write to                                          |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY,                                        |
+  |                                                                   |
+  |  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania                                         |
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+  [Illustration: This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches,
+  has been of excellent service in Pennsylvania.]
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry_
+  The seed trees left by the lumberman are giving rise to a new forest.]
+
+In convenient places the rangers store boxes of tools, which include
+axes, picks, shovels, and rakes to be used in fighting any near-by fire.
+They also have at hand provisions and camp outfits, so as to be able to
+live anywhere in the woods.
+
+In some parts where there is a great deal of small timber and brush,
+"fire lines" are cut along the ridges where it is easiest to stop a
+fire, should one occur. Our forests are so vast that it is not possible
+to remove the dead wood as is done in Europe and thus lessen the danger
+of fire.
+
+The forest rangers also wage a warfare against insect pests. In regions
+where the bark beetles carry on their destructive work among the pines,
+the rangers sometimes cut down and burn thousands of trees. Another duty
+of the rangers is that of replanting burned or logged-off areas. In this
+way many thousands of acres which would otherwise remain waste land for
+years, not being suitable for agriculture, are made in a short time to
+produce a new forest.
+
+A limited number of cattle and sheep are allowed in those forests which
+can be pastured without doing injury to the young trees or affecting the
+flow of the streams. The rangers have charge of this work and collect
+the rent. A part of the money derived from the sale of timber and for
+pasturage rights is expended in the improvement of the roads and trails
+in the forests and in making the forests more safe from fire.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A beautiful grassy meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.]
+
+The National Forests are open to all for pleasure and recreation, but
+under strict regulations about the cutting of trees and the care of camp
+fires. Violators of these rules are severely punished. Visitors to the
+forests are expected to take care in the selection of places for their
+camp fires so that there will be no danger of the fire spreading. When
+the camp is left, the fire must be put out with water or covered with
+earth.
+
+Many states have forest services of their own, and some have
+conservation commissions. It is the business of these organizations to
+look after various natural resources, including the forests, water,
+soil, minerals, and wild game. All forest rangers as well as state fire
+wardens are authorized to aid in the enforcement of the game laws.
+
+We should assist the foresters and wardens in every way possible. Most
+of these men love the woods, the birds, and the animals. They are doing
+their best to protect the forest and its wild life for the good and
+happiness of us all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+OUR FOREST PLAYGROUNDS
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+    He plants the friend of sun and sky;
+  He plants the flag of breezes free;
+    The shaft of beauty, towering high;
+    He plants a home to heaven anigh
+       For song and mother-croon of bird
+       In hushed and happy twilight heard--
+    The treble of heaven's harmony--
+    These things he plants who plants a tree.
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+    He plants cool shade and tender rain,
+  And seed and bud of days to be,
+    And years that fade and flush again;
+    He plants the glory of the plain;
+       He plants the forest's heritage;
+       The harvest of a coming age;
+    The joy that unborn eyes shall see--
+    These things he plants who plants a tree.
+
+  What does he plant who plants a tree?
+     He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
+  In love of home and loyalty
+     And far-cast thought of civic good--
+     His blessing on the neighborhood
+        Who in the hollow of His hand
+        Holds all the growth of all our land--
+     A nation's growth from sea to sea
+     Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
+
+H. C. BUNNER, _The Heart of the Tree_; in _Century Magazine_, April, 1893
+
+
+Our National Parks and Forests form the grandest summer playgrounds that
+any people have ever had. The National Forests, we have learned, were
+set aside for the direct purpose of preserving the timber supply and
+regulating the flow of the mountain streams. The National Parks were
+created for the purpose of preserving for all time the most beautiful
+and attractive scenic features of our country. Among the most important
+of these are the Yellowstone, Grand Canon, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater
+Lake parks. They include many thousands of square miles of forested
+mountains, cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers, which are open to all
+of us with no restrictions except that we do not injure them.
+
+How delightful it is to have these wild and picturesque parts of our
+country left unspoiled and just as Nature made them, and to be able to
+wander through them at will! In the parks we can become acquainted with
+the flowers, trees, birds, and animals as they were before the country
+was discovered and settled by white men. Here the wild creatures are
+protected from the hunters. The deer no longer fear the sight of men,
+and the mother grouse can raise her brood in safety from them.
+
+When summer comes we feel a strange and mysterious longing to get out of
+doors and live in the forests with the wild creatures. The parks offer
+just the opportunity to satisfy this longing, for in them we can get
+away from the worries and perplexities of our everyday life.
+
+We feel the "call of the wild," perhaps, because long ago our savage
+ancestors dwelt in the forests among the hills. They were a part of
+Nature and lived much as the animals do in caves in the hillsides, or in
+homes of the rudest sort made of the bark of trees or the skins of
+animals.
+
+Our ancestors spent nearly all of their time out of doors in the pure,
+fresh air. Their eyes and ears were trained to every sign of the forest,
+for upon the sharpness of their senses their very lives depended.
+
+  [Illustration: _George J. Young_
+  A forest playground on Virginia Creek in the Yosemite country,
+  California, in one of Uncle Sam's forest reserves.]
+
+We have lived in houses so long, where the air is often close and impure
+and where we have no need of sharp senses for protection, that we have
+lost some of the strength and sturdy self-reliance of our wild
+ancestors.
+
+We have become partly dulled to the beauty out of doors, because we have
+been so constantly employed by the business of making a living. But the
+forest playgrounds are calling us to return for a little time each year
+to the wilds that were once our home, and to renew our acquaintance with
+the trees, the streams and the rocks, and with the wild creatures that
+live among them. To be able to make our beds on the leaves under the
+trees, and to build a fire of sticks and cook our own food, seems quite
+natural and like old and familiar times.
+
+The stories and legends that have come down to us about the forests and
+the imaginary people who lived in them were believed to be true by the
+people of long ago. The deep, dark woods once covered nearly all Europe
+where our ancestors lived. To be lost in the woods was to be in danger
+of meeting the strange and mysterious people who were thought to live in
+their depths. Among these beings, some of whom were good and others bad,
+were fairies, nymphs, gnomes, and ogres. When people ceased to believe
+so much in these stories, they began to lose their fear of the woods.
+Among some of these people there grew up a love and fascination for the
+trees which they believed were the dwelling places of spirits or
+divinities.
+
+If in our great forest playgrounds we can lead this out-of-door life for
+a few weeks each year, it will make us healthier, stronger, and happier.
+We no longer fear any mysterious creatures in the woods or the forces of
+Nature as shown in the lightning, the winds, and the waterfalls; but
+year by year we are finding more to love and admire in the wild scenery
+of the woods and mountains and in their animal and plant inhabitants.
+
+The wild woods call many of us on jaunts and picnics when, if it were
+not for them, we should stay at home shut up in stuffy rooms. In time
+may not the love of the forest wilds come back to us all? May not the
+time come when each one of us shall be able to look at a beautiful tree
+and not think only of how much lumber it would make? May not the time
+come when we may hear the grouse drumming its call and not feel the
+desire to kill and eat it?
+
+If the time does come in which we think as much of our beautiful
+mountains as the people of Europe do of the Alps, we shall then guard
+them with far more jealous care than we do today. In spite of the fact
+that the Alps are wet and cold and that no one thinks of sleeping out of
+doors there, yet the people of Europe love their mountains almost
+passionately.
+
+Our mountains are much more attractive summer playgrounds than the Alps.
+We can wander at will over a far greater number of untrodden ways than
+Europeans can in the Alps. We can make our beds under the trees with
+rarely a thought of the weather. The air is always balmy and the skies
+are almost always blue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+
+WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WILD FLOWERS
+
+
+How eagerly we have looked forward to the coming of spring, and now it
+is here! The sun is shining brighter and warmer each day. The birds are
+returning from their winter home in the South. The buds on the trees are
+swelling and, in the warm nooks, some of the wild flowers have already
+opened their delicate petals. Who will find the first _spring beauty_ in
+the Eastern woods? Who will find the first of the _purple trilliums_
+that open their dark flowers in the shady groves, or the _golden
+poppies_ on the warm hillsides of the West?
+
+The spring air affects us as it does the plants and wild creatures. We
+long to get away from school, and taking our lunches, to spend the
+delightful days wandering through the fields and woods. There is no
+place like the open country when all Nature is waking. We feel like
+running and frisking as the young lambs do.
+
+Can it be wrong to gather all that we wish of the beautiful flowers with
+which the earth is carpeted? Has not Nature grown them in her great
+garden in such abundance that all we pick will make no difference to
+her? Let us go with the children on their rambles after flowers and
+learn if Nature does take any account of their innocent raids on her
+treasures.
+
+Here is a party of children chasing across the fields. Each one is
+searching for the flowers that have bloomed since last they were out,
+and each is trying to get more than his companions. The children have
+learned that some kinds of flowers grow in the woods, others in the
+marshy places, and still others on the dry hillsides. They know where
+to go for each kind, and not a spot escapes their sharp search.
+
+Here they find a patch of violets, and all are quickly picked. There are
+some baby-blue-eyes, and yonder dry field is brilliant with the colors
+of many others. In the gathering of the flowers some of them are pulled
+up by the roots, but the children do not think of the harm this does.
+They wander on and on until many have more in their hands than they can
+carry. Some of those picked first are already wilted, and, to make their
+burdens lighter, the children throw these away. At last a tired but
+happy band turns toward home.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  The wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.]
+
+What will be done with all the flowers that have been picked? In each
+home the vases are filled and the tables decorated. There is no room for
+all of them and some are thrown out. These flowers, once so fresh and
+bright as they nodded in the breeze, now lie crushed and wilted on the
+ground.
+
+Another spring returns and the children are out again looking in the
+familiar places for the flowers they know so well. But there seems to be
+something wrong, for there are not so many as there used to be. The
+children have to go farther and search more carefully to get their arms
+full.
+
+Still a third spring comes and the children are just as ready for the
+happy excursions and just as anxious to get the flowers. They hunt the
+fields over, but in the places where the flowers used to be so thick
+there are only a few scattering ones. They cannot understand what is
+wrong, but Nature could tell them if they would ask her. The year before
+she was short of seed, but this year it is much worse, for she had
+hardly any to plant in her garden. She is short of bulbs also, and of
+many other plants that grow from year to year, for the children
+carelessly pulled these up.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  Wild asters cover the mountain meadows.]
+
+The children do not want to go home with only a few flowers, and so they
+wander farther into the country than they have ever been before. Here
+they find them as abundant as they used to be near home.
+
+The children do not stop to think that at the base of the bright,
+fragrant blossoms grow the seed that will make the flowers of the next
+year. Nature can spare the seed of a part of the blossoms, for she grows
+many more than she needs; but if we pick them all, what can she do for
+the coming year?
+
+The wild flowers are living things struggling for a place in the world,
+just as are the animals and birds. We cannot abuse and destroy too many
+of them if we would have them stay and add to the beauty of our homes.
+Should we not take just as much pleasure in gathering the flowers if we
+did not bring home more than we needed? Would it not be better to be
+satisfied with smaller bouquets and leave enough in the fields to go to
+seed and gladden us next year?
+
+The reckless gathering of wild flowers has gone on so long and they have
+been picked so closely about many of our towns and cities, that they are
+disappearing. When there are no longer wild flowers within reach of the
+children who live in the cities, they will have lost a great joy out of
+their lives.
+
+There are besides the flowers of which we have been speaking other low
+plants of beautiful foliage with which we love to decorate our homes. We
+must take care that these are not gathered too closely or they also will
+become scarce. We cannot go out into the woods and pull up ferns by the
+roots year after year and expect Nature to keep up the supply.
