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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ARBOR DAY: 
 
 ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 N. H. EOLBSTON. 
 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVKRNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 1896. 
 
LETTER OF SUBMITTAL. 
 
 U. S. DbPAETMBNT of AaRICTJLTTJBE, 
 
 Washington, D. C, January 29, 1896. 
 
 SiK: I have the honor to submit the accompanying bulletin on Arbor 
 Day, prepared by your direction. 
 
 Its aim is to give an authentic account of the origin, history, and 
 uses of the day — now observed throughout our country and also in 
 other lands — which has been regarded with interest by the Department 
 ever since its observance began, and to offer such suggestions and helps 
 as may serve to increase its usefulness. 
 
 It is impossible to sketch the history of Arbor Day in even the brief- 
 est manner without frequent reference to the present Secretary of the 
 Department, with whom the day is so intimately connected. If the 
 writer of this bulletin had felt at liberty to disregard the restraints 
 imposed by the ofi&cial character of the work, a much more frequent 
 mention of Mr. Morton's name would have been the result. 
 
 Some of the illustrations in the bulletin, especially those of leaves, 
 are from Apgar's Trees of the Iforthern United States, copyright, 1892, 
 by the Americnn Book Company, to whom thanks are due for permis- 
 sion to use them, it having been found impracticable to prepare original 
 figures of this character without delaying the bulletin until after the 
 arrival of the time set apart in many States for the observance of Arbor 
 Day. Similar thanks are due to others also for like favors. 
 
 I take occasion here also to thank the superintendents of public 
 instruction and others who have so readily and courteously responded 
 to my iuvitation and rendered aid, by suggestion or otherwise, in the 
 preparation of this publication. Wherever material from sirch or other 
 sources has been incorporated in these pages I have endeavored to give 
 credit to the respective authors. For the rest the writer is responsible. 
 Kespectfully, 
 
 N. H. Egleston. 
 
 Hon. Ohas. W. Dabney, Jr., 
 
 Assistant Secretary. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Paga 
 
 Commercial value of trees "i 
 
 Origin and history of. Arbor Day 9 
 
 States and Territories observing Arbor Day 18 
 
 Arbor Day celebrations -..- 19 
 
 Methods of observing Arbor Day 20 
 
 Addresses and extracts 22 
 
 Arbor Day — Its origin and growth, by J. Sterling Morton 22 
 
 Observance of Arbor Day by schools, by Hon. B. G. Northrop 27 
 
 Arbor Day for the Common wealth, by Dr. E. E. Higbee 28 
 
 Value and uses of Arbor Day, by Prof. George Mnll 29 
 
 Planting trees a patriotic duty - - - - 32 
 
 Schools of agriculture and horticulture, by Hon. Charles R. Skinner 34 
 
 Encouraging words for Arbor Day 36 
 
 Trees and schools 38 
 
 Trees as living things - - - 39 
 
 ^Trees i u masses — forests - - 43 
 
 Trees in their leafless state - 46 
 
 Leaves, and what they do 47 
 
 The best use of Arbor Day 50 
 
 Tree planting 53 
 
 Street planting 55 
 
 Planting on school grounds 59 
 
 Planting on lawns and in parks 62 
 
 Aids to success in planting 63 
 
 Method of planting 64 
 
 Opinions of representative men 64 
 
 Suggestions for programmes 67 
 
 Miscellaneous readings 69 
 
 Selections for recitations 77 
 
 Topics for Arbor Day essays 80 
 
 3 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Arbor Day, from being only a humble expedient of one of our 
 Western States a few years ago, has become a national holiday and one 
 of our important institutions. Its original design has been modified 
 since its observance has become associated with our schools. It is now 
 not only a day for tree planting for economic and aesthetic purposes, but 
 its observance has been made the means of securing much valuable 
 knowledge in regard to plant and tree life, of cultivating in the young 
 the powers of observation, and kindling in their minds an interest in 
 natural objects which will be a lifelong source of benefit and pleasure. 
 
 Is it too much to hope, also, that this Arbor Day festival, engaging 
 our children in its observance so generally and so pleasantly with songs, 
 recitations, and the planting of trees and shrubs around the school- 
 houses and along the streets or in public parks and other places, may 
 have the effect of developing in coming generations a keener apprecia- 
 tion of the value and the beauty of trees than has hitherto been felt in 
 our country, and that thus the reckless destruction of our forests, now 
 going on with such threatening consequences, may be arrested before 
 the calamities are upon us which have befallen other countries through 
 the loss of their trees? 
 
ARBOR DAY: HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 COMMERCIAL VALUE OF TREES. 
 
 Arbor Day has its abundant justification in the 
 surpassing value of trees from whatever point of 
 view they are considered. Their beauty is felt 
 by all. Nothing contributes so much to make the 
 world a pleasant place of abode for man. Just 
 as anyone has the true home feeling and seeks 
 to create a home for himself, he seeks the trees 
 as being an indispensable aid in the accom- 
 plishment of his purpose. He must have the 
 trees around his dwelling place. He must have 
 their shelter and their shade, their beauty of 
 form, of leaf, and blossom, and fruit, their ever- 
 varying aspect with every change of earth and 
 sky, of sunshine and cloud. In short, he must 
 have their companionship in his daily life. But 
 looked at apart from all such feeling and senti- 
 ment, looked at not in their living but in their 
 dead state, looked at as mere lumber or material for man's constructive 
 purposes, for the thousand uses of daily life, the trees have an almost 
 incomparable value. Estimated by their money value alone the prod- 
 ucts of the forest exceed those from almost any other source. 
 
 We speak of the "precious metals," gold and silver; and they are so 
 precious in the esteem of most persons that multitudes are ready to 
 forsake all other occupations and rush in pursuit of them wherever 
 they may be found or there is even a faint hope of finding them. Now 
 we give to the hunters of these precious metals special privileges in 
 the prosecution of their quest such as are not given to people engaged 
 in other employments. It would seem that the mining of gold and sil- 
 ver is the most important interest of the country. It certainly holds a 
 very prominent position in the public estimation. 
 
 But the last report of the Director of the Mint gives the value of the 
 product of the gold and silver mines of the United States for the year 
 1894 as follows: Gold, $39,500,000; silver, $31,422,000; total, $70,922,000. 
 At the same time, the most recent and careful estimates of the value of 
 
 5 
 
6 ARBOE DAY ITS HISTOBY AND OBSEEVANCE. 
 
 the products of our forests during the same year make it $1,058,650,859, 
 or fifteen times that of gold and silver. 
 
 Another comparison is very significant. If we add to the gold and 
 silver products that of all other minerals, including such prominent 
 ones as iron, copper, lead, zinc, coal, lime, natural gas, petroleum, salt, 
 slabe, building stones, and the twenty-five or more remaining, which 
 are less important, we shall have for the value of all our mineral prod- 
 ucts obtained during the year 1894, $553,352,996, or only about one-half 
 the value of our forest products. 
 
 Again, we may make a comparison in a different direction and with 
 no less striking results. The statistical report of the Department of 
 Agriculture gives the value of our cereal crops for the year 1894 as 
 follows : 
 
 Wheat $225,902,025 
 
 Corn - 554,719,162 
 
 Oats 214,816,920 
 
 Eye 13,395,476 
 
 Barley 27,134,127 
 
 Buckwheat 7,040,238 
 
 Total - . 1, 043, 007, 948 
 
 or less by $15,000,000 than our one forest crop. 
 
 Is it not worth our while, therefore, to perpetuate if possible such 
 a crop, and to guard against anything which threatens to diminish it? 
 Ought we not, by every means within our control, to see that the 
 source of this most valuable supply is not lessened in its capability of 
 yielding such a preeminently valuable contribution to our welfare and 
 comfort? 
 
 The need of tree planting, looked at in the wide view, results from 
 the fact that we have been and are depleting our forest area at an 
 unreasonable rate. The spread of population into the great treeless 
 plains beyond the Mississippi has mad^e a largely increased demand 
 for lumber, and in response to that demand we have been for years 
 consuming our forests at a rate far beyond the supply furnished by 
 their annual growth. The best estimates make the annual consump- 
 tion of our forests, for fuel and lumber chiefly, 25,000,000,000 cubic 
 feet. To furnish this amount would require the produce of the annual 
 growth of 1,200,000,000 acres of woodland, whereas our total forest 
 area is less than 500,000,000 acres, which is no more than we need as 
 a permanent stock of woodland for the country. It will be seen, then, 
 that more than half of our annual consumption is a draft by so much 
 upon our forest cajiital, when we should be only drawing from the 
 forests the amount of their annual growth, or the interest of that capi- 
 tal. How long would it take a millionaire to become a bankrupt if he 
 should be annually trenching upon his money capital at a like rate? 
 
 Few persons realize the enormous and often wasteful — that is, un- 
 necessary — consumption of our forests. That consumption amounts 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 7 
 
 to 350 cubic feet per capita, as against 12 to 14 cubic feet per capita in 
 Great Britain and about 40 cubic feet in Germany. 
 
 Some specifications may help us to apprehend the situation. Our 
 railroads consume, on an average, annually for their construction 
 500,000,000 cubic feet of our very best timber. Our mines use for 
 internal props and for the reduction of their ores immense amounts. 
 One mine may be taken as an illustration. The Anaconda Mining 
 Company, of Montana — well named Anaconda, in view of its enormous 
 capacity for swallowing the forests whole, as it were — made a state- 
 ment four years ago, now on file in one of the Departments of the Gov- 
 ernment, from which it appears that during a period of six months it 
 consumed 65,000 cords of wood and 18,500,000 feet of lumber. At the 
 same time the company stated that its daily consumption hereafter 
 would be, wood 700 cords, lumber 100,000 feet, and its consumption 
 for the year 1892 would be, wood 255,000 cords, lumber 40,000,000 feet. 
 This lumber is mostly in the form of timber used as mine props. 
 
 Most of the wood and timber used by this and other mines in the 
 Eocky Mountain and other western regions is cut from the i)ublic 
 lands. Such is the indulgence shown by the Government that those 
 engaged in mining or even prospecting for luines are allowed to cut 
 and consume the timber on the public lands free of cost and with only 
 such restrictions as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior. 
 These restrictions are not close or narrow in character, and are easily 
 evaded if not absolutely ignored, and so are to a great extent prac- 
 tically^ inoperative. The scanty appropriations of Congress do not 
 allow the Secretary of the Interior to retain a sufficient number of 
 inspectors to watch the immense extent of territory occupied by the 
 forests and take notice of the depredations which may be made upon 
 them, and even when depredations are occasionally discovered it is 
 very difflcnlt to secure a conviction and inflict the penalty prescribed 
 for the offense. 
 
 To show the extent of these depredations and the scale on which the 
 forests are consumed, may be instanced the case of one mining company 
 in Dakota against which the Government has brought suit for the sum 
 of $688,000, this being the alleged value of the trees cut less than 8 
 inches in diameter, which restriction had been placed upon the permit 
 to cut. What must have been the number and value of the larger trees 
 cut and consumed by this company? The operations of the Anaconda 
 Company are carried on upon so large a scale that it is said they refuse 
 to make a contract for less than 40,000 cords of wood in any single 
 case, and their contracts range from that amount to 200,000 cords, 
 while nearly 1,000,000 cords are constantly kept on hand. The company 
 held last year a permit from the Secretary of the Interior to cut from 
 four sections of public land within twelve months 14,000,000 feet of 
 timber. The great Comstock Lode of Nevada is, if possible, a greater 
 anaconda, whole mountains of forest having gone into its capacious 
 
8 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 maw, the growth of two or three centuries having been swept away in 
 a few years. 
 
 Figures are impotent to give one a full apprehension of the work of 
 forest destruction that is wrought by these and other mining compa- 
 nies and the lumbering establishments which help them to their sup- 
 plies. One needs to see with his own eyes the work as it is going on 
 and the track of desolation which it leaves, to have an adequate notion 
 of the destruction thus accomplished. One company, miscalled a devel- 
 opment company, which is one of the agencies through which the Ana- 
 conda secures its supplies, has a daily capacity of 120,000 feet of 
 timber. 
 
 It is to be considered also that not only the consumption of the 
 forests incidental to mining operations but that resulting from ordi- 
 nary lumbering is marked by great wastefulness. We throw away 
 often more material than we use. A great portion of the substance of 
 the trees cut in the forests is left there to decay or to be consumed by 
 the flames. It is estimated that on the average not more than three- 
 eighths of what we cut in the forests is utilized, five-eighths of the mate- 
 rial being wasted. In the great redwood forests of the Pacific Coast 
 such is the wasteful method of operation, it is said, that in procuring a 
 railroad tie worth 35 cents, $1.87 worth of the substance of the tree is 
 wasted. In Europe it- is estimated that seven-eighths of the forest 
 material is made use of and the waste is only one-eighth. 
 
 A conspicuous case of wastefulness is worth noting in this connection, 
 not only as an instance of wastefulness, but for the great and direct dam- 
 age resulting from it. To meet the demands of a great mining company 
 on one of the Sierra I>revada ranges a band of men^ numbering thousands 
 in all, were sent with their axes into a forest district in that vicinity. It 
 was an extensive region and the forest presented a stand of trees 
 not excelled, perhaps, in quality in all the country. Every condition of 
 climate and soil had been favorable for their growth. They stood thick 
 and stalwart. 
 
 As the quickest and easiest way of getting out the largest trees, 
 which were the ones wanted for the miners' use, the forest was cut 
 clean and leveled with the ground. Then, the timber having been 
 removed, the remaining trees, spread over miles and miles of the 
 mountain side, were given to the flames. The fire not only consumed 
 the trees, but burned np the soil beneath them — the rich leaf mold, 
 which was the accumulation of centuries of tree growth. The very 
 rocks beneath it were so heated by the mighty mass of burning fuel 
 that, in many jjlaces, they crumbled to gravel. When the rains came 
 and the snows melted rapidly in springtime — having no sheltering 
 foliage of the trees to protect them from the rays of the sun — the ashes 
 of the burned trees, and what was left of the soil, together with the 
 rocky gravel, were swept down the mountain side with torrent swift- 
 ness and force, overflowing the banks of the water courses, tearing 
 
AKBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 9 
 
 them from their places, aad pouring out the debris of disintegrated 
 rock upon the fertile meadows below to the depth of many feet. 
 
