LIFE AND THE NATURAL LAWS 89 



Man suffers directly in the vicinity, indirectly in all the coun- 

 try. Jobs have vanished, recreational opportunities are gone, ugliness 

 has replaced beauty. The nation is deprived of the raw materials 

 and the finished goods which might have been. Timber is scarcer and 

 prices go higher. The nation's standard of living has been set down 

 a notch, 



Surface Symptoms of Unbalance. A forest fire announces its 

 presence at once. Its activity is rapid and the result visible in hours, 

 days, or weeks. There are other forces which bring about unbalance 

 in a slow and subtle manner. The climax environment may be un- 

 dermined and eased out so slowly that the resident people do not 

 realize what is taking place. Science, and even unlearned close ob- 

 servers, have cataloged many symptoms of such community disease. 



Muddy water means erosion. Erosion means a deterioration of the 

 landscape, if it was ever well developed vegetatively. Deterioration 

 of the landscape means loss of fertility and inveitable deterioration 

 of the social order, with accompanying ills in economics, public serv- 

 ices, health, living standards. 



Broomsedge means lack of essential minerals, particularly phos- 

 phorus, which means lower yields, poorer stock, less income, and all 

 the endless chain of causes and effects which follow. 



Drying up of formerly copious springs might possibly mean a drier 

 climate ; the rainfall record will check this. Nearly always it indicates 

 that the climax conditions are gone. The soil and vegetation are no 

 longer holding the rainfall long enough for adequate infiltration to 

 take place. 



Complaints of hunters about lack of game may well mean in some 

 cases that fertility is going, that food and shelter have fallen off. 



Gradual increase in the area of pasture or range necessary to sup- 

 port a grazing animal is a reliable sign of landscape regression. 



The increasing frequency and height of floods indicates that climax 

 conditions are being lost over large watershed areas. 



Decreasing catches of freshwater and marine fish and shellfish may 

 mean overfishing, or more reasonably may mean that the productivity 

 of the environment is being injured. It may mean both. 



The recurring need for dredging of harbors means that soil is 

 coming off the farms to fill such harbors with silt. Climax conditions 

 do not provide for any such loss. Apparently the climax has vanished 

 on the harbor 's watershed. 



These and other symptoms reveal inner disorders which need im- 

 mediate diagnosis and treatment, or else 



Adjustment Inadequate. Slow as the deterioration of the land- 

 scape may be from a human viewpoint, it is a screaming dive to the 

 plants involved. Even man, the most adjustable of all life forms, 

 cannot continue to live and support himself on many areas where 