+
+The huckleberry is one of the many beautiful shrubs which we admire
+for its delicate leaves and colors. It is cut and brought in from the
+country in huge bundles to supply the florists. The time will come when
+these decorations can no longer be had if the men are allowed to cut all
+they can find. Just as in the case of the flowers, seekers for them will
+be obliged to go farther each year and by and by the shrubs will be so
+scarce and high priced that we shall be obliged to do without them.
+
+  [Illustration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._
+  Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy
+  too many of them.]
+
+We hunt far and wide for the beautiful "holly berries" with which to
+decorate our homes at Christmas. When we have found a berry-laden bush,
+we eagerly break off the branches and bear them home in triumph. The
+bush, once so gay with berries, is a sad-looking thing when we are
+through with it. The branches are broken so far back that next year it
+will bear few berries and we shall have to seek another.
+
+We treat the beautiful earth on which we have been placed in a most
+thoughtless manner. We think only of what we want _now_, and forget that
+another year is coming in which also we shall want some of the earth's
+treasures. If we take only the surplus which each year produces, there
+will always be enough for us and for the people who live after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+
+NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS
+
+
+Nature seems very prodigal in her ways. She is continually creating on
+the earth a great multitude of living things, far more than there is
+room for. Each one of these, if it would live, must have a certain
+amount of air, sunshine, and food. As there is not enough of these
+things to supply every one, there arises a struggle. Those that are
+weakest die, because they are not able to get what they need. To us this
+seems hard, but it is Nature's way.
+
+And further, since many of the animals feed on the flesh of other
+animals, the latter have, in addition to the struggle for their food, to
+watch constantly for their lives. Every organism is in one sense the
+enemy of every other one. We do not mean that they often try to kill
+each other because of hate, as men do, but that they are after food to
+satisfy their hunger. Some of the higher animals as well as men fight
+for mastery, in addition to struggling for food. We hope that among men
+the unnecessary fighting will sometime cease, and that kindness and
+unselfishness will rule.
+
+The struggle for life is ceaselessly going on around us, but so quiet is
+it that we are not often aware of the countless tragedies that take
+place. This struggle extends from the plants and animals in the pond, so
+small that we cannot see them with the unaided eye, upward through all
+the larger animals.
+
+The struggle among all living things helps us to understand the
+necessity for Nature's prodigality. If the plants and animals that serve
+as food for others were not produced in great numbers, they would soon
+become extinct. It is seldom that any one kind of plant or animal,
+because of its many enemies, has an opportunity to spread and obtain
+more than its share of food and sunshine. According to Nature's
+arrangements, each organism does its share in keeping down the numbers
+of the others. This we call the "balance of Nature."
+
+Sometimes the balance of Nature is disturbed and one particular kind of
+animal gets the start of its enemies and increases until it becomes a
+_plague_. This may be caused by a favorable season or by the decrease of
+its enemies on account of disease among them. We have read of the
+plagues of grasshoppers which have sometimes visited the Western states
+and eaten up every green thing. Plagues of rats and field mice have been
+known to do a great deal of damage. In such cases their natural enemies,
+the hawks, owls, and coyotes, may be attracted to the region from far
+around, because of the extra food supply. After a time they may succeed
+in reducing the numbers of these pests.
+
+This balance among the animals, which comes from one living upon
+another, is a strange and wonderful thing. No one kind can long overrun
+its fellows. If one does get a start and increases until it becomes a
+pest or plague, some enemy is sure sooner or later to spring up to
+destroy it. We use this method in fighting some of the insect pests
+which are injuring our trees. Men have searched in various parts of the
+world from which such pests as the gypsy moth and the San Jose scale
+have come to find some of their enemies and bring them to this country
+to feed on these insects.
+
+When men came upon the earth, they soon began to upset Nature's
+arrangements, and from that time until now matters of this kind have
+been growing worse. We have killed large numbers of the beneficial
+animals and birds that kept the harmful ones in check. We have carried
+others from the homes given them by Nature, where they were doing little
+harm, to new homes where they have become terrible plagues.
+
+The killing of large numbers of hawks and owls, all the species of which
+many people have wrongfully thought to be harmful, has been followed by
+a great increase in the numbers of rats and mice. We have killed off
+most of the coyotes, the chief food of which was rabbits and ground
+squirrels. The two latter animals have now become a serious pest. They
+do enormous damage to the crops, and we spend thousands of dollars
+fighting them.
+
+The common rabbit has in most parts of its native country so many
+enemies which are always on the lookout for a good meal, that it cannot
+increase enough to do much harm. Years ago a number of rabbits were
+taken to Australia, where there were none. Here they found a favorable
+climate and few enemies. They have now increased so that they overrun
+much of the continent and are a terrible pest which the farmers are
+unable to control.
+
+Some years ago the gypsy moth and the browntail moth were introduced by
+accident into the New England states. Finding there a congenial climate
+and few enemies, they increased rapidly. They soon began to strip the
+leaves from the beautiful elms which make the streets and parks of this
+region so attractive. Now these moths have turned their attention to the
+white pine and are doing an ever-increasing amount of damage; and
+although they are being fought by every means in our power, we are not
+certain that we can ever control them.
+
+The codling moth, whose larva is the little apple worm, causes an
+immense loss in our fruit orchards. The cotton-boll weevil, which
+destroys so much of the cotton, is, like the codling moth, an insect
+imported from another country. The San Jose scale reached California
+from China and has now spread throughout our country. It has a special
+fondness for the sap of fruit trees, and, being so small, was not
+noticed until it had got beyond control. This scale causes more loss
+than any other of the tree insects.
+
+The Hessian fly, introduced from Europe more than one hundred years ago,
+causes during certain seasons a very great loss to the wheat crop. The
+Argentine ant has been brought to us from South America and is proving a
+most destructive pest. The Norway rat was brought to our country on
+sailing vessels and causes more loss than most of us realize. The
+English sparrow has spread over much of the country and is driving many
+of the native birds from their homes, because of its quarrelsome
+disposition. It makes itself a nuisance on all our city streets.
+
+The mongoose, in its home in India, is a great rat killer, but does not
+there increase so as to do much harm. Wherever it has been carried for
+the purpose of using it as a rat killer, this little four-footed animal
+has become a terrible scourge. After it destroys the rats it goes after
+the snakes. Then it attacks the other small animals and birds. Finally
+it begins upon the chickens, and even the vegetables in the garden are
+not safe from its voracious appetite.
+
+Men are now watching at every port to see that no more dangerous insects
+and animals are brought into the country. They are particularly on the
+watch for the Mediterranean fruit fly and for the mongoose.
+
+When we upset the balance of Nature, we start a whole chain of troubles.
+What can we do to escape the consequences of our ignorance and
+carelessness? In the first place we can protect the birds, for they eat
+enormous quantities of the harmful insects. In the second place we can
+see that no more of these dangerous pests are allowed to land on our
+shores. In the third place we shall have to fight, by every means that
+we can discover, those that are already here.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+
+WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE COAL, OIL, AND GAS ARE GONE?
+
+
+If coal, oil, and gas were suddenly taken away, all the nations would
+become poor and many of their industries would cease. Just think for a
+moment of the amount of work these things do for us and what an effort
+there would be made to find something to take their place!
+
+Wood once formed the chief fuel. It was used only to cook our food or to
+keep us warm. Now fuel is required for so many different purposes that
+with the decrease of the forests wood has been found insufficient.
+
+Peat is one of those substances that has been used in parts of Europe to
+take the place of wood, but it is used so little in our own country that
+many have never seen it.
+
+Peat is dug from bogs or marshes. We might say that a peat marsh is the
+beginning of a coal bed. Peat is the partly decayed vegetation which has
+slowly accumulated in wet places. In the colder countries it is formed
+largely of moss and similar water-loving plants, but where the climate
+is warm other kinds of marsh vegetation, and even trees, aid in forming
+peat. Sometimes floods bring earth and deposit it in the marshes, in
+which case the peat is less suitable for fuel, but forms a rich and
+productive soil instead.
+
+In many of the vast swamps of long ago, when there were no men nor even
+the higher animals upon the earth, vegetation grew very rank. It is
+believed that at that remote time the air contained more carbonic acid,
+a substance which promotes the growth of plants. Thus the plants in the
+warm, moist parts of the earth grew more densely and luxuriantly than
+they usually do today.
+
+In the decay of this vegetation deposits similar to the peat marshes
+were formed, but they differed in being much thicker and more extensive.
+If the story of these ancient peat marshes had stopped here, we should
+never have had any coal. Fortunately it did not, for some of the swamps
+sank beneath the water of a lake or ocean and thick beds of gravel,
+sand, or clay were deposited over them. While buried deep in the earth,
+the decaying vegetation was heated and pressed together by the great
+weight of the earth above, and was finally changed to shining, black
+coal.
+
+After the coal was made, but before men came to the earth, parts of the
+sea bottom with its buried treasures were raised to form hills and
+mountains. Then the rainwater began its work upon the slopes, and after
+a time washed away so much of the overlying material that the coal was
+exposed at the surface. At last through some accident, such as lightning
+perhaps, men learned that this black substance would burn. Coal was
+little used, however, as long as there was an abundance of wood and the
+needs of people were few.
+
+As manufacturing and the use of the steam engine increased, coal grew in
+value. The business of mining coal finally became one of the great
+industries. The mining operations were carried on as carelessly as
+though the supply in the interior of the earth were inexhaustible. In
+the underground working it is customary to leave about one quarter of
+the coal in the form of pillars for the purpose of supporting the roof.
+At a little more expense other materials could be substituted for these
+pillars and all the coal could be taken out.
+
+In using the coal we waste about another quarter. Stoves and furnaces
+are usually built so poorly that a large part of the value of the coal
+escapes as gas and smoke. In large cities and manufacturing districts
+the smoke becomes a great nuisance. In the making of coke from coal,
+enormous quantities of coal tar and gas have been lost. Most engines
+consume a far greater amount of coal than they should in doing a given
+amount of work. Most of us do not know how to use coal economically in
+our homes, and thus aid not only in wasting the coal supplies but in
+making the cost of living higher than it should be. All together, in the
+handling of coal we lose fully half of it. The coal supply of the earth
+is disappearing very fast, and at the rate at which its use is now
+increasing it may not last more than one hundred years.
+
+If we cannot use coal without wasting so much, would it not be wiser for
+us to turn our attention more fully to the sources of power in the
+streams which are flowing down all our mountain sides? The use of this
+power when turned into electricity would enable us to save a large part
+of the coal, oil, and gas that are now used, and so make them last
+longer.
+
+It is far easier to waste oil and gas than coal, for, when we have
+drilled holes in the earth, unless we are very careful the gas will
+escape into the air and the oil will become mixed with water, so that it
+will be difficult for us to get it.
+
+Oil and gas are confined under great pressure hundreds and often
+thousands of feet below the surface. To make clear how easy it is to
+waste them, we might compare them to the compressed air in an
+automobile tire. If the tire is punctured by a nail, the air issues
+suddenly with a sharp, whistling sound until the pressure inside is gone
+and no more will come out.
+
+For many years we have been puncturing the crust of the earth, where oil
+has been discovered, and letting the oil and gas escape. We have saved
+most of the oil, but nearly all the gas has been wasted. The gas will
+finally stop coming out when the pressure is gone, just as the air did
+in the automobile tire.