 The settlers in the peaceful valleys at the foot of the mountains, to 
 whom the dense forests had sent from their saturated spongy soil and 
 the slowly melting snows under their protecting shade a steady and 
 sufficient supply of water to enable them to prosecute their farming 
 operations in that arid region with an assurance of success nowhere 
 surpassed, now found themselves at the mercy of torrents in the spring 
 season and droughts in the summer time, and were forced to abandon 
 their no longer productive farms. Those green mountain slopes which 
 it had taken centuries of growth to prepare as the guarantee of fertil- 
 ity to the fields below are gone. Naked rocks only are now to be seen 
 in their place. It will take centuries to clothe them again with trees, 
 and meanwhile the valleys and plains below will remain the desert 
 which the greed and recklessness of man have created there. 
 
 With the enormous consumption of our forests now going on and 
 rapidly increasing and the consequent diminution of our forest area, 
 the need of tree planting becomes greater with every passing year, and 
 the Importance of Arbor Day constantly increases. Its great value, as 
 has been said, is not so much in the number of trees planted on Arbor 
 Day as in the tree sentiment created and stimulated by the Arbor Day 
 observances, which will be helpful in arresting the wasteful destruction 
 of our forests and lead on in due time, it is to be hoped, to all private 
 and public tree planting which our interests demand. 
 
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ARBOR DAY. 
 
 The first to call attention in this country, in an 
 impressive way, to the value and absolute need of 
 trees — their value not merely on account of their 
 beauty or their adaptation for purposes of orna- 
 mental planting and mechanical utility, but for 
 their connection as forests with climatic influ- 
 ences, with the flow of streams, and their conse- 
 quent connection with the large interests of 
 agriculture and commerce, in short, with the 
 general welfare of all classes of people — was 
 that eminent scholar and wise observer, Mr. 
 George P. Marsh, for many years our worthy representative at the 
 courts of Italy and Turkey. His residence in those older countries was 
 calculated to draw his attention to the subject as it would not have 
 been drawn had he always lived in his native land. 
 
 Ours was a remarkably well-wooded country. Prom Maine to the 
 Gulf and from the Atlantic coast to the Alleghanies stretched an 
 almost continuous forest, which at the beginning of white settlements 
 
10 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 here and long afterwards was an impediment to agricultural develop- 
 ment. The pioneer was obliged to clear a space among the trees to 
 make room in which to cultivate his crops, and it is a significant sign 
 of that early condition of things that the coat of-arms of one of our 
 States bears the emblem of a sturdy yeoman with uplifted ax. Under 
 such circumstances, it is no wonder that the people of this country in 
 former time had no very favorable estimate of trees and little apprecia- 
 tion of their value, except for fuel and the supply of timber for house 
 building and certain other uses, or that they were willing that their 
 consumption by the ax should be aided and accelerated by forest fires. 
 Comparatively few persons until a recent period realized the serious 
 inroads which, with a rapidly increasing population, had been made 
 upon our forest resources or apprehended the dangers which were 
 threatening us in the future as the consequences thereof. 
 
 In Europe Mr. Marsh found the Governments of Italy and Germany, as 
 well as those of other countries, making active endeavors and at great 
 expense to rehabilitate their forests which had been depleted centuries 
 before, to guard them from depredation and, instead of leaving them to 
 be consumed at the bidding of personal greed or recklessness, cherish- 
 ing them as among their most precious possessions. He found the 
 forests regarded as the most valuable crop which the ground can pro- 
 duce, and every effort made to stimulate their growth to the utmost. He 
 found schools, of a grade corresponding to our colleges, established for 
 the special purpose of training men for the successful planting and cul- 
 tivation of forests. He found the growth of trees in masses and their 
 maintenance reduced to a science and the management of the wood- 
 lands constituting one of the most important departments of state. 
 
 Such discoveries were well calculated to fix his attention upon the 
 very different condition of the forests in his own country, and to con- 
 vince him that the reckless destruction of them then going on here, if 
 not checked, would bring upon this land the same calamities which had 
 befallen countries of the Old World in past centuries, and from which 
 only the most enlightened nations of Europe are now recovering through 
 the arduous efibrts of many decades, and at great pecuniary cost. The 
 result of Mr. Marsh's observations was the publication of a volume 
 entitled "The Earth and Man," and that admirable chapter in it on "The 
 woods," to which, more than to any other source perhaps, we are indebted 
 for the awakening of attention here to our destructive treatment of the 
 forests, and the necessity of adopting a different course if we would 
 avert most serious consequences, threatening more than anything else, 
 possibly, our material welfare. 
 
 Other thoughtful and observing men at home became aware from 
 time to time that we were wasting our tree heritage, and in one way or 
 another they were urging the necessity of caution and economy in the 
 treatment of the forests. It is remarkable, indeed, that as early as the 
 colonial period some of our States — New Hampshire and New York, for 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 11 
 
 example — became somewhat alarmed by tlie inroads which were even 
 then being made u])on their forests, and made enactments for their pro- 
 tection. This action was exceptional, however, and little was done to 
 draw attention to the rapid and dangerous depletion of our forests and 
 awaken public sentiment on the subject until within the comparatively 
 recent period of which we have just spoken. 
 
 For the purpose of securing a supply of timber for naval construction 
 the Government, at the beginning of the present century, jjurchased 
 certain tracts of live-oak timber, and about twenty-five years later, by 
 an act of Congress, the President was authorized to take measures for 
 their preservation. About the same time the Massachusetts Society 
 for Promoting Agriculture offered prizes for forest planting, and thirty 
 years later the State ordered a survey of her timber lands. Thirty 
 years later still, acts began to be passed for the encouragement of tim- 
 ber planting, chiefly in the treeless Western States. The well-known 
 timber-culture act was one of these. It made a free gift of the public 
 lands to the successful planter of forest trees on one-fourth of his entry. 
 
 About twenty years ago the subject of forest destruction and its 
 detrimental results came before the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science for consideration, and as the result of its dis- 
 cussions the association memorialized Congress, asking that measures 
 be taken for the protection of the public timber lands. In consequence 
 of this, a committee of the House of Representatives was appointed for 
 the purpose of considering the establishment of a forestry department 
 of the Government, and two years later the Commissioner of Agricul- 
 ture was authorized to appoint a forest commissioner, which was the 
 foundation of the present Forestry Division in the Department of Agri- 
 culture. The commissioner, the late Dr. F. B. Hough, made protracted 
 inquiries into the condition of the forests in this country and in Europe, 
 and published a voluminous report on the subject, which is altogether 
 the most complete and valuable publication on forestry which has 
 appeared in this country. 
 
 It was at about this time, or a few years earlier, that a practical 
 movement was inaugurated by the present Secretary of Agriculture, 
 the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, which has done more for the protection of 
 our forests and the encouragement of tree planting than all our legis- 
 lation. This was the establishment of Arbor Day, or tree-planting day. 
 It was the happy thought of this pioneer settler on the treeless plains of 
 Nebraska, who knew and felt the value of trees about the home, as well 
 as their importance for the many uses of life, to enlist his neighbors 
 and his fellow settlers throughout the State, by a common impulse, 
 growing out of common wants and feelings, in the work of tree planting 
 on one and the same given day. Ajhe wise suggestion was brought before 
 the State board of agriculture in the form of a resolution designating a 
 certain day for the inauguration of the tree-planting movement. The 
 resolution was readily adopted. The appeal to the popular feeling and 
 
12 AEBOB DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 the popular need was heartily responded to, and it was reported that 
 many millions of trees were planted that year in Nebraska. This 
 successful inauguration of Arbor Day led to its institution the same 
 year by the horticultural society in Iowa, to be followed quickly by its 
 adoption in Minnesota, Ohio, and other Western States. 
 
 A few years later Arbor Day assumed a new character and acquired 
 a. wider interest with the people as it became connected in its observ- 
 ance with the public schools. This it did for the first time during the 
 sessions of a national forestry convention at Cincinnati in the year 
 1882. The sessions of the convention were continued through five days, 
 on one of which there was a public parade, civic and military, with a 
 march to Eden Park, where groves were planted and single trees in 
 memory of distinguished men — poets, orators, governors, and others. 
 The school children and their teachers formed a conspicuous feature of 
 the pageant and the planting of the trees was done principally by them. 
 Tree planting thus became a festivity, combining at once pleasure and 
 utility. That Cincinnati observance was an object lesson for the coun- 
 try, as the report of it was published far and wide. 
 
 A national forestry association was formed at the time of the Cincin- 
 nati convention, and at its meeting in St. Paul the following year a 
 resolution was adopted favoring the observance of Arbor Day by the 
 schools of the country. A standing committee on Arbor Day was also 
 appointed, and such a committee has been appointed at nearly every 
 annual meeting of the association. Wherever since then Arbor Day 
 has been adopted its observance has been connected with the schools, 
 as it has been also in the States where it had been established before. 
 Thus it has become a school festival, as it has also become a national 
 one. It was only what might have been expected, therefore, that at 
 the meeting of the National Education Association, at Saratoga, in 
 July, 1892, when the subject had been brought to its attention by the 
 Hon. B. G. Northrop, the committee to whom it was referred should 
 report as follows : 
 
 Your committee reports witli pleasure tliat Arbor Day is now observed in accord- 
 ance with legislative act, or annual public proclamation, in forty States and Terri- 
 tories. We recommend that the observance be universal, that village and district 
 improvement associations be formed, that memorial trees be planted, and that appro- 
 priate means be employed to inspire in pupils and parents the love of beauty and a 
 desire for home and landscape adornment. 
 
 Arbor Day is educational in the best and largest sense. By engag- 
 ing the pupils of the schools in the study of trees, not merely from 
 books but by actual observation and handling of them in their living 
 state, the observing faculties of the pupils are appealed to and culti- 
 vated, and tlieir minds are easily led on from the study of trees to that 
 of shrubs and flowering jjlants and all natural objects. There can be 
 no better training than this. It forms one of the best equipments for 
 success in life in whatever employments one may be engaged, and is a 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 13 
 
 never-failing source of enjoyment. No studies are more wholesome 
 than those of natural objects. They are suggestive of only what is good. 
 They cultivate the sense and love of the beautiful everywhere. They 
 meliorate the nature within us and fit us to be associates with one 
 another, and to become worthy members of society wherever we may be. 
 
 And so Arbor Day and its public observance, taken with the studies 
 connected with it, has led on naturally to the formation of town and 
 village improvement societies and various other associations and organ- 
 izations for the promotion, in one way and another, of the public wel-~ 
 fare. The spirit of Arbor Day is benevolent. Its aim is the public' 
 good in some form, and it has a wide outlook. There is nothing narrow 
 or selfish about it. If it plants trees, it is not for the benefit of any 
 individual alone, but for all who may see them and have the benefit of 
 them, whether soon or centuries hence. It plants for those who are to 
 come, as well as for those now living. 
 
 Arbor Day is the one festival or celebration which, instead of look- 
 ing backward and glorifying the heroes and achievements of the past 
 or recounting the praises of present enterprises or actors, looks forward- 
 and seeks to make a better environment and a better inheritance for^ 
 the coming generations. Its spirit is hopeful. Its motto is progress." 
 It is ever reaching out for new acquisitions of knowledge, and seeking 
 to impart new and more widespread benefits. 
 
 It is not a matter for wonder, therefore, that an institution with 
 such a spirit and such possibilities, with so much to commend it to the 
 attention of persons of intelligence and generous feeling, and especially 
 to the ardent natures of the young, should have a speedy and wide 
 acceptance. And so, by its own manifest merit and without any prop- 
 agandism on its behalf, it has been adopted by nearly every State and 
 Territory of the Union; and limited by no national boundaries, it has 
 even crossed the Atlantic on the one hand, and become established in 
 Great Britain, France, and northern and southern Africa, and on the 
 other, within the present year, has crossed the Pacific and been wel- 
 comed in the Hawaiian Islands and in Japan. 
 
 The beneficent results of an institution of this character, and already 
 almost world-wide in its reach, no one can measure. Year by year it 
 will bring millions of people, young and old, into a closer and more 
 intimate contact with nature, unveiling to them its precious secrets, 
 opening to them stores of valuable knowledge, and cultivating in them 
 the best feelings. In our own country it promises to do more than 
 anything else to convert us from a nation of wanton destroyers of our 
 unparalleled heritage of trees to one of tree planters and protectors. 
 Instead of looking upon the trees with indifference, or even with a hos- 
 tile feeling, as to a great extent we have done, or regarding them chiefly 
 as material for use in the constructive arts or to be consumed as fuel, ' 
 we shall become tree lovers. A tree sentiment will be created and 
 established which will lead us to recognize and cherish the trees as 
 
14 ARBOK DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 friends, and while we shall freely make use of them in the various arts 
 and industries of life, we shall be mindful of their value in other respects 
 and find constant delight in their companionship. 
 
 To show the natural result of the establishment of Arbor Day and 
 how it increases its hold upon the regard of a people from year to year 
 as it becomes more and more familiar to them and its obvious lessons 
 are learned by them, it is enough to adduce the history of Ifebraska, 
 in w hich the day originated — since the time it began to be celebrated 
 they^l Arbor Day originated in this manner: At an annual meeting of 
 ~E5e Nebraska State board of agriculture held in the city of Lincoln, 
 January 4, 1872, J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska City, introduced the 
 following resolution, which was unanimously adopted after some little 
 debate as to the name, some of those present contending for the term 
 " Sylvan " instead of "Arbor : " 
 
 Resolved, That WedneBday, the 10th day of April, 1872, be, and the same is hereby, 
 especially set apart and consecrated for tree planting in the State of Nebraska, and 
 the State board of agriculture hereby name it Arbor Day ; and to urge upon the peo- 
 ple of the State the vital importance of tree planting, hereby offer a special premium 
 of one hundred dollars to the agricultural society of that county in Nebraska which 
 shall, upon that day, plant properly the largest number of trees ; and a farm library 
 of twenty-five dollars' worth of books to that person who, on that day, shall plant 
 properly, in Nebraska, the greatest number of trees. 
 
 ~^The result was that over a million trees were planted in Nebraska on 
 that first Arbor Day. 
 
