INTRODUCTORY. I3 



come impossible in the northern departments, due 

 to the removal of forest cover, which furnishes pro- 

 tection against northern winds. 



Lastly, as resources restorable and yielding in- 

 creased returns to increased activity, we would find 

 most of those resources which are the product of 

 human labor, industry, and ingenuity : the accu- 

 mulated wealth, the accumulated educational fund, 

 and other conditions of civilization, the people 

 themselves, capable of performing labor. 



It might appear that, of the natural resources, 

 the soil with its fertility, capable under intensive 

 cultivation of increasing its yield, should be placed 

 here ; but when this increased activity is unaccom- 

 panied by rational method, this resource, too, will 

 deteriorate almost to a degree where its restoration 

 is practically precluded. 



Altogether, while possibility of restoration has 

 served in our classification, the practicabiHty of 

 such restoration, i.e. the relation of expenditure 

 of energy and money to the result, will have to be 

 taken into consideration when state activity with 

 regard to them is to be discussed. 



From yet another point of view we can distinguish 

 between those resources, which yield directly a tan- 

 gible material, necessaries or conveniences of life, 

 serving the purposes of gain, and which are, there- 

 fore, objects of industrial enterprise ; while others, 

 though desirable and necessary, serving indirectly 

 for the comforts of society, industry, and progress 