+
+On the opposite page is a picture of a "gusher" in the Sunset oil field,
+California, which tells the story of how we are permitting the valuable
+substances within the earth to be wasted. In drilling this well the oil
+men suddenly struck a deposit of oil and gas under great pressure. The
+drilling tools were blown out of the well and a column of oil and gas
+shot up 150 feet. For a time the well flowed forty thousand barrels of
+oil each day, and an unknown quantity of gas. Much of the oil was
+scattered around the surrounding country, and all the gas was lost. Men
+worked for weeks making reservoirs of earth in an attempt to save the
+river of oil.
+
+Another well a few miles distant struck an enormous quantity of gas. It
+blew off for days with a roar like that of the steam from a giant
+engine. Then it took fire, and the column of flame at night was a
+fearful sight. There was gas enough lost from this one well to light a
+city for months.
+
+Gas has been escaping during many years from hundreds of wells in the
+Pennsylvania, Ohio Valley, Oklahoma, Texas, and California oil fields.
+The gas from all these wells together has been estimated to be equal
+in value to a river of oil flowing several hundred thousand barrels each
+day. In many districts the gas was nearly gone before people discovered
+its great value. It is impossible for us to realize the waste which this
+represents.
+
+  [Illustration: _Myrl's Studio, Bakersfield, California_
+  A "gusher" in a California oil field wasting great quantities of oil and
+  gas.]
+
+It has taken Nature a long time to make the oil and gas which we are
+losing. When she began this work, the oil regions which have been
+mentioned were beneath the sea. In its waters lived countless numbers of
+minute organisms, as well as fish of many kinds. As they died, their
+bodies accumulated in beds which finally became thousands of feet thick.
+Then the currents of the water changed and sand and mud were washed over
+these beds, burying them deeply.
+
+Finally the bottom of the sea was lifted and became dry land. The
+movement squeezed and folded the rocky layers made of the skeletons of
+the animals and plants. The soft parts of their bodies held in these
+rocky layers produced a greenish or brownish oil and gas. The gas tried
+to escape from the rocks, for they were hot and it wanted more room. In
+some places it found openings through the rocks and escaped to the
+surface, usually bringing some of the oil with it. The gas was lost, but
+a part of the oil remained, forming deposits of tar. In other places the
+oil and gas could not reach the surface, but found porous, sandy rocks
+into which they went and remained until the oil driller found them.
+
+The tar springs, or "seepages," indicate to the oil prospector where
+deposits of oil may possibly be found. He examines the country about
+and, selecting a favorable place, drills a well. If he is successful, he
+will strike oil-bearing rocks. The oil may be a few hundred feet below
+the surface, or it may be a mile below. In the latter case it takes
+months to drill the well.
+
+If a robber came and attempted to take by force the coal, oil, and gas
+which we are daily losing through our carelessness and indifference,
+even though he might put it to better use than we put it, there would at
+once go up a great cry. We would raise an army and fight for our
+property, and perhaps suffer great loss in defending it. But, day by
+day, without making any serious objection, we are letting these natural
+resources go to waste.
+
+Perhaps in some far distant future, after we have used up the stores of
+fuel in the earth, we may discover something to take its place; but wise
+and thoughtful people should make the most of what they have.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+
+NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER
+
+
+Perhaps you think it is absurd to talk about caring for the creatures
+that live in the water, since they can so easily hide away in its depths
+where we cannot follow. Perhaps you think that because the ocean is so
+great it would be impossible ever to catch all the fish that live in it.
+It is easy to understand how all the fish might be caught out of the
+creeks, rivers, and shallow lakes, since fish are hungry and we put
+before them such attractive bait; but with the ocean it seems different.
+It stretches so many thousands of miles and is so very deep that there
+does not appear to be any danger of exterminating the animals of the
+ocean as we have some of those of the land.
+
+Is it true, however, that all the vast waters of the ocean are full of
+fish, or are they found only in certain parts? The fishermen can tell us
+about this matter. They know where to set the hooks and nets, and where
+they are most likely to get a good catch. They do not go far out where
+the water is deep but seek, instead, the shallow waters near the shore
+or about the reefs and islands. They know that the deep water of the
+ocean contains very few fish and none that are of any value as food.
+
+Each kind of fish has become adapted to certain parts of the ocean, for
+both the food supply and the pressure of the water differ with different
+depths. Fish caught in deep water are often dead before reaching the
+surface, because of the decrease in the water pressure.
+
+One reason why fish are not numerous far out in the ocean is because
+there is little food to be had there. The reason no fish are found in
+the very deep parts of the ocean is because the water there contains no
+air particles. Strange as it may seem, although fish breathe water, they
+cannot live unless it contains oxygen from the air.
+
+The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for food, are
+found only in the shallow waters usually near the shore and in the lakes
+and rivers. Because of this fact it is possible, as we have learned from
+experience, to set so many traps and use so many nets and hooks as
+entirely to destroy certain species.
+
+The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare among them
+just as there is among the land animals. The larger and more powerful
+live upon the smaller ones, but, seemingly to make up for this, Nature
+has given the small fish quickness of movement--which the large fish do
+not possess--to aid them in escaping. They have also the power of
+increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which is the chief food of
+many of the large fish, maintains its countless numbers against all its
+enemies except the fishermen.
+
+The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, could obtain but
+few fish at a time and did not reduce their numbers. But civilized man,
+with his cunningly contrived hooks and nets, has the same advantage over
+the fish that the hunter, with his repeating gun, has over the land
+animals. Nature, not foreseeing how destructive man would be, has armed
+neither the creatures of the land nor the creatures of the water against
+him.
+
+The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the hunter whose
+business it is to supply the market. He seems to think no more about
+the effect upon next season's supply, of his stretching a net across a
+river and catching all the fish going up to spawn, than does the market
+hunter who would, if he could, shoot the last duck. Is it not strange
+that many fishermen will do anything in their power to evade the laws
+governing the catching of fish when by doing so they injure their own
+business?
+
+  [Illustration: _Edward S. Curtis_
+  A rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, used by seals as a sunning place.]
+
+We have already nearly destroyed the mammals that live in the ocean.
+Among them are the whales, which were once numerous in the arctic
+regions. Few whaling ships now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or
+whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than
+that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also
+nearly extinct.
+
+No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal
+mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the
+mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the
+Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so
+reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia,
+Japan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of
+the fur seal for a number of years.
+
+As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used
+by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot
+keep up the supply. For the purpose of assisting her, strict laws have
+been passed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from
+stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the
+passage of the fish when going to their spawning grounds. They also
+prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at
+all of some kinds to be taken for a given time. Our government is now
+doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some
+varieties are still decreasing.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  An Indian fish trap.]
+
+The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous
+numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of
+other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase
+rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that
+this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each spawning
+season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number
+hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This
+estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste
+of herring in the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast,
+where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any
+wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?
+
+The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared
+from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised
+artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters
+on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high
+tide? The greatest oyster farms in the world are upon Chesapeake Bay.
+There are also oyster farms in other bays upon the Atlantic seaboard,
+and lately the oyster has been transplanted to the bays upon the Pacific
+Coast.
+
+The lobster was trapped so industriously that it also began to grow
+scarce. Finally the government took up the matter of protecting it. The
+eggs and the young were guarded, and now it is increasing in numbers.
+
+Once the sturgeon was very plentiful in the lakes and rivers of our
+country. For a long time it was thought to be of no value and was thrown
+away when caught in nets set for other fish. Then it was discovered that
+its flesh was delicious, and its eggs, known as _caviar_, became a very
+fashionable dish. After this there followed a period of most destructive
+fishing, and now sturgeon are quite scarce and high priced.
+
+Herring, shad, and salmon are migratory fish. By this we mean that they
+spend a part of their lives in the ocean but enter the bays and streams
+at the spawning season. You can readily understand that if the bays are
+blocked with nets the fish cannot reach the spawning grounds and their
+numbers must decrease. Chesapeake Bay contains such a maze of nets, many
+of them extending out ten miles from the shore, that it is a wonder
+that any fish get past them.
+
+  [Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
+  A fish wheel on the Columbia River, in which salmon are caught on their
+  way to the spawning grounds.]
+
+The waters of New England were once filled with striped bass, smelt,
+salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost gone. The shad are
+rapidly decreasing all along the Atlantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie
+extend out sometimes ten miles from shore, and the whitefish as well as
+the sturgeon have been greatly reduced in numbers there.
+
+When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the "salmon run" in the
+Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was a wonderful sight. The waters
+were fairly alive with these huge fish. Hydraulic mining so muddied the
+waters of the Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then came
+the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, so nearly
+blocking the channels that the salmon were rarely seen on their old
+spawning grounds. Now salmon fishing is carefully regulated and salmon
+are increasing.
+
+The shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, the ocean for some miles out
+from shore, and the waters about the islands of Southern California form
+very valuable fishing grounds, which, if they are taken care of, will
+furnish much larger supplies of fish than are now obtained.
+
+The interesting discovery has been made that the waters around the
+islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente form important spawning
+grounds for many food fish, including the great tuna. These waters were
+fished so destructively that many of the fish were found to be
+decreasing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve for
+three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this area no fish are
+allowed to be taken except with a hook and line. Some of the most
+valuable fish, which were almost gone, are now becoming more numerous.
+The fact that the fish stay close about the island where the water is
+shallow makes the establishment of the preserve possible.
+
+The salmon and halibut fisheries of the Alaskan waters have long been
+the source of much profit. This region, owing to the many bays and
+islands, fairly swarms with fish of many kinds. Protection will soon be
+needed here if this great storehouse of fish is to be kept filled.
+
+The cod fisheries of the Newfoundland banks are among the most valuable
+in the world, and are almost the only ones where fishing has long been
+carried on and where the supply is not decreasing. The "banks" are
+formed by a great flat reef four hundred miles long, over which the
+water is shallow enough to offer a fine home for cod.
+
+Hatcheries have been established in many parts of our country for the
+purpose of collecting and hatching fish eggs. These are used for
+restocking those waters that have been fished out. After the eggs have
+hatched and the young fish have reached a certain stage, they are
+shipped to the streams where they are needed. The United States fishery
+on the McCloud River, California, has distributed rainbow trout all over
+the United States. Shad and striped bass have been brought from Eastern
+fisheries and planted in Pacific Coast waters, where they are now
+rapidly increasing.
+
+Thus we learn that valuable food fish live within certain narrow bounds
+instead of being distributed all through the waters of the globe. It is
+as easy, with our many ingenious devices of net and weir, to destroy the
+inhabitants of the water as it is to destroy those of the land with
+guns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+
+MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS
+
+
+We have learned something about the struggle among the plants and
+animals for food and for room on the earth. We must not think, however,
+that this struggle is at all like the war that is carried on between
+different nations. Wars are usually unnecessary and do more harm than
+good, for they result in the loss of the strongest and best men. But the
+struggle among the animals and plants has resulted in good, for it has
+crowded out the weakest and those less fitted to live.
+
+The struggle among all living things for food and a share of the
+sunshine has covered the earth with a far greater variety than there
+would otherwise be. Because so many more are born than there is room
+for, they crowd and elbow each other. Many are forced to make their
+homes in regions which they would not have chosen if they had been free
+to do as they pleased. It is partly because of this crowding that some
+of the animals which once lived on the ground became changed into birds
+and made their homes in the trees. A number of the mammals found more
+freedom in the water and finally became whales, seals, and walruses.
+Many moved into deserts and, in learning to live with very little water,
+developed curious bodies and habits. Some have found a home in the cold
+North, where they have become suited to a climate which would quickly
+kill those which had held their ground in the warm and moist tropical
+regions.
