298 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



nent very much haphazard. A few men have been 

 allowed to destroy the wind-breaks of vast territo- 

 ries, allowing the blizzard to sweep over territory 

 that God protected by forests. Clean down to Flor- 

 ida the oaks and the pines have been wasted, till 

 there is nothing to stop the fury of a storm that be- 

 gins in Alaska. If you should ask me for some 

 specific term by which to designate the coming era, 

 I would call it the era of wind-breaks the time 

 when everyone will understand the sacredness of 

 trees and will know their social importance. 



The more you study this matter the more you will 

 be confirmed in the view that Nature has ordered 

 cooperation everywhere, and when it comes about 

 that we appreciate fully our social duty and civic 

 obligation, there will be a deal less failure to win a 

 good living. The country home is in reality an alli- 

 ance, a treaty not only of peace but of friendship 

 between all things that live and the Life that per- 

 meates all things. I should like to have you read 

 " Mutual Aid," a book written by Prince Kropotkin, 

 for it shows how fundamentally the law of good 

 will operates through Nature. Antagonism is not 

 at all a controlling principle, and there is nothing 

 that shows this better than a true country home, 

 where collies and cows cooperate, bees and flowers 

 associate, and over all and through all presides the 

 good will of the human director. Darwin has shown 

 how even the angleworms serve as plowmen and sub- 

 soilers. 