 Three years later the day had attained such favor with the people 
 that the governor, by public proclamation, set apart the third Wednes- 
 day of April as Arbor Day, and recommended that the people observe 
 it as aday of tree planting. Annually thereafter other governors of 
 the Sta^e followed this example, until at the session of the legislature 
 in 1885 an act was passed designating the 22d day of April, the birth- 
 day of Mr. Morton, as the date of Arbor Day, and making it one of the 
 legal holidays of the State^ 
 
 As further showing the deep lodgr^ent which Arbor JDay has-gained 
 ill' the regard of the people'i of Nebraska, and the;interest with which 
 it is cherisWed by them, it is signiflcaint to notice thBi,t since the inaugu- 
 ration of A^rbor Day a provision has been embodied jin the cons;titution 
 of the State which tecites, "That the increased value of lands by 
 reason of live fences, fruity and forest/trees grown and cultiv^ated 
 thereon shall not be taken into accoTint in the'assessment thereof." 
 
 The following statutory enactments are now in existence also : 
 
 Skc. 3. That the corporate authorities of cities and villages of the State of 
 Nebraska shall cause shade trees to be planted along the streets thereof. 
 
 Sec. 4. For the above purpose a tax of not less than one dollar nor more than five 
 dollars, in addition to all other taxes, shall be levied upon each lot adjacent to which 
 the trees are to be planted as aforesaid, and collected as other taxes. 
 
 Sec. 5. Trees shall be annually planted, when practicable, on each side of one- 
 fourth of the streets in each city and village in the State of Nebraska, until all shall 
 have shade trees along thera not more than twenty feet apart. 
 
ARBOK DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 16 
 
 Sec. 6. The corporate authorities aforesaid shall provide by ordinance the distance 
 from tlie side of the street that trees shall be planted, and the size thereof. 
 
 Sbc. 7. Provided, The owner of any lot or lots may plant trees adjacent thereto 
 where ordered as above, in the manner and of the size prescribed, and on making 
 proof thereof by affidavit to the collector, said affidavit shall exempt said owner 
 from the payment of the aforesaid tax. 
 
 Sec. 8. Any person who shall materially injure or shall destroy the shade tree or 
 trees of another, or permit his animals to destroy them, shall be liable to a, fine of 
 not less than five dollars, nor more than fifty dollars for each tree thus injured or 
 destroyed, which fine shall be collected on complaint of any person or persons before 
 any court of proper jurisdiction. One-half of all iinca thus collected shall be paid 
 to the owner of the trees injured or destroyed; the other half shall be paid into the 
 school fund. 
 
 Sec. 9. That this act shall not apply to any person that is occupant of any busi- 
 ness lot without his consent. 
 
 Sisc. 10. That when any person shall plant and properly cultivate for the term of 
 five years, six rows of trees, eight feet apart, and the trees four feet apart in the 
 row aloDg either the north section or the half section line, running east and west, 
 said rows to be not nearer to the said north section or half section line than four feet 
 or to the south line of any road which may be laid out on said north section or half 
 section line; or when any person shall fill out to the standard above prescribed, and 
 keep the same in a proper state of cultivation for the time above stated, any rows 
 of trees that may have previously been planted along said north section or half sec- 
 tion line, it shall be the duty of the county commissioners to pay such person, by 
 warrant on the county treasurer, a sum of money, amounting to three dollars aud 
 thirty-three cents per acre, for each acre so planted and cultivated annually, so long 
 as the same is planted and kept growing and in a proper state of cultivation, 
 for a period not to exceed the space of five years, and to an extent not to exceed 
 three acres of land. 
 
 Sec. 11. It shall be the duty of the assessor of each precinct to make proper exam- 
 ination and report to the county commissioners, at the time of his annual report, the 
 condition of all timber so plauted and cultivated under the provisions of this act. 
 
 How firmly the tree-planting idea has taken hold of the people of 
 N"ebraska is further shown by a joint resolution adopted by the last 
 legislature, and approved April 4, 1895 : 
 
 Whereas the State of Nebraska has heretofore, in a popular sense, been desig- 
 nated by names not in harmony with its history, industry, or ambition; and 
 
 Whereas the State of Nebraska is preeminently a tree-planting State ; and 
 
 Whereas numerous worthy and honorable State organizations have, by resolu- 
 tion, designated Nebraska as the " Tree Planter's State ;" Therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved hy the legislature of the State of Nebraska, That Nebraska shall hereafter, 
 in a popular sense, be known and referred to as the "Tree Planter's State." 
 
 To this may be added, not inappropriately, another joint resolution 
 adopted at the same session, which is an outgrowth of the same senti- 
 ment as that which led to the adoption of the popular name, " Tree 
 Planter's State." 
 
 Whereas, the adoption of a State floral emblem by the authority of the legis- 
 lature would foster a feeling of pride in our State and stimulate an interest in the 
 history and traditions of the Commonwealth : Therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That, the Senate concurring, we, the legislature of Nebraska, hereby 
 declare the flower commonly known as the "Golden Rod" (Solidago serotina) to be 
 the floral emblem of the State. 
 
 Approved April 4, A. D. 1895. 
 
16 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 The Hon. Henry E. Gorbett, State superintendent of public instruc- 
 tion, says: 
 
 The effect of Arbor Day it will be impossible to estimate in figures or statistics. It 
 has resulted in stimulating a pride in the resources of Nebraska and a sentiment in 
 favor of extending and preserving our forest areas. It is observed and talked abont 
 in every school room, and through its influence millions of trees have been planted 
 and cared for annually throughout the State. 
 
 To these testimonies may be added the following recent statement of 
 the Hon. K. W. Furnas, who, as governor of Nebraska, issued the first 
 Arbor Day proclamation and who has watched with interest the prog- 
 ress and results of the day's observance ever since : 
 
 No observance ever sprang into existence so rapidly, favorably, permanently, and 
 now so near universally throughout the whole civilized world as that of "Arbor Day." 
 It originated less than a quarter of a century since, and has been adopted, in some 
 form or other, in all the States and Territories of this Union, and in nearly all for- 
 eign civilized countries, increasing in popularity wherever known. 
 
 The words "Arbor Day" are attractive to the eye — to read in print and ^o meditate; 
 -they are rythmical to utter and to the ear. The word "Arbor" carries with it most 
 pleasant remembrances to the young and proaiise to the older — "a bower, a, seat 
 shaded by trees." What more enticing and enchanting to refined eesthetic taste 
 and mind than such retreat, such rest, shelter, protection? This characteristic alone 
 makes it worthy of a permanent place in our civilization. 
 
 Its economic worth, because of its usefulness among all classes of people, com- 
 mends it with equal force. 
 
 Its origin was prompted by a desire to ward oft' the rigorous winds of northwestern 
 prairies, and to supply fuel as well. Its accomplishments in this respect are already 
 beyond pecuniary computation. Through the instrumentality of its observance in 
 Nebraska many thousands of acres hitherto bleak, worthless, undesirable prairie 
 lands have been clad with millions of trees, thus converting them into valued forest 
 groves, fruitful orchards, prosperous homes, with happy people as occupants. A 
 great commonwealth has been built on the foundation "Arbor Day," and within the 
 recollection of those who participated in "laying the corner stone." ' 
 
 The influence of tree planting on the western prairies, influencing climate con- 
 ditions for good, is found to be next to incalculable — retaining moisture and breaking 
 the force of sweeping winds. Growing out of this climatic revolution is the greater 
 result of increased crop products. 
 
 Records show the number of trees planted in Nebraska since the inauguration of 
 "Arbor Day" running into billions. Instances are also of record, where the earlier 
 planted and more rapid growing varieties of trees which were used have been 
 already converted into sawed lumber, of which residences and other buildings have 
 been constructed. 
 
 It has been deemed proper to present in this extended manner an 
 account of the inauguration, establishment, and progress of the Arbor 
 Day Institution in Nebraska as an illustration not ouly of what the 
 observance of the day has effected in a particular State, but of what it 
 is effecting in many other States and may be expected to do wherever 
 it is established. 
 
 To show that similar results have followed the introduction of Arbor 
 Day in other States, it will be enough to cite briefly the testimony of a 
 few superintendents of public instruction, persons who possess the best 
 means of information upon the subject. 
 
ARBOE DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 17 
 
 Superintendent Sabin, of Iowa, well known for the great interest lie 
 has taken in the proper observance of Arbor Day, says : 
 
 Arbor Day has been regularly observed in Iowa since it was instituted in 1887. It 
 is tbe custom of this department to issue an Arbor Day annual for free distribution. 
 Special care is taken that one reaches every school in the State. 
 
 Although there is no legal requirement, the day is very generally observed by the 
 schools, and in many cases by citizens. It is proper +o say here that our school law 
 requires every board of directors to set out and properly care for at least twelve 
 shade trees on each school grounds not already provided with suitable shade. 
 
 The iuflueflce of such an observance is very excellent, although, as in other good 
 work, perseverance is necessary to success. We intend to continue the custom from 
 year to year. 
 
 The superintendent of public instruction in Wyoming says: 
 
 The day is observed by the planting of trees and appropriate exercises in each 
 department of our schools. 
 
 A great degree of interest is manifested by the children and peoplo generally and 
 seems to be increasing. Pupils look forward with great pleasure to the planting and 
 naming of their trees. In a great many schools each child contributes toward the 
 buying of a tree,. and in after years watches its growth very carefully. 
 
 Particular interest, I think, is shown in this day in Wyoming for the reason that 
 we have so few native trees and it requires so much care to cultivate them. 
 
 E. B. Prettyman, secretary of the Maryland board of education, says: 
 
 The day is observed universally by the public schools of the State. Great interest 
 is manifested, which 1 believe to be increasing. I believe the effect of the observ- 
 ance of Arbor Day is very beneficial in cultivating a love for trees and for the 
 adornment not only of school lots with trees, vines, and flowers, but that this culti- 
 vation extends to the families and homes represented in the schools. 
 
 Hon. J. M. Carlisle, superintendent of public instruction in Texas, 
 
 says: 
 
 Washington's birthday, February 22, is observed in this State as Arbor Dny. It is 
 observed as a holiday, and is devoted to the planting of trees, shrubs, flowers, and 
 the general ornamentation of public buildings and grounds. The patriotic exeroise.i 
 appropriate to Washington's birthday blend beautifully witli the observance of 
 Arbor Day. 
 
 The effect of the observance of the day is wholesome. Interest in the study of 
 trees, shrubs, and flowers is stimulated, appreciation of the wonders and beauties 
 of nature is heightened, and the sentiment in favor of both physical and moral clean- 
 liness is greatly strengthened, while patriotic feelings are aroused and the people 
 are drawn together by the contemplation of so many great themes in which all have 
 a common interest. 
 
 The superintendent of public instruction in Korth Dakota says : 
 
 The degree of interest in the observance of the day is increasing, and the effect 
 ilpon pupils of the schools and the public generally is gratifying in the same degree 
 which marks the increasing observance of the day. 
 
 Hon. A. B. Poland, State superintendent of public instruction in 
 New Jersey, says : 
 
 Ever since the adoption of the act for the observance of Arbor Day (1884) the 
 observance has been universal throughout the State, and, in general, eminently sat- 
 isfactory. I am of the opinion that, after eleven years' experience, the interest taken 
 in the observance of Arbor Day has in no respect diminished. This would be a 
 remarkable phenomenon were it not that the end subserved were generally recog- 
 nized to be a useful one. 
 10578 2 
 
18 
 
 ARBOR DAT — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 I am of the opinion also that the participation of the schools and, to a consider- 
 able extent, the citizens in the observance of Arbor Day has resulted in a moral and 
 aesthetic improvement that may be clearly discerned. 
 
 New York was late in adopting Arbor Day by legal provision, though 
 the day had been more or less observed for several years; but no State, 
 since the enactment of the " act to encourage arboriculture" (1888), has 
 been more active or efficient in the observance of Arbor Day. Hon. 
 Charles E. Skinner, State superintendent of public instruction, speak- 
 ing of the passage of the act, says : 
 
 Without doubt one of the effects of this legislation has been to arouse a deeper 
 interest in trees and ilowers among pupils and people. We hear more in these days 
 concerning the preservation of our forests than before the enactment of the law. 
 Our school grounds are kept in better condition and the trees about our school- 
 houses are better protected. In thousands of cases trees so planted on Arbor Day 
 have been named for men and women prominent in education and in our history 
 generally. 
 
 The manuals which have been issued by the department of public 
 instruction from year to year, and the larger and very noteworthy manual 
 compiled by Mr. Skinner himself, testify abundantly to the vigor with 
 which the Arbor-Day propaganda has been promoted in New York. 
 Those manuals have been freely drawn upon in the preparation of the 
 present publication. 
 
 The number of trees planted in New York on Arbor Day is officially 
 stated by Mr. Skinner as follows: 1889, 24,166; 1890, 27,130; 1891, 
 25,786; 1892,20,622; 1893,15,973; 1894,16,624. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES OBSERVING ARBOR DAY. 
 
 States. 
 
 Tear of 
 first observ- 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arizona 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 California . . . 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Idabo 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Miasiaaippi 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 Montana 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 1887 
 1890-91 
 
 1886 
 1885 
 1887 
 1886 
 1887 
 1886 
 1888 
 
 1884 
 1887 
 1875 
 1886 
 1888-89 
 1887 
 1889 
 1886 
 1885 
 1876 
 1892 
 1886 
 18R7 
 1872 
 1887 
 
 Time of observance. 
 
 22dofFebruarv. 
 
 First Friday after lat of February. 
 
 Third Friday in April. 
 
 In spring, at appointment of governor. 
 
 January 8. 
 
 First Iriday in December. 
 
 Last Monday in April. 
 
 Date fixed by governor and superintendent of public 
 
 instruction. 
 Date fixed by superintendent of public instruction. 
 
 Do. 
 Option of governor, usually in April. 
 
 Do. 
 Option of parish boards. 
 Option of governor. 
 Option of governor, in April. 
 Last Saturday in April. 
 Option of governor. 
 
 Do. 
 Option of board of education. 
 First Friday after first Tuesday of April. 
 Third Tuesday of April. 
 22d of April. 
 Option of governor. 
 
 Do. 
 
AKBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSEBVAlirCE. 
 
 19 
 
 States and Territories Observing Arbor Day — Continued. 
 
 SUtes. 
 
 Tear of 
 first observ- 
 ance. 
 
 Time of observance. 
 
 
 1884 
 1890 
 1889 
 1893 
 1884 
 1882 
 
 Option of governor, in April. 
 Second Friday In Marcb. 
 I'irst Friday after May 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 6tb of May, by proclamation of governor. 
 In April, by proclamation of governor. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 
 1889 
 1887 
 1887 
 Uncertain. 
 1884 
 1875 
 1890 
 1885 
 1892 
 1883 
 1889 
 1888 
 1892 
 
 
 
 Option of governor. 
 Do. 
 
