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Contents Part III. the LAST FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS STATE OF MICHIGAN Insects ................................................................... 60 DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION Worms And Others ................................................ 61 P. J. Hoffmaster, Director The Pleasant Peninsulas .............................................62 Man and his Towns ......................................................69 THEY NEED NOT VANISH A DISCUSSION OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES In Conclusion .................................................................71 OF MICHIGAN Part III. THE LAST FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS "THE GOOD EARTH" Edited by HELEN M. MARTIN ir, sunlight, water, and soil are essential for the Acontinuance of life—plant, animal, and human life, from contributions by on the earth. Of these four basic requirements, the soil Shirley W. Allen, Geo. C. S. Benson, University of is most directly subject to the care and management of Michigan man. However, the soil has frequently been the object of man's most careless use and abuse. It is, therefore, Stannard B. Bergquist, L. R. Schoenmann, H. C. most fitting that the eminent soil scientist, A. F. Beeskaw, J. H. Kraemer, W. F. Morofsky, J. A. Porter, E. Gustafson, should begin his book on soils and soil C. Sackrider, Michigan State College management with: G. S. Mclntire, H. M. Martin, O. F. Poindexter, C. F. "During his existence upon the earth, man has depended upon Welch, Department of Conservation the soil, either directly or indirectly, for the production of the materials used by him for food and clothing and, in part, for the M. G. Adams, Stream Control Commission production of those used for fuel and shelter as well. Grains, Frank DuMond, Public Museum, Grand Rapids fruits, and vegetables that serve him as food grow directly on the soil. Cotton and flax yield materials that are made into Lynn Heatley, High School, Midland. clothing. Trees and many other plants, also direct products of the soil, supply food and materials for industries and for COPYRIGHT 1942 buildings for sheltering man and his domestic animals. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION "Likewise, the grain and forage crops that constitute the feed Photographs from Department of consumed by domestic animals are immediate products of the Conservation; Department of Geology and soil. The animals in turn contribute meat, milk, eggs, and other Geography, Michigan State College; U. S. products that are used for human food and, in addition, wool, Soils Conservation Service and contributors. silk, and hides for the manufacture of clothing. “In highly favored sections of the world, man obtains fuel in the form of coal, gas, or oil from the depths of the earth. All these Contents have resulted from the growth of plants on ancient soils during the long geological ages that preceded the advent of man. Part III. The Last Fifty Thousand Years........................ 1 "Thus it appears obvious that for his well-being, in fact for his The Good Earth ............................................................. 1 very existence, man is dependent in large measure upon the How the Soil was Formed........................................2 soil. Truly, the continuance of human life upon the earth is The Land Speaks.....................................................7 conditioned by rational use of the soil, by its wise Our Reply.................................................................9 management,—and, more particularly, its true conservation." The Green Mantle........................................................ 11 So, as Dr. Gustafson intimates, not only those who may The Lesser Growth ................................................12 own and use the soil, the farmer, grazer, and forester, The Forest..............................................................16 but all the citizens of the State and nation who use or Stored Waters.............................................................. 33 depend on the products of the soil, the manufacturer, Underground Water ...............................................35 laborer, merchant, banker, doctor, lawyer, and teacher, Surface Waters ......................................................37 are in some manner interested in and concerned about Looking Ahead .......................................................41 keeping the soil enduringly productive. They are and Beasts, Birds, Fish, Bugs ............................................ 41 should be interested not only for their own sake because Wildlife Research...................................................46 of the direct relation of the ability of the land to produce Value Of Wild Life ..................................................48 the food and fibre that are needed for the business of the The Fur Bearers.....................................................50 nation and the welfare of its people today, but also The Feathered Population .....................................54 because every good citizen hopes that America can be The Finny Tribes....................................................59 kept as a place where the future generations of citizens Amphibians ............................................................59 shall not be doomed to live in the condition of want and Reptiles ..................................................................60 poverty which the people of the older countries like They Need Not Vanish -- Part 3 – Page 1 of 72 China and Asia Minor have suffered as a consequence The layers or bands are very noticeable in the upper two of heedless or abusive use of their land. or three feet, and seldom extend much below these depths but are underlain by material of more uniform Here in the United States, in Michigan, on our own farms appearance which extends to great depth without much and woodlands, we can still save "the soil that supports noticeable change. The material below the layers may us.” If we will act before it is too late. Nature will not be gravel, sand, clay, or rock of some kind, or a mixture stop her work, but we can delay her destruction; we of any or all of them. Its mass color may be grayish, need not lend her further aid as we have in the heedless yellowish, brownish, or reddish, or a mixture of these past. But we cannot wait too long. Already soil erosion colors. It is termed "parent material" and the layers has destroyed 50,000,000 acres of Uncle Sam's farm above it are termed "soil." Why? Because (as explained land and has seriously injured 50,000,000 acres more, in the chapter on geology) when the retreat of the glacier and wind and rain are gnawing away at another left Michigan exposed to the sun, air, rain and snow, only 100,000,000 acres of unprotected topsoil. Forest fires rock debris, and lakes and streams covered the surface. sweep the protecting cover from an additional From the rock debris, the "parent material," the soil 30,000,000 acres of woodland every year. Meanwhile came. nobody knows how many million acres of crop and pasture lands are slowly declining in productivity This parent material, from which the upland or mineral because the way in which these lands are being used is soils have been formed, varied greatly in character from either depleting or unbalancing their natural fertility. place to place in different parts of Michigan. The These damages to our land resources are not confined exposures of bare rock of the old pre-glacial surface to the forests of the west, the prairies of the central produced one kind of parent material—derived from the states, and the farm lands of the south. Michigan is igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The suffering also. The seriousness of such nation-wide covering of glacial drift was another sort of parent depreciation of farm and grazing and forest land can be material, a mixture of the other three. appreciated when we recall that the total area of the Bare rock, moraines, till plains, outwash, lake beds and state of Michigan is less than 40,000,000 acres. dunes, covered the whole State from one end to the If you want the story first-hand and more fully, then read other. Here were flat areas, smooth rolling areas, knolls, Rich Land, Poor Land—A Study of Waste in the Natural hills, and low mountains; sandy here, clayey there; stony Resources of America by Stuart Chase, and then, if you and gravelly in some places, merely gravelly in others; would like to know what can and should be done to keep glacial drift, mixed up in hit-and-miss fashion out of our country a wholesome place in which to live and work varying quantities of igneous rock material, sandstone, and play, extend your reading to America Begins limestone, and shale. That was Michigan in the Again—The Conquest of Waste in Our Natural beginning—just water-soaked parent material with Resources by Katherine Glover, and New Frontiers by streams gathering on the highlands flowing to the Henry A. Wallace. These books will help you to lowlands, filling the basins with lakes and covering the understand the very real and close relation of "the soil landlocked flats with shallow sheets of water. Locked and the people" and why the boys and girls of today and within this parent material are all the minerals essential tomorrow will want to know what soil is, how it was for plant growth:—calcium, so necessary for cell wall formed, how to use it, and why and how it must be formation; potassium, essential to growth by cell division conserved. and the formation of carbohydrates (starches); magnesium, which is part of chlorophyl which makes the HOW THE SOIL WAS FORMED green color; iron without which
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