+
+Nature has thus filled the earth with an infinite variety of living
+things, each of which is doing its part in making the world beautiful
+and attractive. Man is Nature's last and most wonderful creation. He has
+learned to fly like the birds, to swim under the sea like the fish, and
+to harness Nature's forces and make them work for him. But man, with all
+his wisdom, has too often forgotten that he is really a brother to the
+lower creatures. The inhabitants of the air, the land, and the water
+could, if they were able to talk, tell the most pitiful tales of man's
+cruel treatment of them.
+
+Of course we have to eat, as do all other living creatures, but for
+thousands of years people have supplied their wants largely from
+agriculture and from the domestic herds. Although very few of us now
+have to hunt for our food, and these few are those who live far out on
+the borders of newly settled regions, yet we have not forgotten the
+hunting instincts of our ancestors.
+
+Our ancestors of long ago, like the savages on the earth today, seldom
+killed game unless they needed it for food. We, who think ourselves far
+better than they, now kill wild life for the pleasure of the chase. The
+professional hunter who seeks the glossy coats of the fur-bearing
+animals or the beautiful plumage of certain birds gives no thought to
+the wasted bodies that he leaves behind.
+
+Since men have become civilized and their needs have become so many,
+Nature's arrangements have been seriously disturbed. She has not armed
+the wild creatures against men, who, with all kinds of marvelous
+weapons, are able to take advantage of them. The wild creatures discover
+very quickly that they can find little protection against this new
+enemy, no matter how quick and sharp their senses are.
+
+The blue jay has only his sharp eyes to help him when he seeks the
+cunningly hidden nest of another bird with the hope of being able to
+dine upon eggs. The breakfast of the wolf depends alone upon his
+quickness in catching a rabbit. The mountain lion depends upon his
+stealthiness when stalking a deer. The Indian relies upon his skill in
+imitating the call or the appearance of an animal when he tries to
+approach near enough to use his bow and arrow. Civilized men have lost
+much of the keenness of sight and hearing they once had, but they have
+far more than made up for this through their ingenuity in making deadly
+weapons.
+
+We depend no longer upon the hunt for each day's supply of food. But the
+instinct to hunt which still remains we use to amuse ourselves while
+upon our camping trips. Some people even made a living by hunting for
+the market, although, fortunately for the wild creatures, little of this
+kind of hunting is now permitted.
+
+The desire to get out of doors and live for a time each year among the
+wild mountains is another instinct which comes to us from our savage
+forefathers. This is a beneficial instinct, for life in the fresh air
+gives us new strength. The hunting instinct is not wrong in itself. It
+is the manner in which we hunt that is wrong. But how much finer it
+would be if, instead of using an outing as an excuse to destroy the wild
+creatures, we should use it to learn about them and their curious ways.
+How much more real pleasure there is in studying the habits of the
+denizens of the woods and fields than there is in killing them!
+
+Many a boy wants to carry a gun, because he has read lurid stories of
+Indians and robbers, or of hunting in the jungles where lions and tigers
+abound. This often leads to the killing of harmless birds for the lack
+of bigger game. Boys should be taught either at home or in school the
+sacredness of life, and a feeling of pity and love for the wild
+creatures that are surrounded by enemies on every side. They should be
+taught that animals have feelings and that they want to live. They
+should be taught how wrong it is to destroy life uselessly. The nest of
+eggs or helpless young left to their fate through the thoughtless
+killing of a mother bird is a sight which must arouse the sympathy of
+every boy who has been taught what it means.
+
+  [Illustration: _Eastman Kodak Company_
+  The only right way to hunt birds' nests--with a camera.]
+
+The killing of the mothers is the surest way to destroy a species. The
+laws in most of our states now regulate hunting during the breeding
+season and limit the number of wild animals or birds that may be taken
+in a given time. Whenever the numbers of any species become so reduced
+that it is in danger of extinction, all hunting of that species should
+be prohibited for a number of years.
+
+We should feel sorry for those men who live in a civilized land and get
+the benefit of its advantages and yet are worse than savages at heart.
+If these men who are so wasteful of wild life could be stripped of their
+destructive weapons and sent into the wilds to make their living as
+savages do, they would soon learn to be more careful.
+
+The animals prey upon each other because it is their nature to do so and
+because their lives depend upon it. Savages hunt because they must have
+food. We do not need to hunt, but, because of our higher intelligence,
+our hunting methods are far more destructive than are those of either
+animals or savages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+
+WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+
+Nature has done more for our land than for almost any other. She has
+given it vast forests, fertile soil, favorable climate, enormous water
+power, many minerals, and a wonderful variety of animal life.
+
+During all the centuries that the Indians lived here before the coming
+of white men, wild game furnished them their chief food, but in spite of
+this, the amount of game was not decreased. When our forefathers landed
+upon this continent, it fairly swarmed with animals and birds. With the
+clearing away of the forests and the settling of the prairies men could
+not help depriving many wild creatures of both their shelter and their
+food, but this was not the chief cause for their rapid decrease in
+numbers. Hunters followed them persistently into the wilder hills and
+mountains, and many, not needed for food, were killed for their furs.
+
+  [Illustration: "There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation
+  or devastation--which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation
+  of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent
+  asset." _Western Wild Life Call_, published by the California Associated
+  Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.]
+
+Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts
+of our country and see very little life of any kind except birds and
+the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a
+deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come
+upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him
+before he is gone.
+
+The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good
+reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some
+species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection
+will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where
+man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.
+
+  [Illustration: _L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont._
+  Why the buffalo have nearly disappeared from the land.]
+
+The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this
+noble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.
+Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other
+thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone,
+people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not
+more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped the hunters were
+placed under protection and now they are slowly increasing.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History_
+  A group of Roosevelt elk.]
+
+The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky
+Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the
+Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in
+California is proud of his great achievement.
+
+Of all the elk which once spread over the western part of our country,
+only a few remain outside of the Yellowstone region. A protected herd
+exists in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and another small herd
+roams through the wilder parts of the northern Coast Ranges. The
+antelope, so common on the plains only a few years ago, are all gone
+except for small, scattered herds in the more remote parts of the West.
+
+Of the many fur-bearing animals which once inhabited the Northwest,
+beavers were the most widespread and abundant. Their pelts were so
+valuable that they were used as money. For many years the trapping of
+these little animals was an important industry, until at last they were
+practically exterminated in every stream throughout the western half of
+the country. A few beaver are known to remain in the Yellowstone Park,
+where they are of course carefully protected. In Oregon a few escaped
+and have been carefully protected for some years. In certain places they
+are now quite abundant. In parts of New England and Canada they are now
+increasing under the protection of the game laws.
+
+The sea otter, now extremely rare, is so highly valued for its fur that
+it soon may become extinct, although completely protected by law.
+
+  [Illustration: _New York Zooelogical Society_
+  A beaver and its lodge.]
+
+The passenger pigeon, whose flights almost covered the sky at times not
+more than forty years ago, and whose numbers seemed so great that no one
+believed it possible of extermination, is now gone forever. The
+extinction of these birds was due chiefly to their being slaughtered at
+their roosting places.
+
+The California condor, one of the largest of birds, is almost extinct.
+The prairie chicken has disappeared from the prairies and plains.
+Certain species of grouse, and especially the sage grouse, mountain
+quail, and others, which inhabit sparsely settled regions, are thought
+to be still holding their ground, but should be more carefully
+protected. The valley quail is, however, much reduced in numbers; while
+ducks, geese, and smaller shore birds are decreasing with each
+succeeding year.
+
+Even in the jungles of far-away Africa, where we would think the animals
+are exposed to little danger of extinction, some of them, such as the
+elephant, are in urgent need of protection. In the far North the great
+polar bear will not long survive unless rigidly protected.
+
+What terrible scourge has so suddenly come upon the birds and animals
+that once adorned our country? How is it that in the short space of
+fifty years many of them have almost disappeared from their ancient
+haunts? We feel like hiding our faces in shame, for it is the same man
+scourge that for many hundreds of years has been destroying the forests,
+the animals, and the birds of many other countries.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A California condor.]
+
+The helplessness of all the wild creatures before man's destructive
+weapons should arouse our sympathy, if nothing else does. Leaving out of
+account a few predatory animals that destroy large numbers of other
+animals, we should most earnestly try to protect those that remain.
+
+The beauty of the birds, their sweet music, the companionship which they
+afford, and, last but not least, their great value to the farmer and
+fruit grower, should arouse our earnest efforts in their behalf.
+
+In our country alone an army of five million men and boys go out to hunt
+wild creatures every year. The animals are so defenseless against man's
+weapons that it is not a fair fight, in which the quicker or sharper
+escape, but a slaughter.
+
+If these hunters were savages armed only with bows and arrows, then the
+wild creatures would have a chance for their lives. Besides, savages do
+not kill for sport, nor do they purposely destroy Nature's most valuable
+gifts to them.
+
+The forest that has been cut down will grow again. The soil that has
+been made poor will, if let alone, sometime become fertile again. But
+those species of birds, animals, and fish which we have completely
+destroyed will never be restored to us.
+
+  [Illustration: _Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies_
+  The sage grouse, which is in danger of extinction.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
+
+THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE
+
+
+Our savage ancestors depended largely for food upon animals, birds, and
+fish which they obtained. They used the skins and furs for clothing and
+the plumes for decorating themselves. They allowed no part of the bodies
+of the animals they killed to go to waste.
+
+We do not now have to depend upon the wild creatures for food, because
+our flocks and herds supply all that we require. But Dame Fashion has
+decreed that furs and feathers are still the proper thing to wear. Thus
+it has come about that those animals that have soft, furry coats and
+those birds that have bright plumage are hunted more eagerly now than
+they were long ago when food was the most important thing.
+
+The demand for furs has always been great and the trapping industry has
+employed thousands of men ever since our land was discovered, but in
+recent years feathers have become almost as important. No region where
+fur-bearing animals have their lairs, or birds of beautiful plumage have
+their nests, is too far away or too difficult for the hunters and
+trappers to go and hunt.
+
+The business of killing wild creatures for money makes beasts out of men
+and has led to most heartless cruelties. The savage, hunting for food,
+kills his prey at once; but the fur trapper with a circuit which takes
+sometimes a week to cover often has to leave his prey, tortured in the
+traps, until it starves to death.
+
+If the wearer of that handsome warm fur coat could know what was,
+perhaps, the story of the wild creature to which it once belonged,
+would she enjoy it so much? Could the wearer of that gay hat, for the
+making of which not only a mother bird, but perhaps a whole family of
+little ones, gave up their lives, take so much pleasure in it if she
+knew the history of its plumes?
+
+It is not the desire for warm furs about our necks or for beautiful
+feathers in our hats that is wrong. It is the needless suffering that
+those who hunt and trap cause the wild creatures that we should be
+ashamed of and insist upon having stopped.
+
+The work of the trapper and hunter is nearly done. These men have
+despoiled for money the life of a whole continent in a few short years.
+The fur-bearing animals, if hunted in moderation, would have continued
+to people the wilds for all time to come. But neither the wearer of furs
+nor the hunter has given one thought to their preservation.
+
+In the getting of bird plumage for millinery purposes we find cruelties
+practiced which are almost beyond our belief. The lowest savage that
+ever lived on the earth could be no worse than many of our bird hunters.
+
+Birds have habits which make them easier to kill than fur-bearing
+animals. Although the modern fashion for feathers began less than fifty
+years ago, the birds that afford bright and graceful plumage have
+already been nearly exterminated. Now most of them are protected in our
+country, and the sale of feathers from other countries is prohibited in
+our markets. But there are some places where the law is not enforced, as
+well as many other countries where there are no laws, and thoughtless
+women still wear plumes. To supply the demands of fashion all the remote
+lands as well as islands of the sea are being searched.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Young great blue herons in their nest.]