 
 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 Option of governor. 
 
 
 Texas 
 
 22d of February. 
 Option of governor. 
 
 
 
 
 West Vireinia 
 
 Fall and spring, at designation of superintendent of schools. 
 
 
 Option of governor. 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 
 
 Only the following three States or Territories fail to observe Arbor 
 Day: Delaware, ludian Territory, and Utah. In Delaware the day is 
 observed in some localities, and the same is probably true in Utah and 
 the Indian Territory. 
 
 ARBOR DAY CELEBRATIONS. 
 
 While the object of Arbor Day, as originally 
 instituted, was to secure the planting of trees 
 on a large scale and for economic purposes, in a 
 region nearly destitute of trees and where the 
 need of them for fuel as well as for shelter was 
 strongly felt, now that its observance has spread 
 all over the country and has become almost uni- 
 versally connected with the schools, nowhere is the 
 day welcomed with more of zest and enjoyment than in 
 those parts of -^he country where trees are most abundant. 
 The value of Anbor Day observances in connection with our 
 schools, therefore, is not to be measured so much by the number of 
 trees planted at a given time as by the tree spirit implanted in those 
 engaged iu the observance, by the knowledge of tree life incidentally 
 gained, and the feelings and principles engendered or promoted and 
 their after influence upon life and character. The value of Arbor Day 
 is not so much in its present enjoyments for a day as in what it does by 
 preparing our growing youth tp be useful and happy men and women 
 when they reach the position of influence and responsibility, when the 
 duties of public and social life and the molding and direction of social 
 and political affairs are to be transferred from those who now control 
 them and are to be assumed by themselves. 
 
20 AEBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 It is much ill favor of the day and its appropriate observance that it 
 may aflord such opportunities for bringing the young so pleasantly into 
 contact with Nature, and opening their minds in their most impressible 
 time to her healthy and happy influences. It is good to take the pupils 
 out of the schoolroom for a day into the open air, into Nature's school 
 jjlace. And it would be a good thing if they could be taken into the 
 fields and groves, under the judicious guidance of their teachers, not 
 only once a year, but oftener. An occasional half-holiday thus taken 
 would be of more real benefit, more instrnctive, than any equal portion 
 of time spent in the schoolroom. It would be taking the children to 
 the original fountains of knowledge, where they would gain it at first 
 and not at second hand. Fresh flowers are better than those of the 
 herbarium. It would give scope and stimulus to their observing facul- 
 ties, the first to open and the first which offer themselves to be trained 
 for proper use, on whose proper use also the success and happiness of 
 after life chiefly depend. As Wordsworth says: 
 
 Nature never did betray 
 The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, 
 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
 From joy to joy; for she can so inform 
 The mind that is within us, so impress 
 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
 Hash judgments, nor the sneers of seliish men, 
 Nor greetings where no klnditess is, nor all 
 The dreary intercourse of daily life 
 Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb 
 Our cheerful faith that all which we behold 
 Is full of blessing. 
 
 It had been a thousand times better for some if, instead of moiling 
 over books in the schoolroom, they had been allowed to spend more of 
 their younger days in the open world, the school of Nature, to be com- 
 panions of the birds, listening to their songs and learning their habits, 
 strolling along the brooks, following their windings through wood and 
 meadow, and coming home laden with the treasures which Nature is ever 
 ready to bestow upon the youngest child or the oldest man who has an 
 eye to see and a heart to feel their beauty. 
 
 Happily, the methods of the schoolroom are better than they were, 
 though there is still room for improvement. Nature studies have found 
 some place in them. But these would be made more interesting and 
 more effective if teacher and pupils together were oftener to get face to 
 face with Nature herself, the great teacher. 
 
 METHODS OF OBSERVING ARBOR DAY. 
 
 The observance of Arbor Day may be as various in method as the 
 tastes and inclinations of those engaged in it. Much will depend upon 
 the teacher; much, also, upon the character of the school and the age 
 and previous training of the pupils. If the teacher has a moderate 
 share of inventiveness there will be little difiQculty. The chief thing 
 
ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 21 
 
 is to liave the pupils interested in what they do, and if they are taken 
 into confidence by the teacher and invited to offer suggestions, they 
 will often make a plan so sensible and satisfactory as almost to relieve 
 the teacher from any burden of care in regard to it. 
 
 Of course it is presumed that the pupils are, to some extent, pre- 
 pared beforehand for the celebration of Arbor Day by having it spoken 
 of by the teacher and its objects explained, and tliat there has been 
 more or less talk on the part of the teacher and readings about trees 
 and plants and some familiarity with them and with the elements, at 
 least, of vegetable physiology. It is supposed also that the history 
 and character of distinguished persons in honor of whom it is proposed 
 to plant trees will have been studied. 
 
 As the time of celebration draws nigh, therefore, let there be a con- 
 ference between teacher and pupils as to the method to be adopted. 
 First, as to the tree planting. Where is it to be — on the school ground 
 or on some highway, or in some park? Is it to be done by the school or 
 schools alone, or in cooperation with a larger general movement of the 
 inhabitants of the place for the improvement of its appearance by a 
 systematic planting of trees on the streets and elsewhere'? How many 
 trees will the school undertake to plant? What kinds of trees will 
 they plant? The decision of the last question will depend upon 
 where the planting is to take i^lace and whether it is to be done by the 
 school alone or in concert with others. If the planting is to be upon the 
 school premises, it may be desirable to plant different trees from those 
 which might be selected for the street or the park. If the planting is 
 to be done in concert with others, a village improvement society for 
 instance, then the choice of trees will properly be left to such society. 
 
 But these preliminary questions having been decided, in order that 
 all may go smoothly on Arbor Day, and to provide against the impedi- 
 ments of unfavorable weather at that time, it is desirable to have a com- 
 mittee of the older pupils appointed to see that the designated trees are 
 procured beforehand, and that holes are properly prepared for their recep- 
 tion, so that there may be no unnecessary delay at the time of planting. 
 
 These arrangements having been made, it remains to be decided with 
 what ceremonies or exercises the tree planting shall be accompanied. 
 The programme in this respect will be more or less elaborate according 
 to the age of the pupils, the customs of the place, and the extent to 
 which the Arbor Day spirit has been already developed. But let it be 
 remembered that this is eminently the children's day, and that we all 
 like ceremonies, on special occasions at least. And if the grown-up 
 man needs drum and fife, epaulets and plumes and banners, and the 
 measured march and countermarch to make his soldiering satisfactory, 
 the children may well be invited on Arbor Day to march along the 
 streets to the music of their own familiar songs, wearing such scarfs 
 and badges as they choose to decorate themselves with, and carrying 
 aloft their banners with the pride of young patriots and scholars. 
 
22 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 It will be well for the pupils to assemble with their teachers at the 
 schoolroom in the morning and spend a portion of the day — ^parents 
 and friends being present also — in listening to addresses from any who 
 may have been invited beforehand to speak to them. Essays may also 
 be read by the older pupils. These may be interspersed with songs 
 and recitations and familiar talks about trees and plants. Later in the 
 day, in the afternoon, perhaps, the planting of the trees will take 
 place, songs, addresses, and recitations accompanying the planting of 
 each tree. The character of the weather will determine how much of 
 the exercises shall take place in the open air and how much in the 
 schoolroom or elsewhere. It is the custom in some places, and a very 
 good custom it is, for all the schools to come together at some central 
 place, after the planting is finished, and for the older people, who have 
 been engaged in tree planting, to meet with them and all report what 
 they have done, and end the day with an hour or two around a well 
 spread table, and with music, songs, and perhaps pleasant games. 
 
 ADDRESSES AND EXTRACTS. 
 
 The following address by Hon. J. Sterling 
 Morton, delivered April 22, 1887, at the State 
 University, Lincoln, Nebr., has a fitting place in 
 a manual of Arbor Day : 
 
 ARBOR DAY: ITS ORIGIN AND GROWTH. 
 
 Ladies and Gentusmen: Just as stars in the sky 
 
 brighten all the firmament with light, so holidays and 
 
 anniversaries commemorate exalted characters, recall 
 
 noble deeds, and perpetuate pure principles, illumine the arena of human life, and 
 
 light up the higher pathways for manly effort and ambition. 
 
 Ordinary holidays are retrospective. They honor something good and great which 
 has been, and, by its exaltation, commend it to the emulation of mankind. Thus the 
 past is made to inspire the present, and the present to reach into and influence the 
 immeasurable and unknowable future. 
 
 But "Arbor Day" — Nebraska's own home-invented and home-instituted anniver- 
 sary — which has been already transplanted to nearly every State in the American 
 Union, and even adopted in foreign lands, is not like other holidays. Each of those 
 reposes upon the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future. It contemplates, 
 not the good and the beautiful of past generations, but it sketches, outlines, estab- 
 lishes the useful and the beautiful for the ages yet to come. Other anniversaries 
 stand with their backs to the future, peering into and worshipping the past; but 
 Arbor Day faces the future with an affectionate solicitude, regarding it as an artist 
 his canvas, and etches upon our prairies and plains gigantic groves and towering for- 
 ests of waving trees, which shall for our posterity become consummate living pictures, 
 compared to which the gorgeous colorings of Rubens are tame and insignificant. 
 
 The wooded landscape in sunlight and in shadow, which you — in the trees you 
 have planted to-day— have only faintly limned, shall in the future fruition of their 
 summer beauty compel the admiration and gratitude of men and women now unborn. 
 
AEBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 23 
 
 who shall see with interest and satisfaction their symmetry and loveliness. As one 
 friend hands to another a houquet, so this anniversary sends greetings and flowers, 
 foliage and fruit, to posterity. It is the sole holiday of the human family which 
 looks forward and not backward. 
 
 Arbor Day originated in Lincoln on January 4, 1872. Upon that day the festival/ 
 was instituted by a resolution of the Nebraska State board of agriculture. It was! 
 my good fortune to have thought out this plan for popularizing arboriculture and td 
 have originated the term or phrase "Arbor Day'' and to have written, submittedj 
 and advocated that resolution, and thus to have established this anniversary. It 
 will grow in popular esteem from year to year, until finally it shall be observed uni- 
 versally throughout the Union of American States. 
 
 It has become the scholastic festival of our times. Common schools, colleges, and 
 universities have taken its practical observance under their own special and intelli- 
 gent direction. The zeal of youth and the cultured love of the beautiful combine to 
 perpetuate and to popularize it. 
 
 That which should survive in America must harmonize with education and refine- 
 ment. Whatsoever the schools, the teachers, and the pupils shall foster and encour- 
 age, shall live and flourish, mentally and morally, forever. Students, scholars, and 
 philosophers have ever been associated with trees and their conservation. The 
 Academeia of Athens where Socrates and Plato taught was only a grove of plane 
 trees. There rhetoric, logic, and philosophy were given to the youth of Greece by 
 those majestic men, whose great thoughts more than two thousand years after their 
 death are still vitalizing and energizing the world of inind. The plane tree that 
 Agamemnon planted at Delphos; the one grown by Menelaus, the husband of Helen 
 of Troy ; and that one which so charmed Xerxes with its surpassless beauty, when 
 invading Greece with his great army, that he remained one entire day wrapped in 
 its admiration, encircling it with a gold band, decking it with precious jewels, hav- 
 ing its figure stamped upon a golden medal, and by his delay losing his subsequent 
 battle with the Greeks — these are all historic trees and yet strangers almost to the 
 average reader. 
 
 But the beautiful avenues and tranquil shades of the grand plane tree, which 
 adorned the Academeia of Athens, are familiar to every student. The voice of 
 Socrates mingled with the music of their waving boughs and Plato mused beneath 
 their far-extending shadows. Thus the first fruits of philosophy are borne to us 
 with the fact that Grecian civilization was a tree-planting civilization. And the 
 transmitted wisdom of those ages illustrates how marvelously trees and learning 
 have always been intimately associated together. 
 
 Upon the inner bark, called "liber," of trees came the annals, the lore of all the 
 ancient world's written life inscribed by the stylus. Not only from tree bark has 
 the intellect of man taken the record of its early development, but even the word 
 "library,'' which embraces all the conserved thoughts of all the thinking ages, 
 comes from the inner bark of a tree. And the word "book," take either derivation 
 you choose, comes from one in German or Saxon or Scandinavian, meaning beech 
 wood, because in the dawn of learning all records were written on beech boards, 
 and the leaf and the folio which make up the book came to us also from the trees. 
 
 But leaving ancient times, ceasing to trace tree ancestry from words, and reluc- 
 tantly remaining silent as to many delightful delusions concerning the sacred groves 
 of Greece and Rome and their storied genii, who gave wisdom to sages and judgment 
 to lawmakers, and skipping likewise all the tree lore and tree metaphor in the 
 Bitle— and that is indeed self-denial on an occasion like this— let us see how forests 
 and our English ancestry are indissolubly connected, and how, by the very law of 
 heredity, we should all become amateur foresters. 
 
 The Druids first planted forests and groves in England. In the misty twilight 
 between barbarism and civilization the teachers and students of Great Britain were 
 Druids. All their discourses and ceremonies transpired in the oaken groves and 
 
24 AEBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSEEVANCE. 
 
 sacred orchards of their own planting, and Pliny declares the -word "Dmid" to 
 have come from the Greek word drus—an oak. And while no Drnid oaks now 
 remain, there are still in England many very venerable trees. Among them are the 
 Damory oak, of Dorsetshire, 2,000 years of age; Owen Glendower's oak at Shelton, 
 near Shrewsbury, from the branches of which that chieftain looked down upon the 
 battle between Henry IV and Henry Percy in 1403. The great oak of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford, was a sturdy sapling when nine hundred years ago Alfred the Great 
 founded that institution of learning. It received injuries during the reign of 
 Charles I which at the close of the last century caused its decay and death. 
 
 Windsor Forest is notable also for its majestic oaks of great age, one of them 
 known to have withstood more than a thousand years of winter and summer storms. 
 Not many decades have passed since Heme's oak, which had borne that hunter's 
 name ti-om the reign of Elizabeth, was blown down. In the Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor, Shakespeare has told its story. Elizabeth, who was iirst saluted at Hatfield as 
 '' the Queen of England," in the shade of the towering trees of oak which line its 
 broadest avenues, greatly encouraged agriculture, and was among the first English- 
 speaking advocates of forestry. 
 
