418 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



with waters richly supplied with Fish. These they necessarily 

 and rightly drew upon for their livelihood. It was their wealth — 

 Nature's generous bonus. 



But the apparently inexhaustible supply has already become 

 alarmingly reduced and conservation must be the watchword, as 

 was recognized nearly a half century ago by Theodore Roosevelt 

 who considered it "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 exhaustion, if the old wasteful 

 methods of exploiting them are permitted longer to continue." 

 Yet in spite of this, the conditions are still such that a prominent 

 legislator is more than justified in stating that "it is time that the 

 national conscience be awakened to the necessity of preserving 

 what is left of the outdoor heritage of our fathers, and of restoring 

 some of that which has been destroyed and defiled." 



Only about one-eighth of the virgin forest of the United States 

 remains to-day. It seems incredible for a civilized nation — but is 

 only too true. Approximately one-half of this is held by the Govern- 

 ment but the rest is being destroyed far more rapidly than unaided 

 nature can restore it. And there is nowhere in the world a suffi- 

 cient supply of the kinds of timber we use to take their place. We 

 have continuously treated our forests, except those under public 

 control, not as a farm on which to produce crops, but as a mine 

 whose useful product is to be gathered once for all. The axe has 

 held almost unregulated sway, but with ideas of conservation 

 becoming increasingly widespread it appears that hope for a better 

 future for our forests is well founded. 



It seems hardly necessary to state that forests are of inestimable 

 value in many ways entirely aside from the lumber they supply. 

 We are, perhaps, prone to forget that under nature's stabilizers 

 of forests, shrubbery, and grass the blowing and washing away of 

 the soil progresses but slowly, while with their removal by Man this 

 erosion is increased tremendously. Witness the great dust storms 

 during recent years in the Southwest. The devastating floods 

 that swept down the Mississippi in 1927, the Yangtze in 1931, and 

 the Ohio River in 1937 are in no small part attributable to defor- 

 estation. China's affliction is the product of millenniums, ours of 

 little more than a century. Scientific forestry is crucial for our 

 future. (Fig. 268.) 



Many of the larger animals have been exterminated and some of 



