Checking the Waste: A Study in ConservationGregory, Mary Huston
History
Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation
Gregory, Mary Huston
Conservation of natural resources; United States -- Economic conditions
In the early history of our country natural animal food was abundant.
Fishes swarmed in the sea, lakes, and streams. Wild turkeys and other
game birds, deer, and bison formed a large part of the food of our
forefathers. But these have been gradually disappearing. We have caught
and destroyed so many fish that we have only a fraction of our former
number. The game birds have disappeared either because they have been
killed in great numbers or because their nesting-places have been
destroyed. Of the big game nothing is now left except in a few remote
regions, and it is growing less plentiful each year.
Although large quantities of fish and game are marketed every year at
certain seasons, they form a small fraction of the animal food required
in the country, and we must now depend for most of our animal food, not
on that which was at first given us for a natural resource but on that
raised by man.
The poultry--the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys; the cattle, beef
and dairy, the hogs and the sheep that are raised in such vast numbers
have taken the place of wild game. The cultivated varieties have higher
food value, and are far more satisfactory, since they are ready for use
at any time.
The conservation of our animal food resources presents a different
problem from any other. It is true that we have wasted and exhausted our
natural food supplies, but we must remember that to a certain extent
their preservation was neither possible nor desirable. They have been
driven out by advancing civilization.
Wild birds and animals leave as the forests are cut out, destroying
their natural homes. Many of them can not be kept in captivity, so this
supply never could have been regulated. It was necessary to destroy
some of them to insure man's safety, and others were needed for his use.
But we can take their places with other animals which are better fitted
for our food, and it is the task of keeping up a sufficient supply of
these on the most suitable land and under conditions that will yield the
best results, that constitutes the problem of the conservation of our
animal food resources.
The raising of poultry and live stock on a large scale is a separate
occupation, usually followed in a scientific manner and it is not of
that industry that we need to speak, but rather of the benefit to every
farmer and to the dwellers in small communities, of raising at least a
part of the animal food used by the family.
Every farm has some bits of unoccupied land that can be fenced off for
poultry. The gleanings from the fields will supply their food, and they
will furnish meat and eggs for the family throughout the year, with
enough left to sell to provide other comforts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account