 When Columbus was seeking a new world, his crew, anxious and incredulous, even 
 unto mutiny, the waves bore out to his ship twigs and' foliage from the forests of 
 the unknown land, giving him hope, faith, victory even, as the dove with the olive 
 branch had carried God's peace to Noah centuries before. 
 
 Nearly two hundred years after Columbus came the Puritans, and then began the 
 war upon the woodlands oif America. .Since then, ax in hand, the race has advanced 
 from the Atlantic Seaboard westward for more than two centuries, devastating forests 
 with most unreasoning energy, always cutting them down, and never replanting 
 them. Hewing their way through the Eastern and Middle States, the pioneers have 
 wantonly destroyed without thought of their posterity millions upon millions of 
 acres of primeval woodlands. 
 
 Cleaving right and left through Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, felling giant trees, 
 rolling them into log heaps and destroying them by fire, emigration emerged upon 
 the treeless plains of Illinois and the Northwest. 
 
 Nature teaches by antithesis. When sick we learn to value health ; when blind 
 we realize the beneficence, the surprising and delicious sense of sight; when deaf 
 we dream of the music we loved to'hear, and melodies forever dead to the ear float 
 through the mind that is insulated from sound like sweet memories of the loved 
 and lost. So these treeless plains, stretching irom Lake Michigan to the Kocky 
 Mountains, were unfolded to the vision of the pioneer as a great lesson to teach 
 him, by contrast with the grand forests whence he had just emerged, the iudispen- 
 sability of woodlands and their economical nse. Almost rainless, only habitable by 
 bringing forest products from other lands, these prairies, by object teaching, incul- 
 cated tree planting as a necessity and the conservation of the few fire- scarred forests 
 along their streams as an individual and public duty. Hence out of our physical 
 environments have grown this anniversary and the intelligent zeal of Nebraskans in 
 establishing woodlands where they found only the monotony of plain, until to-day 
 this State stands foremost in practical forestry among all the members of the Amer- 
 ican Union. 
 
 An arboretum is to tree culture what a university is to mental life. The skilled 
 forester gathers in the former all varieties of trees, studies the habits and require- 
 ments of each, and stimulates growth and defines forms by all the appliances of his 
 art. In the universities are collected human intellects of all types and all degrees 
 of strength and quickness. Here, as among the trees, are all the inexorable and 
 ineffaceable results of the operations of the law of heredity. Here, as in the 
 arboretum, we are taught that though nurture may do much, nature does most. 
 
 The Cottonwood can never become an oak, but it can pass the oak in the race for 
 maturity. It can even aid the oak to become moi'e stately in form, to grow straighter 
 
AKBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 25 
 
 and taller than when left to itself, 'without the competition of more swiftly shooting 
 trees. A row of acorns planted between two lines of infant cottouwoods will come 
 up and make an effort to reach sunlight, up beyond the shadows of their soft-wood 
 competitors, which oaks never make when planted by themselves. Thus in the 
 arboretum the less is made to act as a nurse and guardian to the more valuable 
 timber. At Arbor Lodge some years since, in 1865, I planted a long row of black 
 walnuts between two ranks of swiftly growing soft-wood trees — maple on one side 
 and Cottonwood on the other. During these twenty years I have watched the 
 walnuts growing symmetrically and beautifully to great height, in their struggle to 
 reach the light up and beyond the shade of their less valuable contemporaries and 
 co-tenants. They are higher, better trees than they would have been without the 
 rivalry of their neighbors — their classmates. 
 
 So mind by contact with mind and struggle of brain with brain is improved. The 
 mediocrity of one is almost obliterated by contests with the superiority of another. 
 Just as trees seek — must have — sunlight, just as they reach up into the sky for it out 
 from shade, so the mind in competitive seeking after knowledge ever exalts itself, 
 perfects and embellishes itself. A dull brain developing in solitude is dwarfed and 
 gnarled like a lone oak on the prairie ; but associated with the sharp, quick perceptions 
 of its superiors, it becomes a better brain, and bestows benefits upon mankind where 
 in solitude it would have withered Into fruitlessuess. The wonderful similitudes 
 between tree life and humau life are almost Innumerable. They have been recog- 
 nized in all ages, and man's metaphors for all that is beautiful, useful, desirable, 
 and immortal have been, since written language began, largely drawn from sylvan 
 life. The "Tree of Knowledge," the "Tree of Liberty," the "Tree of Everlasting 
 Life" have been planted in all poesy ; they have bloomed in all literature from the 
 remotest of historic times. Books not drawing simile, metaphor, or other figure of 
 speech from tree life have been rare indeed. But the most beautiful tree, with its 
 sheltering arms and its many-voiced foliage singing in the breeze, dancing in the 
 sunbeams, and motioning to its own reflections on the greensward mirror below, with 
 all its lustrous burden of fruit or flowers shimmering In the light, has a lower life 
 invisible to us. Deep in the dark, damp earth its rootlets are groveling for exist- 
 ence — seeking here and there all manner of rottenness and feeding thereon with 
 gluttonous avidity. Up in the clouds, gilded with sunshine, resplendent with color- 
 ing, nods the stately head ; but down in the darkness and dirt are its supporters. 
 
 And as trees thus lead a dual life, an upper and a, lower, so does man. The intel- 
 lect, the reason, bathes in the light of knowledge. It scales the height of the firma- 
 ment and reads the story of the stars. It descends into the profoundest depths of 
 the sea and wrenches the secrets of creation from the rocks and shoals. Beautiful, 
 symmetrical, flashing, and entrancing as a grand oak in autumn when crowned with 
 gorgeous gold and crimson and purple leaves is the sturdy mind of a mature man, 
 who, in temperance and tranquillity, has during a useful life grown strong in 
 knowle'ge, in truth, fidelity, and honor. 
 
 Man's intellectual life must dominate. His lower life must be subservient. His 
 mentality, like the tree top with its foliage, flowers, and luscious fruit, alone bestows 
 the blessings. That is man's higher life, and where it governs, man is man as nature 
 meant man to be. The small trees of to-day's planting will develop into the groves 
 and forests of the future. They will contribiite the materials for ships, railroads, 
 business edifices, and homes, to be used by those who are born in coming centuries. 
 
 The almost infinite possibilities of a tree germ came to my mind last summer when , 
 traveling in a railway carriage amid the beautifully cultivated fields of Belgium, a 
 cotton wood seed on its wings of down drifted into my compartment. It came like a 
 materialized whisper from home. Catching it in my hand X forgot the present and 
 wandered into the past to a floating mote like that, which had years and years 
 before been planted by the winds and currents on the banks of the Missouri. That 
 mote had taken life and root and growing to splendid proportions until in 1854 the 
 
26 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 ax of the pioneers had vanquished it, and the saw, seizing it with relentless, 
 whirling teeth, had reduced it to lumber. From its treehood evolved a human habita- 
 tion, a home — my home — wherein a mother's love had blossomed and fruited with a 
 sweetness surpassing the loveliness of the rose and the honeysuckle. Thus from that 
 former feathery floater in mid-air grew a home and all the endearing contentment 
 and infinite satisfaction which that blessed Anglo-Saxon word conveys — that one 
 word which means all that is worth living for and for which alone all good men and 
 women are living. 
 
 Here are a few acorns to-day; to-morrow, a century hence, they are sturdy oaks, 
 then ships, railroads, carriages, and everything useful, and parts of homes which are 
 aU — in both poetry and reality — that is lovable, beautiful, and supremely tender in 
 the cafeer of humanity from birth to death. The real of to-day was the ideal of 
 yesterday ; the ideal of to-day will be the real of to-morrow. 
 
 And as arboretums are developing the infant forests, nursing tremendous timbers, 
 whence masts and spars and sills and joists shall emerge into swiftly sailing ships 
 
 and massive marts of trade, which are to convey and cover the commerce of coming 
 times, so in the schools, the colleges, and universities are growing the mental timber 
 whence the State shall cull in the near future those piUars and supports which aid 
 to bear up forever in America civil and religious liberty ; that is, freedom to think, 
 freedom to speak, freedom to trade, freedom to develop individualism, and to assert 
 its consciousness of right without fear either of sectarian or partisan bigotry. Let 
 us all, then, each in his vocation and sphere, plant wisely for the years to come, 
 rather than dwell dejectedly upon the years gone and going — the farmer, his forest 
 and orchard, the teacher his science and morals. Improved materially by the former, 
 intellectually by the latter, the world will well with gratitude to both. But tree 
 planter and teacher united in one shall be declared the best benefactor of modern 
 times — the chief provider for posterity. 
 
 Ou the 10th day of July, 1886, from the crowded, hurrying streets of London I 
 loitered into the solemn aisles of St. Pauls Cathedral. Around on c\ery side were 
 the statues of England's heroes. Upon tablets of brass and marble were inscribed 
 their eulogiums. In fierce warfare on wave and field they had exalted English 
 
ARBOE DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 27 
 
 courage and won renown for England's arms. Nelson and Wellington, victors by 
 sea and land, were there, and hundreds more whose epitaphs were written in blood 
 which, as it poured from ghastly wounds, had borne other mortals to the unknown 
 world. Few men who won distinction in civil life are entombed at St. Paul's, but 
 among them is the gifted architect, Sir Christopher Wren, in whose brain the con- 
 cept of St. Paul's Cathedral had a mental existence before it materialized in massive 
 marble. His epitaph is plain, brief, truthful, impressive; it is one which each hon- 
 orable man in all the world may humbly strive for and become the better for the striv- 
 ing; it is one which every faithful disciple of horticulture, of fore'^try, will deserve 
 from his friends, his family, and his country ; vast orchards which he has planted and 
 the great arms of towering elms, spreading their soothing shade like a benediction 
 over the we.ary wayfarer who rests at their feet, and all the fluttering foliage whis- 
 pering to the wanton winds shall tell the story of his benefaction to humanity, arbor- 
 phoning that epitaph with perennial fidelity, "Si quseris monumentum, circum- 
 spice" — If you seek my monument, look around you. 
 
 Appropriately followiug the address of Mr, Morton, some extracts 
 from an address of the Hon. B. G. I^Torthrop, on Arbor Day, before the 
 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, have place here : 
 
 OBSERVANCE OF ARBOR DAY BY SCHOOLS. 
 
 In this gi-and work initiated by Governor Morton [J. Sterling Morton], its appli- 
 cation to schools was not named. The great problem then was to meet the urgent 
 needs of vast treeless prairies. At the meeting of the American Forestry Associa- 
 tion, held at St. Paul, Minn., in August, 1883, a resolution which I offered in favor 
 of observing Arbor Day in schools in all our States and in the provinces of the 
 Dominion of Canada (the association being international) was adopted, and a com- 
 mittee to push that work was appointed. Continued as their chairman from that 
 day to this, I have presented the claims of Arbor Day personally or by letter to the 
 governor or State school superintendent in all our States and Territories. My first 
 efforts were not encouraging. By men in high positions Arbor Day was deemed an 
 obtrusive innovation. It was no surprise to me when my paper on "Arbor Day in 
 Schools,'' read at the National Educational Association (department of superintend- 
 ence) at Washington, in February, 1884, called out the comment, "This subject is 
 out of place here.'' Though that paper was printed by the United States Bureau of 
 Education, it was a grateful surprise that the next meeting of the National Educa- 
 tional Association, held in August of the same year, at Madison, Wis., with an 
 unprecedentedly large attendance, unanimously adopted my resolution in favor of 
 Arbor Day in schools in all our States. 
 
 The logic of events has answered objections. Wherever it has been fairly tried, it 
 has stood the test of experience. Now such a day is observed in forty States and 
 Territories in accordance with legislative act, or by special recommendation of the 
 governor or State school superintendent, or the State grange, or the State horticul- 
 tural and agricultural societies, and in some States, as in Connecticut, by all these 
 combined. It has already become the most interesting, widely observed, and useful 
 of school holidays. 
 
 Arbor Day has fostered love of country, ^ow that the national flag with its forty- 
 four stars floats over all the schoolhonses in so many States, patriotism is effectively 
 combined with the Arbor Day addresses, recitations, and songs. Among the latter, 
 the "Star Spangled Banner" and "America" usually find a, place. Who can esti- 
 mate the educating influence already exerted upon the myriads of youth who have 
 participated in these exercises ? 
 
 To the teaching of forestry in schools, it is objected that the course of study is 
 already overcrowded — and this is true. But I have long urged that trees and tree 
 life and culture form a iit subject for the oral lessons now common in all our best 
 
28 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 schools. When agent of the board of education of Massachnsetts I sometimes took 
 to the schools and institutes .a collection of our common woods, as an object lesson, 
 one of many aids in observation, discriminating wood by the grain. The same plan 
 was occasionally tried in Connecticut, and with good results. To gi%'e one of many 
 illustrations: A citizen of Norfolk, Conn., offered eighteen volumes of Appleton's 
 Science Primers to any pupil who should gather and arrange the largest and best 
 collection of the different kinds of wood, shrub, or vine growing in that town. 
 Great interest was awakened, and 135 varieties were gathered by all the competitors, 
 of which the collection of Washington Beach (who won the prize) numbered 125. 
 What a discipline in quickness and accuracy of perception those schoolboys gained 
 while exploring the fields, hills, and mountains of this large town, and discriminat- 
 ing all these varieties by the grain or bark ! With no interruption of studies, there 
 was a quickened zest and vigor for school work, and, best of all, that rare and price- 
 less attainment, a trained eye. » • * 
 
 Those talks on trees, which Superintendent Peasleesays "were the most profitable 
 lessons the pupils of Cincinnati ever had in a single day," occupied only the morning 
 of Arbor Day, the afternoon being given to the practical work. Since 1883 our 
 schools have rendered new service to the State as well as to their pupils by leading 
 them to study the habits of trees, and appreciate their value and beauty — ^thus tend- 
 ing to make practical horticulturists and arborists. How many of these children in 
 maturer years will learn from happy experience that trees, like grateful children, 
 bring rich filial returns, and compensate a thousand fold for all the care they cost. 
 George William Curtis says, "Arbor Day will make the country visibly more heauti- 
 ful year by year. Every school district will contribute to the good work. The 
 schoolhouse will gradually become an ornament of the village and the children will 
 be put in the way of living upon more friendly and intelligent terms with the bounti- 
 ful nature which is so friendly to ns." 
 
