208 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



animals in America amounts to $60,000,000, 9 while the value 

 of fish caught is $107,000,000. 10 



With the exception of these two classes of what might be 

 called commercial wild life, the major use of such animals is to 

 provide recreation. The fact that much of the hunting and 

 fishing in the United States has become a sport rather than a 

 business is a key to what has happened to our wild life. 



WILD LIFE AND THE LAND 



As the white man took over the land in America, he simply 

 destroyed everything that stood in his way. As we have seen, he 

 cut down the forests, turned over the prairie sod, dammed the 

 streams. When, for instance, certain animals like the wolf, the 

 deer, the bear, the wild-cat, and the mountain lion interfered 

 with the rancher's livestock, he hunted them out and killed 

 them. Indeed, in many parts of the country, this hunting of 

 so-called "destructive" game is still going on. 



The spread of agriculture in America affected wild life in 

 two different ways. The clearing of the land destroyed the cover 

 and feed of many types of game. The killing of the animals 

 which did not fit into a farming community upset the balance 

 of wild life. 



When we talk about the balance of wild life, we mean the 

 delicate relationship between animal food supply and animal 

 population. Wild animals depend either on plants, insects, or 

 other animals for their food. A deer browses certain bushes. 

 The mountain lion feeds on the deer. If the browse plants are 

 destroyed, the deer starve, if they cannot find substitutes. If 

 all the deer starve and there is no other suitable animal for 

 food, the mountain lions starve. 



If you reverse this process and kill the lions, then the deer mul 

 tiply very rapidly. This large population exhausts the supply 



9 Van Hise and Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 420. 



10 Ibid., p. 472. 



