November 23, 1939 
 
Economics, Philosophy and Land 
Aldo Leopold 
The Package System 
 
Information on ecology is nearly all segregated into arbitrary packages.

For propaganda: forestry, wildlife restoration, erosion control, 
recreation, etc. 
For teaching:   animal ecology, plant ecology. C 4, 
This obscurescharacters of the soil-plant-animal community which are 
common to all packages, and which are (or should be) of interest to the 
philosopher, w  economist, 
The obscuration is increased by the labotatory ecoltgists' unscholarly *

taboo on 'practical" problems. Hence the only ecology available to you
is 
the effect of temperature on social units of Paramecia, or the effect of

crowding on reproductive rate in Drosophila. 
There are a few rebels: 
Paul B. Sears: *This Is Our World"; Russell Lord: "To Hold This
Soil' 
General Smtj: 'Human Ecology' 
Carl Sauer: "Theme of Plant and Animal Destruction in Economic Historyw

(Jour. Farm Economics, Vol. ZX, No. 4, November, 1936, 
pp. 765-775). 
Charles Alton: 
Science Inquiry? 
I shall point out a few characters common to the whole soil-plant-animal

complex. 
Definition 
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