A few centuries ago there were millions of 

 beaver ponds in North America ; most of these 

 were long since filled with sediment. Since then, 

 too, countless others have been formed and filled. 

 This soil-saving and soil-spreading still goes ever 

 on wherever there is a beaver pond. 



Many of the richest tillable lands of New Eng- 

 land were formed by the artificial works of the 

 beaver. There are hundreds of valleys in Kansas, 

 Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and other States 

 whose rich surface was spread upon them by the 

 activities of beaver through generations. In the 

 Southern States and in the mountains of the 

 West, the numbers of beaver meadows are beyond 

 computation. The aggregate area of rich soil- 

 deposits in the United States for which we are 

 indebted to the beaver is beyond belief, and prob- 

 ably amounts to millions of acres. 



The beaver have thus prepared the way for 

 forests and meadows, orchards and grain-fields, 

 homes and school-houses. In the golden age of 

 the beaver, their countless colonies clustered all 

 over our land. These primeval folk then gathered 

 their harvest. Innumerable beaver ponds, which 

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