+
+The slaughter began with the bright-colored songbirds, terns, gulls,
+herons, egrets, and flamingos. Then it extended to other sea birds,
+including the albatross, to bright-colored tropical birds, and to the
+wonderful birds of paradise. How true is the following statement made in
+a millinery store:
+
+"You had better take the feather for twelve dollars," said the clerk,
+"for it is very cheap at that price. These feathers are becoming scarce
+and very soon we shall not be able to secure them."
+
+Here is milady's beautiful cape glistening with all the colors of the
+rainbow. Of what is this gorgeous thing made? Would you believe it
+possible that it is formed entirely of humming birds' skins, with the
+heads and long, slender bills? Perhaps a thousand of the tiny birds were
+sacrificed that some woman might have a beautiful cape. Does it seem
+possible that any gentlewoman could wear this cape, who had any
+realization of the tragedies that had to take place in humming-bird life
+in order that it might be made? Could she wear this cape if she knew of
+the forsaken nests and the hundreds of dying young ones waiting for the
+mothers that never returned?
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Forster's tern or sea swallow on its nest. The wings and tail of this
+  bird are used for millinery purposes.]
+
+But more terrible, if anything, than the story of the humming-bird cape
+is the story of the delicate egret plumes on yonder hat. They once
+adorned the mother bird at nesting time in some far marsh. The feathers
+are almost perfect at this time, and to get them the bird must be
+killed. Each bunch of egret feathers represents a family tragedy,--a
+nest of little birds left to die, because the mother has been sacrificed
+to satisfy the demands of fashion.
+
+The plume hunters invade the nesting places of the egrets, herons, and
+flamingos, often leaving not a single bird in what were once happy
+colonies, except the starving little ones. Millions of these plumes have
+been obtained along our seacoasts and about the interior lakes and
+marshes. Is it any wonder that the egrets are nearly extinct as a result
+of this merciless slaughter?
+
+Now, when it is almost too late, protection has been given these
+beautiful birds. Bird refuges have been established at different
+favorable points along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the
+Klamath and Malheur Lake regions of Oregon. These refuges are watched
+over by wardens, and we hope that the birds inhabiting them will thus be
+enabled to increase and again fill the almost forsaken marshes.
+
+In our plea for the protection of the birds of attractive plumage, we
+must not forget those of the tropical jungles. Remote as many of these
+jungles are, the plumage hunter is devastating them already. The bird of
+paradise, found in the East India islands, will soon be extinct unless
+protected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
+
+THE COURT OF THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+
+Once upon a time, not very long ago, the birds and animals were brought
+into court to be tried on the charge of committing all sorts of
+misdeeds. Some of their accusers wanted to shoot them for food. Others
+said they did much harm and should be destroyed, while still others
+envied their beautiful coats of fur or feathers. To settle the matter
+fairly, the judge decided that each prisoner should be tried by itself.
+
+The first case called was that of the English sparrow, who made such a
+noisy disturbance that the bailiff had to call for silence. All
+witnesses asserted that the bird was a foreigner and did not belong in
+this country. They further testified that the sparrow was a meddlesome,
+gossiping neighbor, always fighting the other birds and driving them
+away. The sparrow looked around, but not a single friend could he find.
+The court decided that he should be driven out and made the lawful prey
+of every one. He cautioned all present, however, always to be very
+careful to distinguish between the English sparrow and the other
+sparrows. The latter birds must on no account be molested, for they were
+without any exceptions most useful citizens.
+
+In regard to the linnet the judge hardly knew what to say. The bird was
+shown to be a sweet singer, but very destructive of fruit. It was
+finally decided that a census of the linnets must be taken occasionally.
+Whenever their number was found to be so great as to endanger the fruit
+crop in any particular place, the farmers were to be allowed to dispose
+of a certain number.
+
+The bobolink had many friends as well as enemies present. Every one that
+knew the bobolink in its summer home in the North insisted that this
+beautiful singer must be protected. But the people from the South, where
+it spends the winter, wished the privilege of shooting it. They said
+that its flesh formed a delicious morsel and also that in the rice
+fields, where it was known as the "rice bird," it did a great deal of
+harm. The judge refused to listen to the plea of the hunters and said
+that this attractive bird must be protected in both its winter and
+summer homes.
+
+The turn of the blue jay came next. Every one wondered what the charge
+against this bird with the beautiful blue plumage could be. Some thought
+that he was on trial for his discordant screeching, which alarmed all
+the inhabitants of the woods. The charge against the jay was, however,
+far more serious. He had been caught while making his breakfast of some
+baby birds which a mother robin had just hatched. The quail and every
+other small bird present called for vengeance on this ruthless destroyer
+of their homes. The gardener also added that the bird ate his cherries
+and apples.
+
+The jay now presented a strong defense, saying that most of his food was
+made up of harmful insects and worms. He proved that he did almost as
+much good as harm. The judge, knowing what a wise bird the jay was, told
+him to go but that he must thereafter look out for himself.
+
+The family of hawks was next examined. There were many witnesses who
+declared that they were the most destructive of neighbors and lived
+entirely upon small birds and chickens. The songbirds all raised their
+voices against hawks, saying that when they left their nests to hunt
+for food for their children, they were never sure of finding them alive
+upon their return. The judge inquired carefully as to the truth of these
+complaints, but found that only a few of the hawks were guilty as
+claimed. These included the peregrine falcon, sharp-shinned hawk, and
+Cooper's hawk. The other hawks proved that they were the farmers' best
+friends, for they waged endless war upon mice, rats, ground squirrels,
+gophers, and rabbits, and only occasionally caught other birds. They had
+evidence also that in those places where their numbers had been much
+reduced by the hunters, the small rodents increased enormously.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Full-grown young red-tailed hawks.]
+
+The court had to be held at night to accommodate the owls and give them
+justice. The judge decided from the evidence that, in this family as in
+the last, there were good members as well as bad and he could not
+condemn them all to death. The owls proved that they were of even more
+benefit to the farmers than were the hawks, because of the large number
+of rats which they ate. The great horned owl and the barred owl only
+were singled out for punishment.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  The screech owl at home. This is a well-known bird, of great economic
+  value because it catches so many mice.]
+
+The case of the meadow lark was called next. An old farmer complained
+that this bird had destroyed his young grain. Then the hunters made the
+plea that the meadow lark was really a game bird and that they ought to
+be allowed to shoot it. In defense of these birds the stomachs of many
+of them that had been killed were shown in court. It was proved that
+two thirds of all their food was made up of harmful insects and that the
+farmers ought to be glad to have them about. It was further shown that
+if the insects killed by the meadow larks in one day in the San Joaquin
+Valley, California, were loaded on the cars and hauled away, it would
+take a train of twenty cars of ten tons each. The meadow lark, upon this
+showing, was allowed to go unmolested and at once began a happy carol.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A coyote, one of the keenest-witted animals of the Western plains.]
+
+The grizzly bear had been summoned, but could not be found, for all of
+his species had been killed except a few in the Yellowstone Park. But
+the black bear was brought in and accused of eating young calves and
+colts. The stockmen asked that all the black bears be killed. The judge
+decided, however, that as there are so few left, and they are so timid
+and rarely do any harm, and are, besides, among the most interesting of
+the citizens of the woods, they should go free and be protected from the
+hunter.
+
+The coyote was next dragged in and accused of all manner of evil deeds.
+He pleaded in defense that he helped to keep down the numbers of the
+rabbits and ground squirrels, and that if it were not for his tribe,
+these little animals would eat up everything. The judge decided that the
+coyote was on the whole a rather unpleasant neighbor and refused to
+afford him any protection. Every one knew, however, that the coyote was
+so sharp and keen that he was a match for most of the enemies about him
+and would get along very well.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A weasel in its summer coat.]
+
+Those sly little animals, the skunk, weasel, coon, and mink, destroyed a
+great many birds, especially those that nested on or near the ground,
+according to the report of most of those present in court. But the skunk
+had some good friends who showed that his chief food was insects and
+worms, and that he did more good than harm. It was further proved that
+the fur of all these animals was so valuable that, while trapping them
+would be permitted, they must not be exterminated. In regard to the
+weasel, the testimony showed that he was a badly slandered animal. Most
+of his food appeared to be rats and mice, and only rarely did he kill
+chickens. The judge added that these poor animals had too often been
+condemned offhand. Although they occasionally ate chickens, no one had
+tried to find out the good which they did.
+
+To hear the complaints against the great California sea lion, the court
+adjourned to the seashore. The fishermen declared that the sea lion ate
+the fish upon which their livelihood depended, and also broke their
+nets. They demanded that all the sea lions be killed. Careful search in
+the stomachs of some of them that had been taken for that purpose made
+it very clear that the fishermen were wrong. The sea lions ate almost no
+fish, but lived upon squid and other sea animals not valuable to the
+fishermen. As a result, these interesting animals were given full
+protection.
+
+The oyster farmers complained most indignantly to the court about the
+conduct of the wild ducks. They said that the ducks ate a large part of
+the young oysters on their oyster farms. They wanted the ducks shot
+without delay, for their business was almost ruined. This matter was
+carefully looked into, and it was proved that the ducks really ate very
+few oysters.
+
+The judge remarked as he adjourned court that if all the accusations
+were true, hardly a wild creature would be left. He said further that
+each one was entitled to fair treatment at the hands of men unless it
+was wholly bad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY
+
+THE BIRDS OUR GOOD FRIENDS AND PLEASANT COMPANIONS
+
+
+As we lie partly awake on some bright spring morning, we hear through
+the open window such a chorus of music that it seems almost as though we
+must be in some enchanted land. This music, however, is the songs of the
+birds that nest about our homes.
+
+We can distinguish in the chorus the notes of many different birds. From
+the treetop come the sweet songs of the oriole and robin. Upon a low
+bush sits a black-headed grosbeak that never seems to weary of his
+refrain. From various hidden places in the dense foliage come the notes
+of the song sparrow and the lazuli bunting. From its perch upon some
+fence post the meadow lark adds to the cheerfulness of the morning. If
+your home is far enough south, you may hear the mocking bird pouring
+forth its melody in endless variation.
+
+Rising above all other sounds, as the morning advances, are the cheery
+calls of the quail who seems to say: "Where are you? Where are you? Stay
+right there; stay right there." Both in the morning and in the evening
+the almost heavenly music of the thrush echoes through the deep woods.
+In the quiet night the hoot of the owls is most entertaining.
+
+Would you for anything have the birds leave us? Would you for anything
+lose these airy creatures whose music, bright plumage, and graceful
+movements not only add so much to the pleasure of our daily lives but
+also serve us in so many ways? The woods, fields, and waters would be
+lonely without them.
+
+Did you ever think that it is possible, that it is indeed likely, that
+many of these beautiful creatures will leave us for all time if we do
+not treat them kindly and give them every protection in our power? Did
+you ever think of all the enemies that are constantly on the watch for
+the birds,--the thoughtless boy who robs their nests, the angry farmer
+who mistakenly believes they injure him, the hunter who thinks only of
+how good they taste, the sleek cat lying so innocently by your fireside,
+which loves a bird above everything else, and last of all, the blue jay,
+butcher bird, and some of the hawks and owls?
