Part 13 (1/2)
Here is a party of children chasing across the fields. Each one is searching for the flowers that have bloomed since last they were out, and each is trying to get more than his companions. The children have learned that some kinds of flowers grow in the woods, others in the marshy places, and still others on the dry hillsides. They know where to go for each kind, and not a spot escapes their sharp search.
Here they find a patch of violets, and all are quickly picked. There are some baby-blue-eyes, and yonder dry field is brilliant with the colors of many others. In the gathering of the flowers some of them are pulled up by the roots, but the children do not think of the harm this does.
They wander on and on until many have more in their hands than they can carry. Some of those picked first are already wilted, and, to make their burdens lighter, the children throw these away. At last a tired but happy band turns toward home.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ The wild oxalis loves the moist, shady places.]
What will be done with all the flowers that have been picked? In each home the vases are filled and the tables decorated. There is no room for all of them and some are thrown out. These flowers, once so fresh and bright as they nodded in the breeze, now lie crushed and wilted on the ground.
Another spring returns and the children are out again looking in the familiar places for the flowers they know so well. But there seems to be something wrong, for there are not so many as there used to be. The children have to go farther and search more carefully to get their arms full.
Still a third spring comes and the children are just as ready for the happy excursions and just as anxious to get the flowers. They hunt the fields over, but in the places where the flowers used to be so thick there are only a few scattering ones. They cannot understand what is wrong, but Nature could tell them if they would ask her. The year before she was short of seed, but this year it is much worse, for she had hardly any to plant in her garden. She is short of bulbs also, and of many other plants that grow from year to year, for the children carelessly pulled these up.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ Wild asters cover the mountain meadows.]
The children do not want to go home with only a few flowers, and so they wander farther into the country than they have ever been before. Here they find them as abundant as they used to be near home.
The children do not stop to think that at the base of the bright, fragrant blossoms grow the seed that will make the flowers of the next year. Nature can spare the seed of a part of the blossoms, for she grows many more than she needs; but if we pick them all, what can she do for the coming year?
The wild flowers are living things struggling for a place in the world, just as are the animals and birds. We cannot abuse and destroy too many of them if we would have them stay and add to the beauty of our homes.
Should we not take just as much pleasure in gathering the flowers if we did not bring home more than we needed? Would it not be better to be satisfied with smaller bouquets and leave enough in the fields to go to seed and gladden us next year?
The reckless gathering of wild flowers has gone on so long and they have been picked so closely about many of our towns and cities, that they are disappearing. When there are no longer wild flowers within reach of the children who live in the cities, they will have lost a great joy out of their lives.
There are besides the flowers of which we have been speaking other low plants of beautiful foliage with which we love to decorate our homes. We must take care that these are not gathered too closely or they also will become scarce. We cannot go out into the woods and pull up ferns by the roots year after year and expect Nature to keep up the supply.
The huckleberry is one of the many beautiful shrubs which we admire for its delicate leaves and colors. It is cut and brought in from the country in huge bundles to supply the florists. The time will come when these decorations can no longer be had if the men are allowed to cut all they can find. Just as in the case of the flowers, seekers for them will be obliged to go farther each year and by and by the shrubs will be so scarce and high priced that we shall be obliged to do without them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Pillsbury's Pictures, Inc._ Nature has grown flowers in abundance, but we should not pick or destroy too many of them.]
We hunt far and wide for the beautiful ”holly berries” with which to decorate our homes at Christmas. When we have found a berry-laden bush, we eagerly break off the branches and bear them home in triumph. The bush, once so gay with berries, is a sad-looking thing when we are through with it. The branches are broken so far back that next year it will bear few berries and we shall have to seek another.
We treat the beautiful earth on which we have been placed in a most thoughtless manner. We think only of what we want _now_, and forget that another year is coming in which also we shall want some of the earth's treasures. If we take only the surplus which each year produces, there will always be enough for us and for the people who live after us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NATURE'S PENALTY FOR INTERFERING WITH HER ARRANGEMENTS
Nature seems very prodigal in her ways. She is continually creating on the earth a great mult.i.tude of living things, far more than there is room for. Each one of these, if it would live, must have a certain amount of air, suns.h.i.+ne, and food. As there is not enough of these things to supply every one, there arises a struggle. Those that are weakest die, because they are not able to get what they need. To us this seems hard, but it is Nature's way.
And further, since many of the animals feed on the flesh of other animals, the latter have, in addition to the struggle for their food, to watch constantly for their lives. Every organism is in one sense the enemy of every other one. We do not mean that they often try to kill each other because of hate, as men do, but that they are after food to satisfy their hunger. Some of the higher animals as well as men fight for mastery, in addition to struggling for food. We hope that among men the unnecessary fighting will sometime cease, and that kindness and unselfishness will rule.
The struggle for life is ceaselessly going on around us, but so quiet is it that we are not often aware of the countless tragedies that take place. This struggle extends from the plants and animals in the pond, so small that we cannot see them with the unaided eye, upward through all the larger animals.
The struggle among all living things helps us to understand the necessity for Nature's prodigality. If the plants and animals that serve as food for others were not produced in great numbers, they would soon become extinct. It is seldom that any one kind of plant or animal, because of its many enemies, has an opportunity to spread and obtain more than its share of food and suns.h.i.+ne. According to Nature's arrangements, each organism does its share in keeping down the numbers of the others. This we call the ”balance of Nature.”
Sometimes the balance of Nature is disturbed and one particular kind of animal gets the start of its enemies and increases until it becomes a _plague_. This may be caused by a favorable season or by the decrease of its enemies on account of disease among them. We have read of the plagues of gra.s.shoppers which have sometimes visited the Western states and eaten up every green thing. Plagues of rats and field mice have been known to do a great deal of damage. In such cases their natural enemies, the hawks, owls, and coyotes, may be attracted to the region from far around, because of the extra food supply. After a time they may succeed in reducing the numbers of these pests.