26 



Conservation Reader 



H. W. Fairbanks 

 Where Nature has supplied little rain ; desert sand dunes. 



because its resources have been wasted. Our own land is 

 now rich and prosperous because of the abundance of its 

 natural resources. We should guard these well lest we meet 

 a fate similar to that of the people of Spain. 



If we journey over our own land, we shall discover that 

 Nature has been very partial to certain parts, giving them 

 more than they need. Other parts have been left with 

 little. We shall also discover what wonderful things men 

 are doing to make up for the failures of Nature, and to make 

 habitable many of those places which she left uninhabitable. 



The forests of the eastern half of the country have been 

 thinned out. West of the Mississippi River there are 

 thousands of square miles of prairies where there are almost 

 no trees. In such places the first settlers had dif&culty in 

 getting firewood, and had to btuld their houses of earth or 

 stone. 



