24 THE AUDUBON) BU LE heii 
BOOK REVIEW 
OUR MARGIN OF LIFE, by Eugene M. Poirot, illustrated by Charles W. 
Schwartz. Vantage Press (publisher’s address not given). 200 plus pages. 
1964. 
Gene Poirot, Missouri farmer, soil chemist, naturalist, conservationist 
and writer; presents a dynamic argument for the urgent need of specific 
conservation goals — a common sense, practical soil-building program to 
save American farms from eroding so much that they will no longer be 
able to produce the food and fiber essential to a prosperous people. Mr. 
Poirot points out in simple logic how the prairie soil that nourished the 
bison, the Prairie Chicken and the Indian will continue to nourish us if 
we follow nature’s irrefutable law: 
“Return to the soil that which has been taken from it, and keep the 
soil in place.” —. The living soil that provides the margin of life for the 
Sharp-shinned Hawk as well as for man; soil that assures food, protection 
and reproduction. 
Each living thing, from soil microbe to man, has a vital inter-relation- 
ship in the jig-saw puzzle of life. It is man’s responsibility, having 
dominion over all, to find the meaning of each piece and to fit it into the 
whole ecological scheme of Mother Nature. If any piece is lost, we are all 
the losers. 
Each species has its place in the pattern of life. It is man’s job to 
ferret out the inter-relationships. A prairie is Mother Nature’s storehouse 
of accumulated vaiues. If he destroys the soil, man destroys himself. The 
prairie cock, strutting, dancing and booming in all his spring courtship 
frenzy, is but prairie soil transformed by Mother Nature’s: magic. 
Man has just begun to investigate the why’s and wherefore’s of these 
intricate life-to-life balances. The law of the prairie teaches us the essen- 
tial rules of survival, soil-to-soil and life-to-life, based upon the land. Any 
Federal farm program that succeeds must be based upon these fundamental 
principles of the living topsoil. 
Our present government subsidy payments, based on parity and in- 
creased production, destroy the soil, build up unneeded surpluses at ex- 
cessive costs. A simple soil bank program conserves and restores soil, 
water, forests, and grassland cover, providing the food and shelter essential 
to wildlife. Restoration requires greater talent than destruction of the chain 
of life, which must move upward from soil microbe to man, or not at all. 
This is a book that should be read and converted into an overall, 
realistic conservation action program based on common sense, basic use 
of resources to keep America truly strong and prosperous. 
History provides plenty of examples of poverty, misery and starvation 
as the only alternative. 
Joseph W. Galbreath, 9405 S. Richfield Rd., East St. Louis, Ill. 
‘Ss ia fi fi 
