RESULTS OF BEAVERS' WORK 145 



Do the farmers realise what debt they owe to the 

 beaver ? I fear not. Their one idea if a beaver is 

 found anywhere within their property is to imme- 

 diately kill it. For they regard its wretched skin, 

 worth perhaps ten dollars at most, as being the 

 only value of the beaver, and so the wretched beast 

 is caught and its skin saved, while the brains which 

 have accomplished so much are thrown to the dogs. 

 Who is to blame for this ? Those who have the 

 teaching of our children. If only the schools 

 taught more about the usefulness of animals and 

 birds, even from the selfish point of view of their 

 results to men, and taught these things intelli- 

 gently, much good would come. But a trip into 

 any part of the country where the beaver still exists 

 in its wild state will show how blind people are to 

 their own interest in allowing these animals to be 

 destroyed. 



Before going further into this side of the question 

 it might be as well to show some more ways in 

 which the beaver is of almost unlimited benefit to 

 mankind and the country in general. Water, as we 

 well know, is the most essential of all things ; on its 

 supply a country thrives or perishes. Millions of 

 pounds are spent annually to protect and conserve 

 the supply, so that towns and farms, and forests too, 

 shall have all that is needed. With the opening up 

 of country and the consequent destruction of forest 

 land, the supply is inevitably bound to decrease, as 

 the thousands of smaller streams are deprived of the 



E.B. L 