+
+To realize how our home would seem without birds, let us take an
+imaginary journey far across the water to "sunny Italy." Here you will
+rarely hear bird music upon spring mornings, unless it be that of some
+poor caged creature. If you will walk through the country, you will see
+few birds where once they must have been abundant. But upon every
+holiday you will see the fields filled with hunters, who with keen eyes
+are watching for any stray birds that have happened to stop on their
+journey across the country to rest and to hunt worms or taste a bit of
+fruit. The Italian does not know the good the birds do his garden and
+that it would be the part of wisdom for him to let them have a little of
+his corn and fruit.
+
+We will now journey to Spain and learn something about the treatment of
+our bird friends there. This country was once rich and prosperous. From
+it came many of the early explorers of our own land. The people of the
+central highlands of Spain never loved to hear the birds sing, because
+they were always thinking of the grain which the birds took. Thinking to
+save their crops, they not only killed and scared away all the birds
+they could, but they also cut down the trees so that the birds would
+have no places to nest.
+
+Thus the people freed themselves from the birds, but what was the
+harvest that they reaped? When the trees were gone they had no fuel, the
+soil dried out more quickly, and the insects increased until they
+destroyed far more of the grain and fruit than the birds could possibly
+have done. The people are now very poor and just manage to live from one
+harvest to another.
+
+Now let us learn a little about our own birds and what they are doing
+for us. We ought to know the habits of all the common birds that
+frequent our gardens and be able to tell each by its note. This would
+add greatly to our pleasure when out of doors and make us appreciate the
+services they are rendering.
+
+Go where you will through the open fields or among the trees and bushes,
+you will find different kinds of birds and all of them busily engaged.
+They are searching over every bit of ground as well as over the trunks,
+branches, and leaves of the trees. Some are after the seeds of different
+kinds of weeds. Others are getting the worms and insects that infest the
+trees. Watch a flock of the little titmice going carefully over all the
+leaves and branches of an oak tree. When they have finished, there are
+few insects or their eggs left upon it.
+
+How anxious are some of our farmers as well as the sportsmen to have the
+meadow lark classed as a pest or as a game bird. Would that the farmers
+knew how much good this bird does them! The stomachs of many of these
+larks have been carefully examined in order to find out what they
+really do eat. The contents show that more than half of the food of the
+meadow lark is made up of harmful insects, including beetles,
+grasshoppers, crickets, Jerusalem crickets, cutworms, caterpillars,
+wireworms, bugs, bees, ants, wasps, flies, spiders, and many others.
+These birds also eat large quantities of the seeds of weeds and at times
+damage the grain fields. The good that they do, however, far outweighs
+the evil.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A young meadow lark.]
+
+Woodpeckers belong to another class of birds that are very useful to us.
+How often have we heard them hammering upon a dead tree as they drill
+holes in search of the worms and beetles that are hidden under the bark
+or in the heart of the wood. It has long been the habit of hunters to
+shoot woodpeckers just for sport, although no one eats them nor are they
+known to do any harm. With a decrease in their numbers there has been an
+increase in insect pests which are now destroying so many trees in all
+parts of our country. The woodpeckers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are
+worth almost their weight in gold, for they destroy millions of beetles
+that are killing the great sugar pines and yellow pines. Here and there
+you will find a tree, attacked by the beetles, from which the
+woodpeckers have almost stripped the bark in their search for these
+insects.
+
+The food of the martins and swallows is wholly made up of insects. We
+have all seen them in their graceful flight and have noticed how they
+seize their insect prey while on the wing. The martins are of little
+value for food, and yet, in some parts of our country they have become
+almost extinct because of the pursuit of them by pot hunters.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A barn swallow.]
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A least sandpiper or snipe, one of the shore birds.]
+
+The shore birds form a group of very great value. They include those
+long-legged birds with slender bills which are found, usually along the
+shores of the ocean and of lakes and small bodies of water, but
+sometimes in the interior away from the water. The food of these birds
+is almost wholly insects, which are harmful in various ways. Among these
+insects are grasshoppers, army worms, cutworms, cabbage worms, grubs,
+horseflies, and mosquitoes.
+
+So cruelly and relentlessly have the shore birds been pursued by men who
+call themselves "sportsmen;" that many species are nearly extinct. We
+hope that the Migratory Bird Law will be enforced and that with the
+protection this gives them they will again increase and fill their old
+haunts. But we must ever be on the watch, for there will still be greedy
+hunters trying to evade the law until all our boys grow up with love and
+appreciation for the birds. The killdeer, snipe, and other plovers,
+whose habits make them the most interesting of the shore birds,
+especially need our protection. We have all seen these birds in our
+walks along the shore. Small and delicate their bodies are; each one
+would make scarcely a mouthful, and yet the pot hunters have seemed
+determined to kill them all.
+
+How many people ever think of the quail in any other light than as a
+delicious morsel to be served up on toast for dinner? The quail is not
+only useful because of the insects which it destroys, but is a most
+wonderfully interesting and attractive bird. If you have ever disturbed
+a mountain quail with a brood of young, you will never forget what an
+interesting sight the mother presented as she strutted back and forth on
+a log, warning her little ones to keep out of sight.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  A white heron.]
+
+Quail eat over a hundred kinds of insects, and happy should be that
+farmer who can get them to come about his home. Can you find it in your
+heart to shoot the father bird, as, perched upon some sightly point, he
+watches for danger while the mother just off the nest with her little
+brood feeds trustfully under his care?
+
+The hunting of quail for market is now prohibited by law. But before
+protection came market hunters were known to carry out the most cruel
+methods in order to bag the quail in large numbers. In the drier parts
+of our country, the springs where quail came to drink were covered until
+the thirsty birds gathered in large numbers. In this way the hunters
+were able to obtain all they wanted.
+
+  [Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
+  Gulls and terns on their resting ground.]
+
+Let us henceforth show by our kindness and good will to the living
+things around us that we are not merciless savages, thinking only of
+something to eat, but rather that we appreciate their presence and the
+great good that they do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
+
+HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN
+
+
+In the preceding chapters we have learned something of the destructive
+warfare that men have carried on against wild creatures. We have learned
+that some species are already extinct and that many others have been so
+reduced in numbers that they are threatened with the same fate.
+
+Nothing that we can do will bring back those that are gone, but we can
+save those that are left. Throughout our own country as well as many
+foreign countries, people are waking up to the necessity of protecting
+wild life. Thousands of men and women are spending their time and money
+trying to save birds and other animals. Among the things they are doing
+is the establishing of refuges and game preserves, working for better
+laws, and teaching boys and girls to be careful of life and not wantonly
+to destroy it.
+
+The most important thing that we can do to bring wild creatures back
+again is to let them alone. Man is their worst enemy, and, if he can be
+kept from hunting, nearly all will be able to take care of themselves
+and increase in numbers. We can help Nature by supplying them with food
+when it is scarce and by protecting them from a few predatory animals
+and birds. The worst of these are the cougar or mountain lion, wild cat,
+lynx, wolves, and coyotes; the blue jay, butcher bird, and several of
+the hawks and owls. The cougar is the worst of all, for it has been
+estimated that one of these animals kills on the average fifty deer a
+year. Many of the states offer bounties for the killing of the mountain
+lion and coyote.
+
+Ordinarily birds are able to secure their own food; but sometimes
+during long, snowy winters those that do not fly away South need food.
+There are also many trees which bear fruit that is not much used by us
+but which is very attractive to the birds. The planting of such trees
+aids in bringing birds to our homes and encourages their increase.
+
+  [Illustration: We can help to conserve bird life by providing safe
+  nesting places for our feathered friends.]
+
+The settlement of the lands suitable to farming has deprived some of the
+hoofed animals, such as the elk, of their natural feeding grounds. The
+elk that are found in the summer in the meadows of the Yellowstone Park
+migrate in winter to the lower valleys outside of the park. These
+valleys are mostly fenced up, and to keep the elk from getting into
+trouble with the farmers it is often necessary for the government to buy
+hay and feed them.
+
+In order to make sure that the wild animals shall be free to live and
+increase safe from the hunter, we have established great game preserves
+in different parts of the country. These are usually regions that are
+wild and unsettled and not useful for other purposes. All the great
+National Parks which we are trying to keep in their natural condition
+with their animals, birds, and plants are now game preserves. Among them
+are the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater Lake parks. Visitors
+to these preserves are not allowed to carry any guns, and wardens
+constantly patrol them.
+
+The life of the Yellowstone Park is wonderfully interesting. Here we
+find droves of many of the animals that were in danger of becoming
+extinct. Among them are the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Here the grizzly
+and all the lesser bears are safe from the hunter. They have almost lost
+their fear of man and come about the camps and hotels for food, as the
+domestic animals do. In the park are some colonies of beaver, too, which
+will never again be disturbed by the fur hunter. On the higher peaks are
+a few Rocky Mountain sheep.
+
+Another way in which we are protecting the wild animals is by making it
+legal to hunt them during only a short time each year. This is called
+the "open season." In the case of some of the animals that are nearly
+extinct we have made a "closed season" extending through a number of
+years. With this protection we are hoping that they will be saved and
+sometime become numerous again. All our states have made game laws which
+give more or less protection to the deer, elk, moose, antelope,
+squirrel, and other animals. In the case of some of these animals the
+females are absolutely protected, and the number of the males--as of the
+deer, for example--that may be killed in a season is often as small as
+two, and in two states it is only one. A heavy fine is imposed upon any
+one killing the protected animals or having their meat in his
+possession.
+
+We are trying to protect the birds in much the same manner as the wild
+animals. But because of their migrations this is much more difficult.
+Many kinds of birds travel with the changing seasons from north to
+south across different countries. If the people of one country protect
+them and those of another do not, they may easily become exterminated.
+Some species have become extinct in the last fifty years, and others
+have been reduced to a few pairs in regions where they were once seen in
+thousands.
+
+There are three things that have brought about this slaughter of the
+birds. The first is hunting them for food. This was not so serious until
+the market hunters began their work. Then the small game birds that were
+salable quickly began to disappear. In most of our states the sale of
+game birds in the market is now prohibited.
+
+Another cause for the decrease in the birds is the wanton shooting of
+some just for sport, and the hunting of others that are mistakenly
+supposed to be harmful. We cannot wholly stop this until we teach people
+to respect the birds, to love them for their music, and to appreciate
+the great good which many of them do by their destruction of insects and
+small animal pests.
+
+Many of the birds which we have too often tried to kill or drive away
+are among the best friends we have. When we have learned all about their
+habits and their food, we shall find that only a very few are really
+harmful, and that the others abundantly repay the toll that they take of
+our produce. The farmer and the fruit grower should be particularly
+interested in protecting and encouraging the birds. If the birds pull up
+the sprouting seeds in your garden, do not kill them but protect the
+plants with wire screens. It is likely that these very birds feed
+largely upon the insects that are so harmful to your crops.
+
+If the children in our schools could spend a little of their time in
+the interesting study of bird life, we are sure that when they grow up
+the wanton destruction of birds will almost cease. The Boy Scouts and
+the Camp Fire Girls are learning to love and respect life in the wilds
+and would not for anything injure its inhabitants. The children of the
+Agassiz Associations and the Junior Audubon Societies can also be proud
+of the work they are doing. They are not only saving the birds about our
+homes but are attracting others by putting out food, planting trees that
+bear attractive fruit, and making nesting places for the birds.
+
+  [Illustration: _American Forestry Association_
+  The boys who are going to see that our wild life is protected.]
+
+The third important thing which has been bringing about the decrease of
+the birds is hunting them for their plumes. For fifty years the demand
+for plumes for millinery purposes has been growing. The trade has spread
+until it now reaches the most remote islands of the sea. No bird, be
+its home in the most remote and inaccessible jungles, has until recently
+been safe from the plume hunter.
