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 
R.B. L 
