image6American Forestry AssociationThe elk once roamed the valleys.
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.
image7Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc."Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss."
Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc.
"Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss."
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. Butfor the losses that we have needlessly and carelessly caused we shall sometime be sorry.
Do you not think we are wise in seeking how to take better care of this land of ours?
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 goneGlimmers 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 broodsWith 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,inAmerican Forestry, XIV
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 prosperousbecause 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.
image8H. W. FairbanksWhere Nature has supplied little rain; desert sand dunes.
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.
image9U. S. Office of Farm Management (J. S. Cotton)A farming scene in the fertile valley of the Missouri River.
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 soilis 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.
image10H. W. FairbanksThe prickly pear in its desert home.
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.
image11The Owens River aqueduct, through which water is carried to Los Angeles from a source more than two hundred miles distant.
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 wherethere 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.
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 soilIn yellow torrents goes;The guerdon of the farmer's toilWith each year lesser grows.
Robert M. Reese,The Spendthrift; quoted inAmerican 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 rainwaterfrom 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 inhabitantsbecame 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.
image12H. W. FairbanksThe women carry home the fuel.
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 unprotectedslopes and run off in muddy torrents, taking along some of the soil. Thus each succeeding year there is less plant food for the crops.
image13H. W. FairbanksThe rocky land of the poor people.
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.
image14Bailey WillisThe shallow, rock-filled river along whose banks the trees have been destroyed.
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 fortheir 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.
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.
image15H. W. FairbanksBecause some farmer was careless, a rivulet has nearly destroyed this rich valley.
H. W. Fairbanks
Because some farmer was careless, a rivulet has nearly destroyed this rich valley.
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 forthe 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.
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 ourwaters 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.
image16H. W. FairbanksThe rivulets have united to form the broad, shallow river loaded with the soil from the farms along its upper course.
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 asyou 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.
image17U. S. Office of Farm ManagementThe soil of this valley has been washed to its present location by flood waters.
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 becameshallow. 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.
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,climateandsceneryare 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 weredifferent 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 forso 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.
image18H. W. FairbanksThe miner in his search for gold ruins the beautiful valley, leaving it a mass of boulders.
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. Wecan 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.
image19H. W. FairbanksBut Nature, after a lapse of fifty years, has spread a new carpet of soil over the valley.
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 largeand 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.
image20George J. YoungUncle Sam has preserved both forests and water power.
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?
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 thesoil. 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.