ever think how long a time it has taken to
make the rocks and store away in them gold, silver, copper, and iron?
Did you ever think how long a time it has taken to cover the rocks with
soil, and spread over the surface the flowers and trees and to stock it
with uncounted numbers of animals and birds?

Nature usually works very slowly, but she never rests. The earth and all
things on its surface, have always been changing, but changing so slowly
that we do not ordinarily notice what is going on. When there is an
earthquake, or a slide of rock on a mountain side, or an eruption of a
volcano, we are astonished and often terrified.

Stories that have come down to us from the distant past tell us that the
earth looked then much the same as it does now. If we could look away
back to a time long before the first men lived, when even the animals
and plants were different from those around us, we should discover that
the surface of the earth was quite different from that of today. We
should then see mountains and hills where now we find valleys, and dry
land where now lies the blue ocean.

Nature has been such a long time making the beautiful world in which we
live, that we ought to treat it with great consideration. It is also a
wise thing for us to be heedful of her requests, for, if we will work
with her, the earth with all its treasures will be at our command.

Shall we not now seek to learn which of the natural resources of our
land will never be replaced if we squander them? Let us also learn which
may be made good again by Nature, if we are willing to wait long enough,
as well as to assist her in her slow work.

Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It
is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the
fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water
to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be
our lot for many years.

Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks
will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a
foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even,
for a new and fertile soil to come again.

During the early years of placer mining in California thousands of acres
of rich lands in the foothills were destroyed. Only boulders were left.
Now fifty years have passed and a new soil is being formed, but it will
be a long time yet before it