47 PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY 



largely therefore upon the locality, but the general principles that 

 have been included in our studies can be applied everywhere. 



The country in which we live was at the time of its settle- 

 ment perhaps the most richly endowed with what are called 

 natural resources of any in the world. Vast areas were covered 

 with forests ; large, rapidly flowing rivers were ready to deliver 

 their power to whoever wished to use it ; the soil was rich in 

 plant food and the climate suitable for agricultural pursuits; 

 extensive deposits of coal and other minerals were waiting to 

 be mined ; the rivers, lakes, and surrounding seas were alive 

 with fish, oysters, lobsters, and other " sea food " ; the wood- 

 lands and prairies abounded with bobwhites, prairie chickens, 

 and other game birds; the Great Plains were thickly dotted 

 with huge droves of bison, deer, elk, moose ; other game animals 

 were everywhere abundant, and fur-bearing animals could be 

 obtained with ease. 



Only within recent years has any attention been directed 

 toward our methods of using these " inexhaustible " resources. 

 In 1908 the congress of the governors of all the states and 

 territories met to consider the question of conservation which 

 President Roosevelt considered " as the weightiest problem 

 now before the nation, as nobody can deny the fact, that the 

 natural resources of the United States are in danger of exhaus- 

 tion, if the old wasteful methods of exploiting them are per- 

 mitted longer to continue. The enormous consumption of 

 these resources, and the threat of imminent exhaustion of some 

 of them, due to reckless and wasteful use, once more call for 

 common effort and common action." 



The truth of this statement can easily be established. Lum- 

 bering has been carried on without regard to the future. Water 

 power is continually wasted because it is not utilized. In many 

 countries such as China, Spain, Greece, and Palestine large 

 tracts are bare of soil where once were flourishing fields of grain. 

 Similar conditions exist in some parts of the United States and 

 threaten to occur in others. Our principal mineral resources are 



