CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 



1. How Our First Ancestors Lived i 



2. How Our Needs Differ from Those of the First Men 9 



3. The Earth as It Was Before the Coming of Civilized 



Men 18 



4. Nature's Unequal Distribution of Her Gifts . . 25 



5. The Land of the Poor People 32 



6. What the Muddy Rivulet Has to Say . . -39 



7. How Far Will Nature Restore Her Wasted Gifts? 44 



8. The Soil — The Most Important Gift of Nature . 51 



9. Things of Which Soil Is -Made 57 



10. How the Soil Is Made 61 



11. How Vegetation Holds the Soil 67 



12. What Happens Where There Is No Protecting Carpet 



OF Vegetation . 73 



13. The Use and Care of Water 81 



14. Could We Get Along without the Trees? . . 89 



15. Where Has Nature Spread the Forest? ... 96 



16. What Are the Enemies of the Trees? . . . 104 



17. How THE Forests Are Wasted 112 



18. How THE Forests Suffer from Fires . . . .119 



19. Evils that Follow the Destruction of the Forests 125 



20. How Our Government Is Helping to Save the Forests 130 



21. Our Forest Playgrounds 139 



22. What Is Happening to the Wild Flowers . . 144 



23. Nature's Penalty for Interfering with Her Ar- 



rangements 150 



24. What Shall We Do When the Coal, Oil, and Gas Are 



Gone? 155 



25. Need for Protection of Creatures That Live in the 



Water 162 



V 



