image52American Forestry AssociationThe forest fire sweeps everything in its path.
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 slowlytoward 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.
image53image53Fires destroyed the forest that once covered this region and its place is now mostly occupied by small bushes.
image53
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 thebrush 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 maydestroy his own fences and buildings and, sweeping on, ruin those of his neighbors also.
image54H. W. FairbanksThe dead stubs of a once beautiful forest.
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.
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 heavywinter 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.
image55American ForestryThe work of the water where the forest has been cut away.
American Forestry
The work of the water where the forest has been cut away.
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.
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 thatthe 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.
image56American Forestry AssociationThis 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.
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 waterbetter 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.
As long as the forest shall live,The streams shall flow onward, still singingSweet songs of the woodland, and bringingThe bright, living waters that giveNew life to all mortals who thirst.But the races of men shall be cursed.
Yea, the hour of destruction shall comeTo the children of men in that dayWhen the forest shall pass away;When the low woodland voices are dumb;And death's devastation and dearthShall be spread o'er the face of the earth.
Avenging the death of the wood,The turbulent streams shall outpourTheir vials of wrath, and no moreShall 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 fallOn 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 mouthFrom the thickening dust, in that drouth;Fierce famine shall come; and no soundShall be borne on the desolate air.But a murmur of death and despair.
Alexander Blair Thaw,The Passing of the Forest; inCentury 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.
image57American Forestry AssociationThese men are replanting a mountain slope from which fire once swept the forest.
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 itdoesmake 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 cutand 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.
image58This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches, has been of excellent service in Pennsylvania.
This large poster, printed on sheets 14 by 22 inches, has been of excellent service in Pennsylvania.
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 puttingout 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.
image59American ForestryThe seed trees left by the lumberman are giving rise to a new forest.
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 theirdestructive 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.
image60H. W. FairbanksA beautiful grassy meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
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 rulesare 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.
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 anighFor song and mother-croon of birdIn 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 loyaltyAnd far-cast thought of civic good—His blessing on the neighborhoodWho in the hollow of His handHolds all the growth of all our land—A nation's growth from sea to seaStirs in his heart who plants a tree.
H. C. Bunner,The Heart of the Tree; inCentury 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 NationalParks 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.
image61George J. YoungA forest playground on Virginia Creek in the Yosemite country, California, in one of Uncle Sam's forest reserves.
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 shownin 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.
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 firstspring beautyin the Eastern woods? Who will find the first of thepurple trilliumsthat open their dark flowers in the shady groves, or thegolden poppieson the warm hillsides of the West?
image62H. W. FairbanksThe wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.
H. W. Fairbanks
The wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.
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.
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 againlooking 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.
image63H. W. FairbanksWild asters cover the mountain meadows.
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.
image64Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy too many of them.
Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.
Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy too many of them.
The huckleberry is one of the many beautiful shrubswhich 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.
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 wantnow, 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.
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 producedin 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 aplague. 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 toupset 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 beingfought 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.
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 substancewhich 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 themto 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.