MAINTAINING THE CLIMAX 105 



3 If the climax vegetation holds rain where it falls, man's land 



use system should hold it in like degree. 

 4 If nature provides sub-surface and surface tillage by animals 



(such as earthworms) man should employ similar methods. 

 5 If, by adding certain minerals to the soil, desirable reactions 



are secured, they should be added. 

 6 If certain plants bring the desired reactions more efficiently 



than others, they should be chosen. 



One critic, reading the above statements carelessly but with a bel- 

 ligerent eye remarked: "As a corollary, you should also say that if 

 nature causes floods, man should make floods; and if nature kills 

 plants by early frost, man should grow plants killed by early frost. ' ' 

 To which we reply that in nature floods have created level and fertile 

 plains, which from time immemorial have best fed the human race. 

 Therefore man might well handle all cultivated land in a way to gain 

 the benefits of levelness and recurrent mineral and human additions. 

 This he can do by such artifices as contour cultivation of sloping lands 

 and by the periodic application of fertility agents. As for growing 

 frost susceptible plants, nature also grows frost resistant plants and 

 if some of these serve man better, then they are the ones to use. If 

 mutations or hybrids can be found or produced which offer man any 

 advantages then the search should go on in laboratory and field and 

 experimental plot. 



One point of our argument is that man need not burn the forest 

 to get roast 'possum just because nature does it that way. Because 

 he has some sense, man has found the principles involved in applying 

 heat to flesh for the purpose of achieving a tasty dish. There is no 

 question but that in this instance he has improved on nature; yet has 

 he done anything basically that nature did not do? He has simply 

 controlled the situation for his benefit. 



Nature (including man) does some things which by human stand- 

 ards of short term judgment would be called stupid lightning-caused 

 forest fires for instance. On the other hand, nature does more many 

 more things which would be judged excellent, from streamlining a 

 fish to mulching a forest or prairie floor. Man should apply his keen- 

 est and most cautious scientific judgment as to what should be copied, 

 what should be altered, what should be avoided. In the main, when 

 we consider the management of lands and waters, nature is the ex- 

 perienced teacher from whom we have much to learn. 



There is a great variety in the landscape patterns of the world. 

 Many of them are fine examples of what man does not want on his 

 farmland badlands and deserts, for example. And when we ob- 

 serve that man's activities are turning farmlands into badlands, we 

 shudder. On the other hand, some landscapes are (or have been) 

 superior as to their excellence in supporting humanity. They are 

 examples which nature has set. Certainly we shall applaud the type 

 of management which will sustain them forever as such. Moreover, 

 science can study and analyze these superior lands, and how they got 

 that way. Science can strive to understand the complex of their 