 Kindred in sentiment with the address of Secretary Morton and the 
 remarks of Dr. Northrop are the following words of Dr. B. E. Higbee, 
 the late distinguished State superintendent of public instruction of 
 Pennsylvania: 
 
 ARBOR DAY FOR THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Recognizing the peculiar fitness of the executive proclamation fixing an Arbor Day 
 for the Commonwealth, it has been our effort and pleasure to make it in every way 
 as efficient for good aa possible in relation to our xiublic schools. Here, amon» the 
 children, habits of thought and feeling in regard to the benefits and uses of tree 
 planting can be formed, which will deter them, it is hoped, from that destructive 
 greed which has forgotten the value and beauty of green woodlands and parks, and 
 the glory of shadowy hills and leaf-hidden streams where the trout snaps the unwary 
 fly and the liverworts peep out from the dewy moss and wake-robins nod their heads 
 to the answering ferns. Children need, in their innocent up-springing, to have room 
 to get away from the garish sun and rest, as upon a mother's bosom, in the twilight 
 silence of the growing woods. We have endeavored to keep in view, so far as pos- 
 sible, the educational power of such things by urging that our school grounds be 
 supplied with shade trees and shrubs and flowers, and that the naked walls of our 
 school buildings be trellised over with vines. Children feel most deeply the ministry 
 of that which charms the eye. 
 
 We are what suu and winds and water make ua ; 
 The mountains arc our sponsors, and the rills 
 Fashion and win their nursling with their smiles. 
 
 Unconsciously each impression of such character sinks into the tender depths of 
 their souls and there it remains aa in reflection do the willows in the placid stream. 
 In fact, the scenes of nature are perennial companions, growing more friendly from 
 
AKBOR DAY ITS HISTOKY AND (JBSEEVANCE. 
 
 29 
 
 year to yeiir. Those most familiar, wlierever wc may be, ;iie ever euteriiiy tlic stu<ly 
 of our imasiuation aud often giviug- direction even to our nets. ''Tlie she|ilier(l," as 
 with exquisite pathos luis been said by Wordsworth, "is lialf a sheiiherd on the 
 stormy sea, and hears iu piping shrouds thi- tones of waterfalls and inland sounds of 
 caves and trees; and in the bosom of the deej) sees mountains, sees the forms of sheep 
 that grazed on verdant hills." 
 
 xVrbor Day, repeated in our schools from year to year, will cultivate a reverent love 
 of nature, will lead our children to value studious walks along our streams and hills 
 and through our winding valleys and wide, windy sweeps of harvest delds and 
 meadows, aud into our bosky dells to waken cour- 
 teous Echo to give them answer from her mossy 
 couch. 
 
 There is, indeed, a power aud a cnituring beauty 
 iu all this which every child may exjierieuce if he 
 will; aud Arbor Day serves to enforce it upon his 
 thought. Why should not our school children 
 cherish a holiday which firings them into direct 
 sympathy with the sweet companionship of man 
 with nature ? Why should they uot offer their aid 
 in giving- to our school-grounds green lawns over 
 which the wind-stirred trees may scatter gold and 
 porphyry — where the laughing daffodils may wel- 
 come the returning swallows, and glowing clusters 
 of chrysanthemums may soften the cold of autumn 
 winds with thoughts of summer f Why should they 
 not surround their school home, which they must 
 so soon leave for the harsh toil of Imsiness life, with 
 all that can make the memory of it a joy foreverf 
 
 VALUE AND USES OF ARBOR DAY 
 
 A very just tribute, to tlie value and uses 
 of Arbor Day will be tound iu the addres.s 
 of Prof. George Mull, of Franklin and Mar- 
 sluill(_'ollege,in couneetion with the observ- 
 ance of the day at the High Hchool, Lan- 
 caster, Pa. : 
 
 Arbor Day is no longer a novelty, eonlined here 
 aud there to isolated districts, and attracting af ten- 
 tiou in the minds of few as a consjiieuous evidence 
 of an enlighteuetl public sentiment in a few^ favored 
 localities. A good thing is always sure to make its 
 way, and it can not be said that" this particular 
 good thing which claims our consideration to-day 
 
 was slow in making its way into the heart of jiublic-school life throughout the 
 length and breadth of our couutry. Scarcely heard of, barely thought of, a 
 few years ago, it was jiossible to make the statement, at tlie American Forestry 
 Congress, la.st December, that Arbor Day is ilow kept in nearly e\ ery State of the 
 Union and in some of the Territories, aud, indeed, in one State, South Carolina, 
 a whole week is now devoted annually to tree planting. Such a rapid aud wide- 
 spread adoption of the custom is a sufticieut indication of the merits of its claim to 
 popular favor. It is hardly time yet to count the cost aud estimate the results, but 
 from what has already been done therit can be no doubt that the practical benefits 
 accruing to the material well-being of the country from the faithful observance of tho 
 
30 AEBOK DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSEEVANCE. 
 
 day, will, in the near future, by the incontestable proof of what the eye may beholfl, 
 establish the wisdom of those who have the honor to be numbered among the found- 
 ers of this most excellent institution. With reference to this phase of the subject — 
 the bearing it has upon the material prosperity of the country — there can be no dif- 
 ference of opinion. Everyone who is familiar with the statistics showing the rapid 
 destruction of our forests will readily agree that there is urgent need that the pub- 
 lic attention should be directed to tree planting, and there is no other medium 
 througLi which this can be so effectually accomplished as through the public schools. 
 It was wisely ordered, therefore, that the public schools should be enlisted in the 
 work of conserving the material prosperity of the State in this important respect. 
 
 But while there can be no doubt that Arbor Day owes its institution ijrimarily to 
 economic considerations, and that upon this ground it met with so swift a response 
 of popular recognition and interest, it is equally certain that the founders of the 
 day builded better than they knew. For the broad and beneficent results flowing 
 from this movement are not to be estimated in their sum total by the impressive 
 array of cold figures in statistical tables — not even though they reach the enormous 
 proportions of "605,000,000 trees planted in the single State of Nebraska, and now 
 thriving there, where a few years ago none could be seen except along the streams; 
 and this used to be called 'The Great American Desert,' where seventeen years ago 
 the geographies said trees would not grow — and now the leading State of America 
 for tree planting." 
 
 But this, though it be a matter for congratulation and rejoicing, conveys but a faint 
 idea of the importance of the day as touching the very springs of our social life by 
 its intimate connection with the public schools of the Commonwealth. More than 
 this, if merely utilitarian or purely commercial considerations are to dominate our 
 reflections upon this day, then we have no hesitation in saying that the day had bet- 
 ter not been instituted. For in the midst of the intense activity of the present age, 
 when all around us we see the plainly marked tracks of that myriad-shaped spirit 
 of the times, whose tendency is ever toward the practical and material side of life, 
 and which can see little or no good in anything that has not its immediate fruitage 
 in palpable results to be measured by the yardstick, weighed in scales, and counted 
 up in bank books; when, in the significant language of a thoughtful public school 
 man, "knowledge is no longer regarded as the wings wherewith we fly to Heaven, 
 but the claws with which we burrow into the earth in search of its glittering treas- 
 ures ; " when, in a word, we are confronted on all sides by forces that irresistibly impel 
 us foward in the lines of practical pursuit with a natural leaning toward selfishness 
 and greed ; under these circumstances, surely, there would seem to be no need to give 
 impetus to a stream that has such a, strong current of its own by making a special 
 effort to set before the children of the Commonwealth the observance of this day, as 
 an object lesson in tree planting, upon grounds of thrift and public economy alone 
 
 Happily there is another phase of the question which makes the celebration of 
 Arbor Day altogether commendable. I refer to the educational value it possesses, 
 which, indeed, is not to be estimated by the stores of useful knowledge clustering 
 around it and finding through this channel an easy way into the mental equipment 
 of the scholars. The wise teacher, to be sure, will not fail to utilize the occasion 
 as one of the best means placed at his disposal for the purpose of imparting prac- 
 tical instruction in the department of botanical science. The significance of this 
 feature is not to be underestimated. It is of unquestionable importance, but there 
 is still a liigher importance attaching to the celebration of the day, viz, the cultiva- 
 tion of a feeling for nature, by bringing us into touch and sympathy with the won- 
 drous works of the Great Creator as revealed in the manifold forms of beauty — the 
 endless variety of his handiwork throughout the vegetable kingdom. We are so 
 wrapped up in our daily pursuits, so immersed in the things of flesh and sense that 
 are of necessity involved in the unceasing struggle for existence and for a comforta- 
 ble living, that the deeper spiritual forces of our being are in constant danger of 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 31 
 
 being Buppressed. We need something to draw iis away from tlie hardening condi- 
 tions of a life centered in self and absorbed in the purely material aspect of things. 
 Especially do we need something to create and stimulate in the hearts of our chil- 
 dren a genuine love for the works of nature. This can not be done by the text-book 
 study of botany — no more than the treasures of literature can be appropriated and 
 made a heart possession by the study of grammar. It can not be done by studying 
 nature solely in the interest of scientific truth. 
 
 To this, oue of the world's greatest students of nature, Charles Darwin, has borne 
 conclusive testimony. Indeed, it is inexpressibly sad to hear him in his later years, 
 when the "frontlet of olive culled far and wide" was vying with the "ivy leaf, the 
 meed of learned brows" to grace the chaplet of his enduring fame, declare in the 
 undertones of lamentation that he could not endure to read a line of poetry, that 
 Shakespeare was so intolerably dull as to nauseate him, that lie had almost lost his 
 taste for pictures and music, that fine scenery failed to cause him the exquisite delight 
 it formerly did, and that his mind seemed to have become a kind of machine for grind- 
 ing general laws out of large collections of facts, resulting in the atrophy of that 
 part of the brain on which the higher tastes depend. "The loss of these tastes," 
 mark his words, "is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intel- 
 lect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of 
 our nature." 
 
 Let us take the lesson to heart. It needs to be heeded, for, in the strenuous efforts 
 that arQ now being put forth, with the best of motives, to make our education more 
 and more practical, the importance of cultivating the iPsthetic and moral faculties 
 is only too apt to be overshadowed. It is possible to become too practical. " Eus- 
 kin speaks of men so 'practical' that they would turn the human race into vegeta- 
 bles, make the earth a stable, and its fruit fodder. There are vine dressers and 
 husbandmen," he says, "who love the corn they grind and the grapes they crush 
 better than the gardens of the angels upon the slopes of Eden; hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water, who think that the wood they hew and the water they draw are 
 better than the pine forests that cover the mountains like the shadow of God, and 
 the great rivers that move like his eternity." For all such, nature speaks in no 
 intelligible voice, Milton's grand epic has no meaning because it "proves nothing,'' 
 the healthy and elevating tone of the writings of a Wood and a Jefferies touches no 
 responsive chord, and these loving interpreters of nature have their books rated 
 "heavy" by the trade. "We observe the face of nature so little, that the few 
 enthusiasts who have come to know her speak to us, when they would describe her 
 beauties, in an unknown tongue." 
 
 The planting of a tree, the tender care bestowed upon it, the eager watching for 
 new developments in its growth, the tending of a flower bed, the training of a vine, 
 will for many a child prove the "open sesame" into the charmed circle of those 
 forces and factors of the natural world which purify, refine, and ennoble the heart 
 of man. The process itself can not be indicated. It is secret, silent, past finding 
 out. It is a growth — that subtle something, which is forever escaping the clutch of 
 the keenest investigator, only to find easy access to the soul of him who hath eyes to 
 see and ears to hear what is revealed of the Infinite in the finite order of creation. 
 
 Powers there are 
 
 That touch each other to theijuict — in modes 
 
 Which the gross world no sense bath to perceive, 
 
 "No soul to dream of. 
 
 — ["Wordsworth . 
 
 Though we may not analyze these mysterious powers which touch us at every 
 point of our natural environment, quickening our impulses, warming our affections, 
 exalting our thoughts, purifying our tastes, enlightening our whole being, we know 
 enough of them to prize them at their full value. Nor is this beyond the range of 
 the practical. Eor what is more truly, more wisely practical, than to set in operation 
 
32 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 forces and influences that will contribute to the personal happiness and comfort of 
 the individual? AVhat more practical, than to introduce into onr homes au appre- 
 ciative sense of the heautiful, the healthful, the useful in nature? It is but a step 
 from the school to the home, and it is clearly the part of practical wisdom to make 
 that step as fraught with beneficent results as it is possible to eflfect in the school. 
 A right feeling for nature means infinitely more than the planting of trees. By a 
 necessary law of association, it embraces a wide range of conditions in our every- 
 day life. It means a greater exhibition of tenderness, thoughtfulness, and gentle- 
 ness in our social intercourse; it means a greater regard for orderliness, neatness, 
 and beauty in our surroundings. A tree planted needs attention and care, which 
 can not be bestowed without entering into the general habit of the planter; it may 
 need a box to protect it; the shrub or bed of flowers suggests the well-kept lawn or 
 the more modest grassplat ; and these in turn point to a neat fence, a clean yard 
 with trim walks, a painted house, and within, tidy rooms, decorated walls, pictures 
 and books, good cheer and comfort. It will be readily admitted that these things 
 can not be, without affecting wholesomely and only for good the moral tone of the 
 family life, and, through it, that of the community. 
 
 PLANTING TREES A PATRIOTIC DUTY. 
 
 Kot less interesting and pertinent is the address of Dr. J. T. Eothrock, 
 State commissioner of forestry of Pennsylvania, to the public schools 
 of Lancaster on Arbor Day of last year : 
 
 Less than three centuries ago, in the providence of God, our ancestors fell heirs to 
 a land which was not only well watered and fertile, but well wooded. It is fair to 
 say that on the eastern slope of the continent there was no second area equal in size 
 to Pennsylvania which possessed resources so varied and that bid fair to last so long. 
 So rich was our inheritance that we felt we could never come to want or see the end 
 of our resources. American extravagance has become a byword among other nations, 
 and Pennsylvania is in no respect behind others in the sisterhood of States. 
 
 But already practically 75 per cent of our State is destitute of real forest growth, 
 and to meet the wants of a rapidly increasing population we are now importing 
 lumber. Not only this, but from about an eighth of the land which we have cleared 
 we have so exhausted the fertility that it can no longer be made remunerative in 
 agriculture. In at least one county of our State we have the word of the president 
 judge that the barren hillsides are being deserted by their population because they 
 can no longer wring a living from the impoverished lands. 
 
