CASE Grade 6 Language Arts Do Not Reproduce

“What Is Conservation?”
by Mary Huston Gregory

1 A nation’s riches lie both in its people and in its natural resources. Neither can exist in its highest
estate without the other. If the people of a country are to make the most of themselves in mind
and body; if they are to get the most comfort and happiness out of life and to become in the
highest degree useful, they must develop its natural resources to the greatest possible degree.

2 The United States is particularly fortunate in its abundant riches of soil, forest, and mine.

3 The United States has made great strides in inventions and discoveries that have developed a great
nation at home and have done much to better the condition of the world. But the very magnitude
of our natural wealth has made us careless. Thoughtful men are beginning to realize that with the
natural increase of population, we shall, if the present rates of use and waste continue, find
ourselves no longer rich, but facing poverty and even actual want. But it is not too late to save
ourselves from the results of our past extravagance. We are only beginning to see the danger into
which we have almost plunged, but we see enough to make us realize that everyone must do his
part in checking the waste.

4 Let us go back for a moment to the beginning of our history as a nation, the days of Washington.

5 Invention at that time had made little progress over what it had been three hundred years before.
The same type of slow-sailing vessels carried all the commerce. Wind and water were the only
powers employed in running the few factories. Only a little iron was used in this country, and in
fact almost its only use anywhere at that time was to make tools. There was little machinery.

6 The forests stretched away in unbroken miles of wilderness. The wood was used for the settlers’
homes, their fuel, and their furniture, but they needed so little that it grew much faster than it
could be used. The man who cut down a tree was a public benefactor. The trees, though so
necessary to life, were regarded as a serious hindrance to civilization because they had to be
cleared away before crops could be planted.

7 To the pioneers, the soil was the most valuable of all resources. The rivers were necessary to every
community for carrying their commerce. Hunting for fish, game, and birds made up a large part of
their daily living.

8 With every resource in such abundance, it seemed impossible it could ever be exhausted. And with
a small scattered population to draw on all these riches, careless habits of using were sure to
spring up. Our forefathers took the best that the land offered, and that which was easiest to get,
and gave no thought to caring for what remained. Their children, and the new immigrants who
came in such numbers, all practiced the same wasteful methods.

9 In the hundred and fifty years that have passed since that time of Washington, a great change has
come over the world. By the magic of the railroad, the telegraph, and the telephone, all the nations
of the earth are bound more closely to one another than when there were only scattered
communities of a single country.

10 The forests have been cut away, and in place of endless miles of wilderness there now stretch
endless miles of fertile farms yielding abundant harvests.

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11 Slow-going sailing vessels have given place to steamboats. Men are no longer dependent on the
rivers because swift railway trains penetrate every part of the country. The stagecoach is replaced
by the trolley car, and the horseback rider is replaced by the automobile rider speeding over the
most improved highways.

12 Farm machinery has revolutionized the old methods of doing farm work. The fish, game, and birds
are largely gone, and in their place are the animal foods raised by man. Modern houses, filled with
countless devices for labor-saving and comfort, have replaced the simple homes of colonial days.

13 What has brought about this change? The energy and industry of American men and women, aided
for the most part by American inventions, and made possible by the wonderful natural resources of
America.

14 No one would wish to have our country’s development tested in any way. These great results could
be obtained only by using the materials that could be found easiest and cheapest, even if it meant
great waste in the beginning.

15 But the time has come when we can no longer continue this waste without interfering with future
development. Some of the resources have been so exhausted that in a few years we will see the
end of their use in large commercial quantities. Others, such as coal and iron, will last much longer,
but when they are gone, they can never be replaced. The country will cease to prosper when coal
and iron can no longer be used in manufacturing. The length of time they will last at the present
rate of use can be easily calculated. It will take a long time to exhaust their use; longer than the
lifetime of any man now living, or of his children, but it is within the life of his grandchildren, and
that is a very short time in the history of a nation.

16 While other nations have passed into decay, none has ever exhausted its resources so early in its
history as have the United States. Surely this great rich nation cannot so soon face actual need. But
we must remember that no other nation has ever used its resources as we have used ours. We are
using in years what other nations have used in centuries.

17 If conservation meant leaving our resources untouched, and halting development so that there
might be an abundance of resources for future generations, it would be both an unwise and
unacceptable policy. It must be thoroughly understood that this is not what is desired.

18 Conservation does not mean the locking up of our resources, nor a hindrance to real progress in
any direction. It means only wise, careful use.
“What Is Conservation?” by Mary Huston Gregory from Checking the Waste; A Study in Conservation. Copyright 1911 by The Bobbs-Merrill
Company. Public domain.

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“How Farm and Factory Helped Build the Nation”

1 For many years this country grew much more wheat than we needed, and we shipped great
quantities to Europe. But each year our growing population needs more food, and our exports of
this grain decrease steadily. Even now our farms grow but little more of this grain than is needed
at home, and the time is almost at hand when we shall no longer send any of it abroad.

2 Cattle raising, like wheat farming, is principally an industry of the West. As late as 1850 the states
which raised the most cattle lay along the Atlantic coast. But today Texas and Iowa are in the
lead, and Kansas and Nebraska follow closely.

3 As the eastern states became peopled more densely, cattle grazing was forced west. The cattle
pastures were broken up into fields. The prairies of Illinois and Iowa became a vast cornfield.
Eastern Kansas and Nebraska were turned into corn and wheat farms. Always the cattle had to
give way to the grain. At last the farmers came to a strip of country where the rainfall was not
enough to make grain growing profitable. This comparatively narrow strip stretches north in an
irregular area of plains from western Texas to Montana. This region grows fine grass and has
become the great grazing country of the United States. Here vast herds of cattle still roam on
large ranches and are cared for by cowboys.

4 The largest meat-processing plants are located in the corn belt at Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha,
and other cities. Today meat packing is the greatest business of Chicago and many other large
cities. A generation ago it had scarcely begun. But the packers learned to can meat, to use ice for
cold storage, and, most important of all, the refrigerator car was invented.

5 By this last discovery it became possible to ship meat almost everywhere. Where before the
packers had to sell their goods at home, now they have the world as a market. A steer raised on
the western prairies may now be fattened for market in Illinois, processed in Chicago, and served
in New York, or sent to England or even to Asia.
Excerpt from “How Farm and Factory Helped Build the Nation” by William H. Mace from A Beginner’s History. Copyright 1914 by Rand McNally
& Company. Public domain.

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Writing Prompt
You have read “What Is Conservation?” and the excerpt from “How Farm and Factory
Helped Build the Nation.” Write an informational essay explaining the difficulties of
attempting to colonize and expand while also conserving natural resources.

Manage your time carefully so that you can

Be sure to
• use evidence from both texts

Your written response should be in the form of a multi-paragraph informational essay.

Write your essay in the space provided.

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