II 



IMPETUOUS MAN 



AX AND PLOW BREAK THE HARMONY OF FORCES 



When you deal with nature, only the square deal is worth while. 



JOHN BURROUGHS. 



THE general balance of land and water factors explained 

 in the preceding section has in the United States been 

 seriously impaired, especially by the methods of agriculture, 

 grazing, and forest abuse. This has become so serious that 

 prosperity has declined permanently in many localities and 

 there is danger of ultimate general decline. We have gained 

 a relatively good living, but at the price of losing the per- 

 manence of the resources from which come our bread and 

 butter, and of losing that quality of natural beauty which 

 has been a spiritual inspiration for many generations. 



This has not been the intention of those individuals who 

 are responsible. Their activities have to them appeared to 

 be, and from the short-time point of view have been, bene- 

 ficial to them individually, and therefore they believed to the 

 United States as a whole. But only too frequently in mat- 

 ters of this sort, what is immediately beneficial to the indi- 

 vidual and even to the society of which he is a member when 

 only a few engage in the practice, may, when many engage 

 in the practice, become harmful to the whole and therefore 

 by reaction ultimately to the individual. For instance, in a 

 sparsely populated country freedom to hunt and fish at will 

 in all seasons may be a benefit to the individuals concerned, 



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