+
+Now some of the foremost nations have passed laws for the protection of
+many of the water and jungle birds, which, unfortunately for themselves,
+are so beautiful that milady longs to have them for her bonnet. Nearly
+all the states of our own land offer more or less protection to birds of
+beautiful plumage. There is, however, much yet to be done, for in parts
+of our country birds that should be protected are still at the mercy of
+the plume hunter.
+
+The Migratory Bird Law recently passed by Congress is one of the most
+important things which we have ever done for the birds. This law
+protects the multitude of water birds as well as land birds, that
+migrate with the changing seasons. It is especially important that all
+such birds be protected in the regions where they nest.
+
+In the case of the water birds the nests are often grouped in colonies
+in certain places and not scattered singly here and there as with most
+land birds. Thus when a colony, say of the heron, tern, or flamingo, is
+found it is very easy for the hunter to break it up and destroy all the
+birds. Among the water birds the gulls, terns, grebes, herons, egrets,
+osprey, flamingos, and pelicans have been so hunted for their plumes
+that some of them are almost extinct. Several of these species love the
+rocky coasts, where their nests are found upon the almost bare ledges of
+the cliffs. Others establish colonies about the marshy lagoons of the
+Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and about the marshy shore of the lakes
+of the interior.
+
+During recent years many bird refuges have been established in various
+parts of the country. Such refuges are now scattered all along the
+Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as at various other localities
+throughout the country which are favorite nesting places for the birds.
+Some of these refuges have been established and are guarded by the
+government; others have been donated by wealthy persons who love birds
+and want to see them preserved.
+
+  [Illustration: _E. R. Sanborn, N. Y. Zooelogical Society_
+  A flock of wild duck.]
+
+The most beautiful of the water birds have been so relentlessly hunted
+by the plume gatherers that at the time of the establishment of the
+refuges some of them were almost extinct and it was feared the birds
+would not be able to survive. But in most cases the effect of protection
+was magical. The bird refuges in the Southern coast islands and marshes
+which were almost deserted are now alive again with birds. Here we can
+get some idea of the wonderful richness of life before the bird hunters
+began their work. Even now, in spite of the watchful patrols, the
+hunters sometimes succeed in getting at the colonies. In order to
+insure full protection the refuges must be extended and more patrols
+employed, for such is the value of the plumes that desperate men will
+undergo great risks for the sake of obtaining them.
+
+In order fully to stop this work, all those countries where plumes are
+in demand must forbid their sale. Only when there is no more demand can
+we get rid of the hunters.
+
+In our efforts to protect bird life, we must not forget to take into
+account the instincts of our friend Pussy. It hardly seems as though the
+quiet house cat could do much harm, but if you will watch one out of
+doors when the birds are around you will be convinced that Pussy is one
+of the worst enemies that small birds have. Cats destroy many thousands
+of birds throughout the country. It is believed that they each average
+at least fifty birds killed every year. If you will multiply this number
+by the number of cats in your neighborhood, you will get some idea of
+the great losses among the birds due to the cats. We must choose between
+Pussy and the birds.
+
+Arbor Day and Bird Day in our schools help call to mind the claims
+Nature has upon us. We might celebrate them by planting trees which
+furnish food that the birds like, for the trees and birds go together.
+
+How pleasant it will be when that happy time comes in which the wild
+creatures will cease to regard man as their worst enemy! How pleasant it
+will be to go out through the fields and woods and along the shores and
+find that they look upon us as friends!
+
+THE PRECEPTOR'S PLEA FOR THE BIRDS
+
+  Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,
+      From his Republic banished without pity
+  The Poets; in this little town of yours,
+     You put to death, by means of a Committee,
+  The ballad-singers and the Troubadours,
+     The street musicians of the heavenly city,
+  The birds, who make sweet music for us all
+  In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.
+
+  The thrush that carols at the dawn of day
+     From the green steeples of the piny wood;
+  The oriole in the elm; the noisy jay,
+     Jargoning like a foreigner at his food;
+  The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray,
+     Flooding with melody the neighborhood;
+  Linnet and meadow lark, and all the throng
+  That dwell in nests, and have the gift of song.
+
+  You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain
+     Of a scant handful more or less of wheat,
+  Or rye, or barley, or some other grain,
+     Scratched up at random by industrious feet,
+  Searching for worm or weevil after rain!
+     Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet
+  As are the songs these uninvited guests
+  Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts.
+
+  Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these?
+     Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught
+  The dialect they speak, where melodies
+     Alone are the interpreters of thought?
+  Whose household words are songs in many keys,
+     Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught!
+  Whose habitations in the treetops even
+  Are halfway houses on the road to heaven!
+
+  Think, every morning when the sun peeps through
+     The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
+  How jubilant the happy birds renew
+     Their old, melodious madrigals of love!
+  And when you think of this, remember too
+    'Tis always morning somewhere, and above
+  The awakening continents, from shore to shore,
+  Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.
+
+  Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
+     Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
+  As in an idiot's brain remembered words
+     Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
+  Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
+     Make up for the lost music, when your teams
+  Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
+  The feathered gleaners follow to your door?
+
+  What! would you rather see the incessant stir
+     Of insects in the windrows of the hay,
+  And hear the locust and the grasshopper
+     Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play?
+  Is this more pleasant to you than the whir
+     Of meadow lark, and its sweet roundelay,
+  Or twitter of little fieldfares, as you take
+  Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake?
+
+  You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
+     They are the winged wardens of your farms,
+  Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
+     And from your harvests keep a hundred harms;
+  Even the blackest of them all, the crow,
+     Renders good service as your man-at-arms,
+  Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,
+  And crying havoc on the slug and snail.
+
+HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, _The Birds of Killingworth_
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abandoned farms,                                                 52.
+  Acacia tree, gum arabic made from,                               95.
+  Adobe soil,                                                      58.
+  AEolian soil,                                                     66.
+  Africa, need for protection of animals in,                      180.
+  Agassiz Associations, work of,                                  207.
+  Air, importance of pure,                                         10.
+  Alaska, protection of fish in waters about,                     170.
+  Alkali soil,                                                     59.
+  Alluvial soil,                                                   64.
+  Animals, the first domestic,                                      5;
+    careless destruction of,                                   12, 49;
+    court of birds and,                                       188-194;
+    predatory,                                                    203.
+  Antelope, disappearance of,                                     179;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Appalachian Forest, the,                                    133-134.
+  Arabs, life of the,                                              25.
+  Arbor Day, celebration of,                                      210;
+  Argentine ant, a plague,                                        153.
+  Australia, rabbits as pests in,                                 152.
+  Aztec Indians,                                                   20.
+
+  Bacteria in soil,                                             59-60.
+  Balance of nature,                                              151;
+    effects of upsetting,                                     151-154.
+  Barren Lands,                                                   101.
+  Bears, in early times,                                           21;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Beaver, trapping of,                                            179;
+    protection of,                                                205.
+  Big trees of California,                                     49, 99.
+  Bird Day, observance of,                                        210.
+  Bird of paradise, nearly extinct,                               187.
+  Bird refuges,                                          187, 208-209;
+    patrols for,                                              209-210.
+  Birds,                                                           21;
+    extinct species of,                                            22;
+    destruction of,                                       49, 176-182;
+    hunting of, for millinery purposes,                       183-187;
+    court of the,                                             188-194;
+    our good friends and pleasant companions,                 195-202;
+    predatory,                                                    203;
+    national protection of,                                   205-206.
+  Black bears, case of the,                                   192-193.
+  Blue jays,                                                      189.
+  Bobolink, friends and enemies of,                               189.
+  Bone, implements of,                                              3.
+  Boy Scouts, love of, for wild creatures,                        207.
+  Broad-leaved and narrow-leaved trees,                            98.
+  Bronze, making of,                                                5.
+  Browntail moth,                                                 152.
+  Buffaloes,                                                       21;
+    slaughter of,                                                 177;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+
+  California, forests of,                                      49, 98;
+    "big trees" of,                                                99.
+  California condor, disappearance of,                            180.
+  Camp Fire Girls, love of, for wild creatures,                   207.
+  Camping parties, forest fires started by,                       122.
+  Canada, beaver in,                                              179.
+  Canada balsam,                                                   93.
+  Canals, use of water for,                                        87.
+  Cats, killing of birds by,                                      210.
+  Chesapeake Bay, fisheries of,                                   167.
+  Chestnut-tree blight,                                           107.
+  China, results of destruction of vegetation in,               79-80.
+  Christmas decorations,                                          149.
+  Cigarettes, forest fires caused by,                             122.
+  Citrus canker,                                                  109.
+  "City on the Plain, The,"                                        14.
+  Clay, a part of soil,                                            58.
+  Clay loam,                                                       58.
+  Closed season for hunting,                                      205.
+  Coal, care necessary in use of,                                  12;
+    unequal distribution of,                                       27;
+    deposits and mining of,                                   155-156;
+    waste connected with,                                     156-157.
+  Cod fisheries,                                                  170.
+  Codling moth,                                                   153.
+  Colorado River, mud carried by,                                  73;
+    use of water of, for irrigation,                               87.
+  Cone-bearing trees,                                              98;
+    enemies of,                                                   110.
+  Conservation, meaning of,                                         8.
+  Conservation commissions,                                       138.
+  Coon, arguments for and against the,                            193.
+  Cotton-boll weevil,                                             153.
+  Cougar, a predatory beast,                                      203.
+  Coyotes, killing of,                                            152;
+    defense of,                                                   193.
+  Crater Lake National Park,                                      140.
+
+  Deer, killed by cougars,                                        203.
+  Deltas of rivers,                                            43, 55;
+    alluvial soil in,                                              64.
+  Desert, results of lack of vegetation in the,                 70-71.
+  Digger pines,                                                    99.
+  Ducks, complaints of oyster farmers against, disproved,         194.
+
+  Egrets, killing of,                                        185, 187.
+  Electricity, harnessing of,                                       8;
+    use of water for making,                                       88.
+  Elephant, urgent need of protection of,                         181.
+  Elk,                                                             21;
+    hunting of,                                                   179;
+    feeding grounds of,                                           204.
+  English sparrow,                                                153;
+    should be driven out,                                         188.
+  Erie Canal,                                                      87.
+  Eskimos, the,                                                    25;
+    wood lacking among,                                            89.
+
+  Farmers, great value of work of,                                 51.
+  Feldspar, rock grains called,                                    63.
+  Fertilizers,                                                     11;
+    use of herring for,                                           167.
+  Field mice, plagues of,                                         151.
+  Fire, ignorance of early people concerning,                       3;
+    discovery of,                                                   3.
+    _See_ Forest fires.
+  Fish, caring for,                                                14;
+    protection needed by,                                     162-165.
+  Fish preserves,                                             169-170.
+  Fish traps,                                             22, 165-169.
+  Flamingos, killing of,                                          187.
+  Flowers, destruction of,                                    144-149.
+  Fool's gold,                                                     63.
+  Forest fires,                                      110-111, 119-124;
+    steps taken by national government to prevent,            131-138.
+  Forest rangers, work of,                                    134-137.
+  Forests, effect of cutting down of, on birds,                    22;
+    unequal distribution of,                                    26-27;
+    destruction of,                                                34;
+    effect of destruction of, on soil,                   37-38, 40-42;
+    possible restoration of,                                    47-49;
+    importance of, to man,                                      89-95;
+    location of,                                               96-103;
+    special sources of damage to,                             104-111;
+    various methods by which wasted,                          112-118;
+    government protection of,                                 131-138;
+    National Parks and Forests as playgrounds,                139-143.
