CONSERVATION READER 



CHAPTER ONE 



HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED 



Before these fields were shorn and tilled 



Full to the brim our rivers flowed ; 



The melody of waters fiUed 



The fresh and boundless woods ; 



And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd, 



The fountains spouted in the shade. 



William Cullen Bryant, 

 quoted in American Forestry, XIV. 520 



The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled 

 with the most wonderful things. Although people have 

 lived on the earth for many thousands of years, they have 

 been very slow in learning the secrets of their treasure house. 

 This is because early men were much like the lower animals. 

 During all these years their minds have been slowly growing. 

 Now we can learn and understand many things which our 

 ancestors of long ago could not. 



In habits and appearance the first men that roamed the 

 earth were little different from the other animals except 

 that they walked upright. When they had enough to eat 

 and a home safe from enemies, they seemed perfectly happy 

 and contented. 



These early men lived in the same wonderful treasure 

 house as we do, but they did not know how to make use of 

 its riches. In truth, their wants were so few that they 

 would have had no use for the things that now seem so 

 necessary to us. The rich fields about them lay untilled. 

 The gold, silver, copper, and iron in the earth remained 