 Thus far mankind has derived its food from the soil or the water. In the state- 
 house of Massachusetts there hangs a figure of a codfish, to indicate that from the 
 sea that great Commonwealth derives a large part of its support. Our waters are 
 practically barren, and our strength must come from the soil. I desire now to leave 
 a question with the young people of Lancaster. It is this : If on the one hand we 
 double our population in about thirty years, and if, on the other hand, we continue 
 to make so much of snil poorer every year, how will those who come after us obtain 
 a living? Bear in mind that when you render the -Soil incapable of producing a 
 crop you cut off the head of the State. Thirty years and more ago our nation's life 
 was in danger. From the hillsides of Pennsylvania more than two hundred thou- 
 sand brave men poured down to save the country, that your lives might be peaceful, 
 happy, and prosperous. I know you love the dear old flag around which so many of 
 us rallied. I know that there is not a boy or girl before me but thinks the red, white, 
 and blue of "Old Glory" are the very brightest and best colors that fly in the 
 breeze of any land. Its ample folds mark the thousands of schoolhouses where you 
 are taught to become good men and women and patriotic citizens. But you are now 
 called upon to save the State from wasting its strength, and from becoming weak 
 and poor, when it should be strong and rich. God never allowed a child to grow up 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 33 
 
 to be a citizen without providing something for him or her to do for the public good. 
 Every citizen should iu some way aid in making every acre of the State as produc- 
 tive as it can he made. Of all things, a useless soul and a useless acre are the most 
 useless. I call upon you young people here, who are thinking already what you will 
 do when you grow up, to resolve that you will be patriots, and help make the land 
 iu which 5-0U live as near a paradise as you can. You will be wiser if you begin at 
 once to do some good thing. Here is a chance. Every tree that is planted helps to 
 save water for the uses of the people. It helps to restrain the floods wliich destroy 
 life and property. It helps to keep the air in pure condition for you and your asso- 
 ciates. It helps to moderate the climate so that crops may grow and fruits mature. 
 
 If, then, you plant a tree, you increase the wealth and strength of the Common- 
 wealth, and at the same time you aid in husbanding its resources. Is not this a 
 worthy work? But it is so small a thing, you may say! True, but life is made up 
 of small things. How many really great things can anyone do? The great acts of 
 any man's life are few. It is the multitude of small deeds which makes life important. 
 
 Nebraska was once almost a treeless area. Now it is a well-wooded State. This is 
 almost entirely due to the Arbor Day planting which Secretary Morton started a 
 score of years ago. His example has spread from State to State, until over almost the 
 entire Union a day is set apart every year for the purpose of tree planting. European 
 countries are taking up with the idea. It has spread to the isles of the ocean. If 
 we except Christmas and Easter, there is probably no anniversary more widely cele- 
 brated than Arbor Day. Of course the date must vary with the country. In our 
 Southern States, February 22, the birthday of Washington, is often selected as 
 Arbor Day. 
 
 I desire especially to call attention here to a mistake too often made in connection 
 with Arbor Day: This is the planting of foreign instead of native trees. It is now 
 well known that no foreign species except possibly the Eastern plane tree is so long- 
 lived as the corresponding native species. As between foreign and native trees, then, 
 give the first place to our own species. In the country, as in smaller towns, nothing 
 is better than our white oak, a native elm, or a sugar maple. Do not plant the sil- 
 ver maple. It is too weak to support its own enormous growth. It must be cut 
 back. This opens the way for decay, and just when your tree should be in its prime 
 it is in the stage of decay. 
 
 Reforms mature slowly. See with what infinite persecution the emancipation 
 problem was worked out! Before our land became in deed and in truth "the land 
 of the free,'' every hamlet received its baptism of blood and every citizen felt the 
 drain upon his finances. 
 
 The great temperance reform has grown from contempt into respectability, and 
 before you young people are in the prime of life you will see under restraint the 
 monster of intemperance, which brings untold agony into thousands of homes. So 
 it is with the forestry problem. We are now passing from the period of destruction 
 to the period of restoration. Hardly a State in the Union but is concerning itself 
 with this great reform. Pennsylvania has earned a first place as a pioneer in the 
 movement. In my travels over the country I see on all sides the signs that a refor- 
 mation is at hand. When I was a lad I never saw or heard of planting a tree iu a 
 school yard. Now, in the remotest parte of the State, I see growing in school yards 
 the trees under whose ample branches the children of the next generation will play. 
 
 I look on the hopeful side of things. The world has constantly been, in the main, 
 becoming better fitted for the prosperity and comfort of men. It is the natural 
 order of evolution. It is not too late to restore our forests on land where nothing 
 but trees will grow. It is not too late to make our roadsides, our school yards, our 
 swamp land, and our barren ridges eloquent witnesses of God's willingness to help 
 us beautify our living places, and jierpetuate the prosperity of onr Commonwealth. 
 Yon may never command armies, or thrill a listening nation by your eloquence; but 
 you may at least, each one of you, leave a thrifty, growing tree, or more than one, 
 
 10578 3 
 
34 
 
 ARBOR DAT IT? HISTORY A^TD OBSERVANCE. 
 
 to show those who follow that you were unselfish enough to labor for the benefit of 
 posterity that you may never see. You may at least exemplify the noble justice of 
 leaving the world iu as good condition for the prosperity of yonr children as you 
 found it for yourselves. All this you may do by simply planting a tree, which will 
 grow while you sleep and draw its strength and its long life and large usefulness from 
 the sunshine and the storm, costing nothing, "harming no one, blessing everyone, 
 and pleasing God." Will you do it ? 
 
 ■Suppose each child in the State of Pennsylvania between the ages of .5 and 17 
 years plants a tree which grows to a mature size. Put these all together at 1.5 feet 
 apart, and you will have a forest of Hi square miles. That means 7.360 acres of for- 
 est — good, productive forest. Each acre of such forest can, in the growing season, 
 give back to the air about li.oOO tons of water by evaporation or transpiration. In 
 other words, as the result of planting one tree for each school child of to-day there 
 might be distilled back into our air, from this eleven and more sr|udre miles of forest 
 area each growing season, 1(36, 720, 0CM3 tons of water. 
 
 Xow I want to ask you if you know what that water does up in the sky. It 
 destroys the frost which kills your crops. That is, each one of you here who plants 
 a long-lived tree of a kind that may grow to large proportions, will, when it has grown 
 to middle size, be jilacing away up there in the sky over seventy tons of water each, 
 year, which is to help protect and produce the grain on which yonr grandchildren 
 will live. Indeed, it may be, you will find when you are done with earth that you 
 have placed something in the sky of more importance still. You know that to '-love 
 your neighbor " is half of the Divine commaml. Will you plant a tree somewhere 
 this vear? 
 
 SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 Till' relation oi Arbor Day to 
 agricultare and horticulture is 
 vreM set forth by Hon. Charles E. 
 Skinner, State superintendent of 
 schools. Zs ew York : 
 
 There is a practical as well as a senti- 
 mental side to Arbor Day. It had its 
 inception in a commendable movement 
 looking to the protection of our forest 
 tri-es. and what may be called the making 
 of new forests on the vast plains of the 
 West. Tlie sentimental feature attached 
 to its observance has been in the develop- 
 ment of a love for Xature and her won- 
 derful works, and in the encouragement 
 to delightful study of trees, plants, tlow- 
 ers, and birds. There is no doubt that in hundreds of thousands of the children 
 of our country there has been awakened a deep interest in the attractive study of 
 how plants grow, of the use and abuse of trees, and of the relations which birds 
 and flowers bear tn the problpTu of Nature and to human happiness. A child who 
 learns to love trees and flowers and who derives happiness from them can never go 
 entirely wrong. The whole subject tends to a closer study of Nature in ail who 
 have a love for growing things. This study of Nature can be turned to practical 
 use, and be made of lasting benefit to many thousands of the world's workers 
 especially to those whose privilege it is to till the soil — and from the farms to feed 
 the world. There is a lack of knowledge of the scientific principles of agriculture. 
 This lack increases manual labur without increasing results or happiness. How to 
 
ARBOR DAY IT.^ HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 35 
 
 uuikc hii'uiiiig ple:is:ii]t, :iiul prolitablc, Ikiw to iucreaso its aUriiutious, liow to keep 
 the boys on the farm live some of the i)roblems of our times. There are mysteries of 
 Nature which a •woll -educated af;riculturi.st can solve with profit and pleasure. Ten 
 acres scientilically tended can he made as profitaldo with less labor as one hundred 
 acres carelessly cultivated. The brain ohonld relieve the hand. Education should 
 abolish drudgery. There is profit as well as jioetry in "a little farm well tilled." 
 
 Then let us make a ])la.ce in our educational system for .schools of an-riculture and 
 horticulture. Our agricultural colleges have their places in the system, but they 
 
 are beyond the reach and above the heads of .-i j;reat nuijoiity of the boys who are 
 to be the farmers of the future. While our ccunmon scliools are laying the founda- 
 tions of an all-around education, let us give our children practical lessons which 
 will help on the farm. We may not teach all our boys to lie farmers, bnt we may 
 give those who go from the schools back to the i'arms a. knowledge which shall arouse 
 a love and an enthusiasm for agricultural pursuits Avhich they could neA'er other- 
 wise obtain. This love would do more than any other inlluence to keep our boys on 
 the farms. It is the child who shows most enthusiasm in study and in play. Then 
 let us teach our childreu the simple lessons in botany, chemistry, geology, and 
 
36 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 zoology, with which they luay combine the study of the habits of plants and trees, 
 how they grow and develop ; the study of birds, which are the friends and not the 
 enemies of mankind ; the study of the composition of soils, the chemistry of fer- 
 tilizers, the needs of grasses and grains, and the harm of noxious weeds.- Let them 
 learn that what is taken from the ground must be paid back; that there is a recip- 
 rocal relation between the soil and the fertilizer, as between the giver and receiver. 
 How to graft, how to plant and transplant, how to save and how to prune, how to 
 sowand-how to reap, are among the things which siiould be taught. Give us courses 
 in the common schools for the boys and girls who want them, which shall teach 
 some of the pleasant things connected with farming. Teach also that it costs no 
 more to produce a jiound of good butter or cheese than a poor one. Give us a gar- 
 den by the schoolhouse where the lessons of Arbor Day can be practically illustrated, 
 where children can plant and water, where they can see things grow, see nature 
 develop, see life in soil and plants. France is doing much in this direction, and 
 Canada is agitating the question. Arbor Day should give us educated farmers. 
 
 ENCOURAGING WORDS FOR ARBOR DAY. 
 
 Beneficent influence of Arbor Day. — It must be borne 
 in mind that Arbor Day is not a holiday, but simply 
 a particular day set apart for special instruction in all 
 that pertains to the most useful and beautiful of the 
 kingdoms. It would not be amiss if a day were given 
 to each of the other kingdoms, the animal and the min- 
 eral, for the same purpose. That Arbor Day has been 
 of incalculable value, sestbetically and ethically, is no 
 longer doubted ; and, with this generation, trees around 
 a schoolhouse are not looked upon as a source of supply 
 for convenient instruments to maintain discipline, as 
 they probably were a decade or two ago. The vandalism that begins with cutting 
 and marring the school desks and destroying school shrubbery has disappeared, 
 which is one of the innumerable arguments in favor of its beneficent influence upon 
 the malicious passions of the young. 
 
 The lessons learned about trees, plants, and flowers since the institution of Arbor 
 Day has caused us to observe more closely and to love more ardently these gifts of 
 nature. Our greatest poets and statesmen have written reverently of these treasures, 
 and spoken with sublime veneration and patriotic fervor about those of a historic 
 reputation. The literature associated with this kingdom excels all others in purity 
 and devoutness, and millions of the present school generation will recall these days 
 as the one green, glowing oasis in a long life. Henry Thoreau said: "The intellect 
 of most men is barren . It is the movings of the soul with nature that makes the intel- 
 lect fi'uitful, that gives birth to imagination."^ John Terhune, superintendent, Ber- 
 gen County, N. J. 
 
 Not merely a day for tree planting. — When this day was first appointed I felt that it 
 was not intended for us. We did not need it. Trees were abundant on our streets 
 and around our houses. But since we have kept it, as we have for the past two 
 years, I have had my eyes opened to its importance. We may have trees in abun- 
 dance, but there is a lesson to be taught on this day that can not be put too strongly 
 before our children. It is a day when we should strive through general exercises, 
 and by plain talks from the teachers, committeemen, and others who may be induced 
 to address the children, to impress upon them a love of the beautiful. Remember 
 
ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 37 
 
 that our schools are expected to elevate, to make better citizens, and not simply to 
 cram the pupils' heads full of a certain amount of knowledge, in order that they may 
 be able to make money a little easier when they grow up. We should teach them to 
 do all in theirpower to beautify their homes; also aid them in adorning their school- 
 rooms. Let these two places be made most attractive and the work of the schoolroom 
 will be wonderfully advanced. 
 
 The saloon perceives the importance of this idea; witness the magnificence of 
 some of the city saloons. Let us counteract this by doing what we can to induce 
 the child to make his home the most attractive place in the world. 
 
 A little ingenuity will work wonders. The home of the poor is often far pleasanter 
 than the mansion; so it does not all depend on the amount of money expended. 
 
 The same effort should be made to make the schoolroom attractive. To the eifect 
 of this I called your attention several years ago when the ungraded school was 
 removed from the room in the old brick schoolhouse to the pleasant quarters in the 
 Byfield biiilding. What had been an unruly school, and one that every child dreaded 
 to attend, became instantly a model school and one that was very popular. This is 
 a practical illustration that we should remember. We may say that it is all non- 
 sense; that it makes no difference what kind of a room is used for a school. Here 
 we see most conclusively that it does. — J. P. Reynolds. 
 
 Beneficial results of ArJ>or Day. — Arbor Day was observed this year in all the schools 
 according to the programme prepared by the commissioner of public schools. At 
 nearly all the schools a tree, or vine, or shrub was planted on or near the school 
 grounds. The encouragement of this custom will give to each class a 2>ermanent 
 possession in the school grounds, increase their interest in the school in time to come, 
 and be a promoter of pleasant memories of school life. 
 
 The presence of trees on or near the school grounds will attract the birds, and 
 tliese by their presence will aid the teachers in inculcating the principles and prac- 
 tices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In one school this 
 year attention and interest have been concentrated upon a pair of robins which built 
 their nest in a tree in the yard and in sight from the upper windows of the school- 
 house. — W. A. Briggs, superintendent. 
 