+  France, cutting of forests and careless pasturing in,            79.
+  Fruit trees, enemies of,                                   107, 109.
+  Fuel, use of wood for,                                           90;
+    use of peat for,                                              155.
+  Fur seals, destruction of,                                      165.
+
+  Game preserves,                                             204-205.
+  Gas, waste connected with,                                  157-161.
+  Glacial soil,                                                    65.
+  Goats, forests injured by,                                      111.
+  Grand Canon National Park,                                      140.
+  Grasshoppers, plagues of,                                  109, 151.
+  Great plains,                                                    96.
+  Grizzly bears, destruction of,                             179, 192;
+    in Yellowstone Park,                                          205.
+  Gusher in California oil field,                            158, 159.
+  Gypsy moth,                                            106-107, 151.
+
+  Hardwood trees,                                                  98.
+  Hawks, arguments for and against,                           189-190.
+  "Heart of the Tree, The,"                                       139.
+  Hens, early ancestors of,                                         5.
+  Herons, hunting of, for their plumage,                          185.
+  Herring, waste in capture of,                               166-167.
+  Hessian fly,                                                    153.
+  Houses, the first,                                                3.
+  Huckleberry shrub, cutting of,                             147, 149.
+  Humming birds, use of skins of, for capes,                      186.
+  Humus, in soil,                                                  57;
+    destruction of, by forest fires,                         123, 125.
+
+  Indians, life of,                                             19-23;
+    uses found by, for wood,                                       90;
+    fishing methods of,                                           163.
+  Insect enemies of trees,                     106, 109, 110, 152-154;
+    warfare waged against, by forest rangers,                 136-137;
+    eaten by birds,                                           197-202.
+  "In the Heart of the Woods,"                                     24.
+  Iron, found in quartz sand,                                      58.
+  Irrigation, storage of water for,                        84, 85, 87.
+  Italy, results of destruction of forests in,                 77, 79;
+    wild chestnuts valued in,                                      90;
+    scarcity of birds in,                                         196.
+
+  Jays, arguments for and against,                                189.
+  Jungle fowls, wild,                                               5.
+  Junior Audubon Societies, work of,                              207.
+
+  Klamath Lake, bird refuge about,                                187.
+  Korea, results of destruction of vegetation in,               79-80;
+    dikes built along rivers in,                                   80.
+
+  Lightning, an enemy of the forest,                          110-111;
+    fires started by,                                             121.
+  Limestone soils,                                                 59.
+  Loam, clay and sandy,                                            58.
+  Lobsters, protection of,                                        167.
+  Los Angeles, water supply of,                                 29-30.
+  Lumber, an important use of trees,                               90.
+  Lumbering, waste of trees in,                               114-118.
+
+  Malheur Lake, bird refuge about,                                187.
+  Maple sugar,                                                     93.
+  Martins, insects eaten by,                                      199.
+  Meadow larks,                                               191-192.
+  Medicinal products from trees,                               93, 95.
+  Metals, discovery of,                                           4-5.
+  Mica, in quartz sand,                                            58.
+  Migrations of birds,                                        205-206.
+  Migratory Bird Law,                                        200, 208.
+  Mills, the first,                                                 7.
+  Mineral resources, destruction and new supply of,             49-50.
+  Mink, points against and in favor of,                           193.
+  Mississippi Valley, rich prairies of,                         53-54.
+  Mistletoe, an enemy of trees,                                   107.
+  Mocking bird, song of,                                          195.
+  Mongoose, as a pest,                                       153, 154.
+  Montenegro, results of destruction of soil in,                   79.
+
+  National Forests,                                           133-139.
+  National Parks,                                         19, 139-143;
+   are game preserves,                                        204-205.
+  Nets, catching of fish in,                                 167, 169.
+  New England, soil of,                                         51-53;
+    gypsy and browntail moths in,                                 152;
+    beaver in,                                                    179.
+  Newfoundland banks, fisheries of,                               170.
+  Nitrogen, in soil,                                               57;
+    stored in soil by plants,                                      77.
+  Norway rat,                                                     153.
+
+  Oil, waste connected with,                                  157-161.
+  Open season for hunting,                                        205.
+  Orange orchards, citrus canker in,                              109.
+  Oregon, protection of beaver in,                                179;
+    bird refuges in,                                              187.
+  Owens River aqueduct,                                            29.
+  Owls, good and bad points of,                               190-191.
+  Oysters, raised on oyster farms,                                167.
+
+  Palestine, destruction of vegetation in,                         79.
+  Panama Canal,                                                    87.
+  Passenger pigeon, extermination of,                         22, 180.
+  "Passing of the Forest, The,"                                   130.
+  Pear blight,                                                    109.
+  Peat, crumbling vegetation called,                               57;
+    use of, for fuel,                                             155.
+  Peat soils,                                              58, 59, 66.
+  Phosphorus in soil,                                              59.
+  Pine beetles,                                                   110.
+  Pinon pines,                                                     99.
+  Plant food,                                                  45, 60.
+  Plants, enemies of,                                         104-111.
+  Plumage, hunting of birds for,                     183-187, 207-208.
+  Polar bear, protection needed by,                               181.
+  Potash in soil,                                                  59.
+  Powder, discovery of,                                             8.
+  Prairie chicken, disappearance of,                              180.
+  "Preceptor's Plea for the Birds, The,"                      211-212.
+  Pueblo Indians,                                               19-20.
+
+  Quail, need for protection of, to preserve from extinction,     180;
+    cheery call of,                                               195;
+    value and attractiveness of,                                  201;
+    insects eaten by,                                             202.
+  Quartz, in sand grains,                                          58.
+  Quinine, made from cinchona tree,                                95.
+
+  Rabbits, as pests,                                              152.
+  Rainier National Park,                                          140.
+  Rats, plagues of,                                               151.
+  Redwood trees,                                                   99.
+  Refuges for birds,                                               22.
+  Residual soil,                                                   64.
+  Rocks, soil made from,                                    58, 61-66.
+  Rocky Mountain sheep, in Yellowstone Park,                      205.
+  Rubber trees,                                                    93.
+
+  Sage grouse, need for protection of,                            180.
+  Salmon fisheries,                                           169-170.
+  San Joaquin Valley,                                             101.
+  San Jose scale,                                       109, 151, 153.
+  Santa Catalina Island, fish preserve about,                     169.
+  Sea lions,                                                      194.
+  Sea otter, destruction of,                                  22, 165;
+    protection of, by law,                                        179.
+  Seals, fur,                                                      22;
+    hunting of,                                                   165.
+  Sequoias,                                                   99, 115.
+  Shad, decrease in numbers of,                                   169.
+  Sheep, damage done to forests by,                               111.
+  Shingle makers, waste of trees by,                              115.
+  Shore birds, value of,                                          200.
+  Sierra Nevadas, "big trees" on,                                  49;
+    changes in climate in ascent of,                         101, 103;
+    usefulness of woodpeckers in,                                 199.
+  Silt,                                                            75.
+  Skunks, friends and enemies of,                                 193.
+  Soda in soil,                                                    59.
+  Soil, care of the,                                            11-12;
+    effect of destruction of forests upon,               37-38, 40-42;
+    renewal of, by nature,                                         45;
+    story of formation of,                                      51-56;
+    real wealth of world formed by,                                56;
+    things of which made,                                       57-60;
+    plant food in,                                                 60;
+    how made,                                                   61-66;
+    how vegetation holds,                                       67-72;
+    our most valuable possession,                                  74;
+    evil effects upon, of no protecting carpet of vegetation,   74-80;
+    effect of, on growth of trees,                                101.
+  Songbirds, hunting of, for their plumage,                       185.
+  Southern states, destruction of soil in,                         77;
+    turpentine from pine forests of,                               93.
+  Spain, waste of resources of,                                 25-26;
+    results in, of loss of soil,                                   79;
+    treatment of birds in,                                        196.
+  Spruce forest, destruction of, by forest fires,                 126.
+  Squirrels, nuts of trees eaten by,                              109;
+    ground, as pests,                                             152.
+  Stone, implements of,                                             3.
+  Sturgeon, destructive fishing of,                               167.
+  Subsoil,                                                         64.
+  Sugar pines,                                                     99;
+    nuts of, eaten by squirrels,                                  109;
+    careless cutting of,                                          115.
+  Swallows, insects eaten by,                                     199.
+  Switzerland, care of wood in, 93,                               114.
+  Syria, destruction of vegetation in,                             79.
+
+  Tamarack forests, use of,                                       126.
+  Trees, destruction of,                                           12;
+    importance of, to man,                                      89-95;
+    distribution of, in United States,                         96-103;
+    enemies of,                                               104-111;
+    the careless wasting of,                                  111-118.
+  Tundras of far North,                                           101.
+  Turpentine obtained from yellow pines,                           93.
+
+  Valley lands,                                                40, 42;
+    fertility of,                                                  53;
+    alluvial soil in,                                              64.
+  Vegetation, holding of soil by,                               67-72;
+    results of lack of,                                         73-80.
+
+  Walrus, nearly extinct,                                         165.
+  Water, obtaining of pure,                                     10-11;
+     home of, the ocean,                                           81;
+    use and care of,                                            81-88.
+  Water creatures, need for protection of,                    162-170.
+  Water power, use of,                                            157.
+  Water supply, effect upon, of cutting of forests,           127-129.
+  Weasels, defense of,                                            193.
+  White Mountain Forest, the,                                     134.
+  White-pine blister,                                             107.
+  Wild flowers, necessity for care of,                        144-149.
+  Wind, effect of, on soil,                                     65-66;
+   an enemy of the forests,                                       110.
+  Wood alcohol,                                                   117.
+  Woodpeckers, usefulness of,                                     198.
+
+  Yangtse-kiang, soil carried away by,                             80.
+  Yellow Sea, reason for name,                                     80.
+  Yellowstone National Park,                                      140;
+    a game preserve,                                          204-205;
+    animal life in,                                               205.
+  Yosemite National Park,                                         140.
+
+
+
+
+_NEW-WORLD SCIENCE SERIES_
+
+_Edited by John W. Ritchie_
+
+TREES, STARS _and_ BIRDS
+
+A BOOK OF OUTDOOR SCIENCE
+
+By EDWIN LINCOLN MOSELEY
+
+_Head of the Science Department, State Normal College of Northwestern
+Ohio_
+
+The usefulness of nature study in the schools has been seriously limited
+by the lack of a suitable textbook. It is to meet this need that _Trees,
+Stars, and Birds_ is issued. The author is one of the most successful
+teachers of outdoor science in this country. He believes in field
+excursions, and his text is designed to help teachers and pupils in the
+inquiries that they will make for themselves.
+
+The text deals with three phases of outdoor science that have a
+perennial interest, and it will make the benefit of the author's long
+and successful experience available to younger teachers.
+
+The first section deals with trees, and the discussion of maples is
+typical: the student is reminded that he has eaten maple sugar; there is
+an interesting account of its production; the fact is brought out that
+the sugar is really made in the leaves. The stars and planets that all
+should know are told about simply and clearly. The birds commonly met
+with are considered, and their habits of feeding and nesting are
+described. Pertinent questions are scattered throughout each section.
+
+The book is illustrated with 167 photographs, 69 drawings, 9 star maps,
+and with 16 color plates of 58 birds, from paintings by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes.
+
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+is simple enough for pupils in the sixth grade.
+
+_Cloth, viii + 404 + xvi pages. Price $1.60_
+
+  WORLD BOOK COMPANY
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+  2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO
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+STORIES OF CHILDHOOD AND NATURE
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