Evening star., 1938-12-07
A. -.
New Books at
Random
By Margaret Germond.

xaAlICA1Sc1lo dS d W1lOlc are IdIllcE
of their knowledge of their own land,
and with good reason. It is land about
which so much has been written and
proclaimed from so many angles that
until now most of us have probably been
content in the belief that the coverage
had been thorough and the record as
nearly complete as constantly changing
social and economic conditions permit.
But Mr.. Lord has Travelled new road to
barely known destination and here pre-
sents chronicle that is wholly different
and that arouses interest in subject
that has become challenge to the far
Sightedness, the patience and the in
genuity of man.
Specifically, Behold Our Land" is
the story of Americas soil, but it is also
considerably more than that. Mr.. Will
liam Allen White describes it as a trans
lation into human terms of the vast
typographical differences OF the various
regions Of the United States" And Mr..
Lords pronouncement in the first chap
ter that 'the story starts with stardust
and ends in the troubled present" is no
overstatement of fact. His chronicle of
the soil of this broad land goes beyond
the dawn of history, before there was
life on the earth, tracing the vast proc
esses of nature leading to land formation
and moving on to the development of
vegetation, the growth of great forests
through thousands of years and finally
to the settlement by white men on the
virgin soil of the unknown continent.
What happened to the soil at the
hands of the white man is the burden
of this unusual narrative, which is an
evolution rather than the carrying out
OF an idea. In 1884 Mr.. Lord was asked
by the publishers of this book to write
story giving an fasteners view of the
West, that vast territory stretching be-
yond Pittsburgh to the Pacific. He
went down to his farm in the tideWater
region of Maryland to write, but before
getting very far he was called to WASH
lngton and asked to 60 out over the
country for the newly created Soil Con-
servation Service and write its first ma
tional bulletin. AS a neWspaperman as
we'll as farm owner he travelled as a
seeker after information and as a stu
dent of the soil. And what is more i'm
portant he entered into his new work
With consideration for and appreciation
OF the differences of regional character
istics that distinguish the various popu-
latlon' groups of America Soil, climate
blood, social organization and other
tangible and intangible elements that
make each section of this vast country
oterent from the other sections are ac-
counted for in story about the land of
America and what has happened to it.
we are giants and masters of de-
struction,' states Mr. Lord, and every
solled stream and duststorm in the
United States today advances the spec
tacle OF one farm, county, and State
moving into another or out to sea at q
rate for which there is no known prece-
cent over country as a whole. Given
one OF the richest and most beautiful
lands On earth to tend, We have taken
shamefully poor care of it,"
X X *
Only in recent years has soil erosion
and soil Wastage been recognized as a
matter over which there should be grave
national concern. Floods, drought and
duststorms have been more or less taken
Tor granted as part of the toll exacted
Tor progress. Even the knowledge that
mans greed for land and his feverish
haste to make it pay were largely re-
sponslble for waste through flood and
storm did not serve to check abuse and
neglect of the priceless heritage of land.
NOW the situation is one which affects the
whole economic structure of the Nation
and that requires remedial measures on
a large scale.
Mr.. Lord does not go into discussion
of ways and means for restoration of the
damage already done, nor does he propose
plan to put an end to practices so long
engaged in by American land owners
who have failed to recognize the danger
they have themselves created. Neither
does he take the matter into the realm
OF politics The purpose has been SIM
ply to arrest public attention and arouse
opinion in matter that is of vital i'm
portance. Such task is not easy of
accomplishment with a race of the
temperament of United States Ameri-
cans, but this book has compelling
quality. that is irresistible to any one
who opens it, whether for merely curious
reasons or because of general interest.
1t is good book from every standpoint,
and one which united citizenship
should accept with gratitude, for it is
plea to restore full health to living
body, thus described:
Land and sea, plain and mountain,
cloud and stream, desert, Arctic cap
all Earth is of one body and alive. Sum
shine is the pumping heartbeat. Water
is Earth's blood circulating, bearing
food in solution, breaking down dead
tissue, building seed, and bringing it to
life. Rock is Earth's skeleton. Soil is
her skin, her lungs, her entrails, and
her womb" This, the author admits,
may sound abrupt, but he believes that
Americans are old enough now to be
told about the soil.''
Seeks Accurate Presentation