24 



MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



plains because the greater rainfall (more carbonic acidity) slowly 

 breaks down this resistant rock. In the drier west the rock decay 

 takes place more slowly. To state it another way : from the foot of 

 the Rockies, calcium (and this is in general true of magnesium, potas- 

 sium, boron, iron, molybdenum, copper and cobalt) decreases from 

 west to east and southeast, as rainfall increases. From the same point, 

 available phosphorous in the soil increases for several hundred miles 

 eastward and then decreases. (There are many localized exceptions 

 to this general picture. The Great Plains, prairies, and other smaller 

 areas, even small parts of the southeast, originally were blessed with 

 greater phosphorus supplies in the soils than other sections of the 

 United States.) 



Calcium and phosphorus are essential in bone and tooth construc- 

 tion, as well as in other important tissues. Thus when cattle begin 

 life on the plains and are fattened and finished off on the prairie corn 

 belt before going to market, we get the best possible product, well 

 charged with minerals and energy. 5 They are far superior to most 

 cattle produced in the eastern and southern states, where, as a rule, 

 both calcium and phosphorus in the topsoil have been leached out or 

 depleted by crops and erosion and are quite limited unless artificially 

 supplied (Fig. 10). 



Even a fat cow, like a fat man, can be poorly nourished, tormented 

 by hidden hungers which are never satisfied. 



FIG. 10. Cow on the landscape an example of weird harmony. Soil, vegetation, 

 and animal are a dissonant triad, an affront to nature. This is Mississippi 

 plenty of rain, long growing 1 season it is June, it is noon, but look at that empty 

 udder. There is a man over the hill. He is in harmony with this scene, too. 

 Worse yet, so are his children. 





