is from the education of the children in right ways of looking at
Nature that everything is to be expected in the years to come. If they
learn to understand the value of the things about them, as well as to
appreciate their beauties, the carrying on and enlarging of the
conservation program which is now so well under way can be safely left
to their care.

The West, although it has already been ruthlessly exploited, has lost
less of its natural wealth than have the longer-settled Eastern states.

In the newer parts of our country we can reasonably hope to save most of
the forests and most of the wild life, and pass them on down to our
children and grandchildren in something of their primeval beauty and
richness.

In the East we can hope to arouse a stronger sentiment for preserving
what remains of the forests as well as for extending their areas, for
proper forestation will lessen the danger of erosion of the soil and of
floods, and will encourage the return of the wild creatures that are of
so much economic importance and add so much to the joy of life.

A book bringing out in a simple and interesting manner the principles of
conservation has long been needed, for there has been little that could
be placed in the hands of pupils. It is with the earnest hope of
furnishing something which will answer in part the present need that
this _Conservation Reader_ has been prepared.

Acknowledgments are due the publishers of _American Forestry_ and the
_Century Magazine_ for courteous permission to reprint poems taken from
those publications. For their help in supplying photographic subjects to
illustrate the book, thanks are extended to the persons to whom the
various illustrations are accredited in immediate connection with their
use in the text. The reproductions in color of two bird subjects have
been secured through the friendly cooeperation of Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson,
Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
1. HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED 1
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