 Indirect value. — The indirect value of Arbor Day and the opportunity it affords for 
 moral instruction are appreciated by the teachers, whose first thought is apt to be 
 one of regret for any interruption of regular work. — T. 0. Draper, superintendent. 
 
 A beautiful cuetom.— Another custom which we urge all of our schools to adopt is 
 the careful observance of, and participation in, the exercises of Arbor Day, a custom 
 beautiful, simple, useful. — F. B. Gifford, clerk. 
 
 Gaining attention. — The subject of Arbor Day is gaining the attention of the teach- 
 ers and pupils more than formerly, and it is to be hoped it will continue. If properly 
 carried out it will cause the schoolhouse grounds to become more attractive to the 
 children. It does seem as if the grounds around the schoolhouses of our country, 
 where congregate some thirteen millions of pupils, should receive as much attention 
 as the grounds around the homes, for nothing can exert more influence in creating a 
 love for the beautiful in the minds of the rising generation. — C. J. Greene, superin- 
 tendent. 
 
 Not a mere holidai/. — Trees everywhere exert a controlling moral influence. They 
 make home pleasanter, as we know and feel in our everyday existence. When a boy 
 leaves the home of his childhood his heart, in whatever land it beats, shall, like 
 the "seashell far from its ocean bed, retain some faint whisper of its early dwell- 
 ing place." In after years the sight of home and school grounds, beautified and 
 improved, will afford gladness and pleasure as season follows season. — D. R. Adams, 
 superinten dent. 
 
38 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 FrcwMeal use of the day. — Arbor Day and the preparation for it served to inculcate 
 love for the whole realm of the vegetable world and much knowledge of tree and 
 plaut life. The schools also, after appropriate and interesting exercises in their 
 respective rooms, came together at the Massasoit spring on Baker street, and planted 
 a tree in memory of Massasoit. It might be well another year for the schools each 
 to plant a tree on some treeless street. — A. E. Carpenter, superintendent. 
 
 Among our monumental institutions. — One of the pleasing evidences of improvement 
 in society and the cultivation of a higher public taste is found in the establishment 
 of Arbor Day. This interesting anniversary has not only found a place among the 
 monumental institutions df our country, but it has met with very general and cor- 
 dial approbation and support. It has its place in the calendar of our colleges, and 
 it becomes an educational agency to all the yonth of the land by its relation to our 
 common schools. It has the support of no small number of enthusiastic advocates 
 who promote its observance and press its claims upon the public attention, and 
 build up around it its own peculiar and interesting literature. 
 
 As the years go by and the trees now newly planted expand themselves outward 
 and rear themselves upward toward the sky, displaying their grand and majestic 
 proportions, so the traditions and stories that gather round them and the day that 
 gave them their place and their importance grow to be a living romance, blooming 
 with elevating sentiment and bearing the fruitage of cherished associations. 
 
 When from the youth and childhood of the present proceed the names tbat attain 
 to greatness and to fame, till all lands are filled with their renown, then this anni- 
 versary will bring together assemblages at the plantings of to-day to teli over with 
 endless interest the stories of early struggles and victories, and so inspire to noble 
 ambitions and aims the generations that are to follow. — Rev. J. Young. 
 
 TREES AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 If any persons should be peculiarly inter- 
 ested in trees it would seem to be those who 
 are at school and who are especially engaged 
 in the use of books, for the word book is the 
 same as the old English or Anglo-Saxon word 
 hoc, which means a beech tree. The German 
 buck, book, is almost the same as buche, beech ; 
 and substantially similar words are found in 
 the Danish, Icelandic, and Gothic languages, 
 because before the invention of printing the books of 
 the people speaking these languages were written commonly 
 on pieces of the bark or wood of the beech trees. 
 Then those who are studying Latin know that the word liber means 
 both bark and book, which points to a similar usage. And those who 
 have entered upon the study of the Greek language have learned that 
 biblos, which means book, also means the inner bark of the papyrus 
 plant, because the old Egyptians used to write upon its smooth and 
 white surface. Prom the name of this plant again comes directly and 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 39 
 
 easily our word paper, while to go back to liber, we have from that our 
 word library, or a collection of books, and from biblos again Our word 
 Bible, or the book of books. And now our books are often literally 
 made of the trees. Only instead of taking chips or blocks of the 
 beech tree to write upon, as our ancestors did, we grind the trees up 
 into pulp, and having spread it out into thin sheets, the printer then 
 prints upon them lessons of geography or arithmetic or history, and lo, 
 the beech tree and other trees also come into the school room to help 
 us in our studies. Every time also that we turn the leaves in our books 
 we are reminded of the trees, which have given us the word. 
 
 And then the word academy causes us to think of the trees, for it 
 points us back to that celebrated school which Plato, the Greek phi- 
 losopher, taught in the grove of Academus. It was a school among 
 the trees. It was as he walked with his pupils under the branches 
 of the trees that he taught those lessons of wisdom which have been 
 the delight of scholars down to our own time. 
 
 Fitly, then, are the pupils in our schools invited to take part in the 
 observance of Arbor Day, and if there is any spot peculiarly appropri- 
 ate for the planting of trees on such an occasion it is that where chil- 
 dren assemble for instruction, that thereby they may have around them 
 the beauty and pleasantness which trees afford and every school place 
 may become another "grove of Academe." 
 
 TREES AS LIVING THINGS. 
 
 All things in the world may be divided into two 
 
 classes, things which have life and things which are 
 
 without life. What life is we do not know. We 
 
 know only its effects — what it does. We can 
 
 neither see it nor feel it. We can not perceive 
 
 it by any of our senses. 
 
 We recognize life most commonly as something 
 which produces motion. So we say an animal is 
 alive or has life, because we see it move. The stone 
 is not alive; it has no motion. It does not change 
 its shape or color. It looks to day as it did years 
 M^ ago; it is no larger now than it was then. So of a piece of 
 ' iron or any other metal. But the animal moves about; it 
 changes its shape; it increases in size; it grows, as we say. From a 
 small and very feeble thing it becomes large and strong. It is because 
 it is a living thing or has life that it grows. The life in it has the 
 power of laying hold of other things and building them up into the 
 body of the animal, so that it enlarges until it has reached the size which 
 
40 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 belongs to it. So the life or life principle iu ua builds up our bodies 
 little by little, and day by day, from our infancy, until we are grown-up 
 men and women. 
 
 Now, the trees are living things like ourselves, and this gives them 
 special interest for us. Living things have what we call organs, or 
 instruments by means of which the life or life principle acts and per- 
 forms its work. So the trees have many such organs as we have, and 
 thereby resemble us. They have organs by which they take in food, 
 they have lungs by which they breathe, and they have organs of 
 digestion and a circulatory apparatus, by which their food is prepared 
 and carried to all parts of them and causes them to grow and reach 
 their perfection. 
 
 The trees can not move about from place to place, as we and most 
 animals do. They would not be what they were meant to be nor of 
 such use to us as they now are if they could. But they are none the 
 less alive although they remain in the same place all the time. There 
 are some animals, such as the oyster, for example, which never move 
 about. There are also some human beings who, by accident or other- 
 wise, have been deprived of the power to walk or to move freely, 
 who yet are as truly alive as any. There are many plants also that 
 have a limited power of motion which shows a close resemblance to 
 the animals in this respect, as well as iu others which have been men- 
 tioned. There are what we call the climbing plants, which climb trees 
 or walls just as truly as boys often do. Most plants love the light 
 and sunshine, and these climbing plants seem to climb up for the pur- 
 pose of getting out of the shade of other plants and securing to them- 
 selves the needed light. So they lay hold of any upright object near 
 them, a stick or a tree, and winding around it or fastening their 
 tendrils to it, climb up. Here there is motion all the time, and it 
 can be seen very easily, especially when such a climber as the 
 morning-glory fastens upon a short support. When it gets to the top 
 of this it is not satisfied, but wants to go higher; so you may see it 
 reaching out sideways and feeling around to find a new support, and 
 it will sweep entirely around a circle, from right to left or from left to 
 right, in order to find something to lay hold of by which it may rise 
 still farther. 
 
 Then there are plants, like the Virginia creeper and the Japanese and 
 English ivies, which climb walls or other objects by means of tendrils, 
 which they stretch out like arms, and Avhich sometimes have at their 
 ends little disks like the suckers which boys make out of leather and 
 with which they lift stones and other things. These disks are like so 
 many hands, by means of which the plants climb up and hold them- 
 selves firmly where they can have the light which they need. If you 
 try to detach one of these disks from the object to which it has fas- 
 tened itself you will find it quite dilHcult to do so. The Venus's flytrap 
 
ARBOE DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 41 
 
 {Dionma muscipula) shows motion iu a different way. It lias at tlie 
 end of its leaves an expansion like two leaves of a book ready to fold 
 together, or like the shells of a clam. Around the margin of these 
 leaves are bristles, with other more delicate ones in the center. When 
 an insect alights on the open leaves and touches the central bristles, 
 the leaves shut together so quickly that it is caught and held there till 
 it dies. Other plants show motion in different ways. The trees also 
 have motions independent of those which are occasioned by the wind 
 or any external force. The locust tree and some others, for instance, 
 fold up their leaves at night as though preparing to sleep, and spread 
 them open again in the morning. Some move their leaves in a different 
 manner. In all trees, also, there is in the roots a constant movement, 
 at least during the growing season of the year. At the very beginning 
 of its life the root as it sprouts from the seed insists upon going down- 
 ward into the earth. Turn the sprouting acorn so that its root or radi- 
 cle shall point upward and very soon it will turn and double upon itself, 
 if necessary, in order to take a downward course, and though you turn 
 it again and again, it will persist in its determination and die if neces- 
 sary rather than give up the struggle. So when a tree is established 
 and growing, though its stem must remain in the same place, its roots 
 are all the while pushing out iu various directions, winding around 
 obstacles of one kind and another in pursuit of moisture and nourish- 
 ment and making their way steadily on, so that nothing will so well 
 describe the character of that part of the tree which is under ground 
 as to say it is in a state of motion. Darwin, the eminent naturalist, 
 goes" so far as to claim that all the growing parts of plants, above as 
 well as below ground, manifest voluntary motion, describing circles or 
 circular spirals continually, " circumnutating," as he calls this move- 
 ment. " If we look," he says, "for instance, at a great acacia tree, we 
 may feel assured that every one of the innumerable growing shoots is 
 constantly describing small ellipses, as is each petiole, subpetiole, and 
 leaflet."' 
 
 The action of the life principle in the trees also often manifests aston- 
 ishing force. Darwin found that the transverse growth of the radicle 
 of a sprouting bean was able to displace a weight of 3 pounds 4 ounces 
 in one case and one of 8 pounds 8 ounces in another. One can hardly 
 walk where trees are growing among rocks without seeing instances of 
 the splitting asunder of great masses of them by the growth of the 
 tree roots which have gained entrance into their crevices when small, 
 and in growing have expanded with irresistible force. So, also, it is a 
 common thing to see the walls of buildings disturbed and much injured 
 by the roots of trees growing near them. Experiments made by 
 Professor Clark, at Amherst College, led him to think that the force 
 exerted by a squash in growing was equal to about 5,000 pounds. Thus 
 
 'Power of Movement in Plants, 
 
42 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 trees show that they are living things like us by having voluntary 
 motion and exerting power. 
 
 Trees resemble us also as living things, and still more wonderfully, 
 perhaps, in their choice of food. They can take food only when it is in 
 a liquid or fluid state. They can not take any solid food, though the 
 particles be ever so small. l^Tor do all trees make use of the same things 
 for food. As they differ from one another in kind, so they require dif- 
 ferent kinds of food material in order to make them what they are. Or 
 they require the various articles of food in different proportions one 
 from another. They seem to have their preferences, their likes and dis- 
 likes about food, very much as we do. So, when different kinds of trees 
 are growing together, each selects from the ground the food or the dif- 
 ferent kinds of food which will be most promotive of its growth. In this 
 respect the trees do even better than we do, for they never take what 
 is not good for them. The oak takes what will be best for it, and the 
 maple what will build it up as a maple, and so of every other tree, and 
 if the proper food does not happen to be where the tree is planted, 
 though there may be other food in abundance, it will not become 
 large and strong. There is hardly anything more wonderful than this 
 instinct of trees by which they choose their food so unerringly, and 
 the great effort which they seem to make sometimes in order to get 
 the food they want. While they can not move from place to place, as 
 as most animals can, because they are fixed to one spot, though some 
 of the lower order of plants move about as freely as animals, they 
 often send their roots long distances and over great obstacles in search 
 of what will nourish them. Darwin, speaking of the motion of the 
 root-tips of plants, says : 
 
 "It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle, thus 
 endowed and having the power of directing the movements of the 
 adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals; the 
 brain being seated within the anterior end of the body, receiving 
 impressions from the sense organs, and directing the several move- 
 ments."' 
 
 Such manifestations of life in the trees are very interesting. They 
 are enough to make us feel that they are like us in many respects and 
 to excite in us a sense of companionship with them, and we can hardly 
 wonder that some people have imagined that living creatures dwelt in 
 the trees and peopled the woods with nymphs, with dryads and hama- 
 dryads, or that in their superstition some have even worshipped trees. 
 If we had more of that fancy of the old Greeks, that when a tree was 
 wounded the nymph who dwelt in it was hurt or grieved, we should, 
 perhaps, treat the trees around us with more care and have a tenderer 
 feeling in respect to tliein. 
 
 ' fovrer of Movement in Plants, 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 43 
 
 TREES IN MASSES— FORESTS. 
 
 Interesting as trees are, considered 
 singly, admirable for their beauty, every 
 leaf a worthy object of study, we do not 
 know their value and importance until 
 Ave contemplate them in masses, or as 
 forests. The single tree on the lawn or 
 , by the roadside may be more beautiful 
 ■Mid excite our admiration more than any 
 to be found in the forest, because, having 
 abundant space and light and air on 
 every side, it has developed itself sym- 
 ^,;, metrically and to the full perfection of 
 its nature, which the tree in the forest, 
 more or less crowded by its neiglibors, 
 can not do. But when we come to con- 
 sider the usefulness rather than the 
 beauty of trees, we must look to the 
 forests, those great masses which often cover whole mountains or vast 
 plains with their continuous stretches. Let us notice, therefore, some 
 of the uses of masses of trees, or the importance which trees have when 
 growing together in large numbers, and which does not belong to the 
 tree when considered singly. 
 
 In the first place, then, it is from the forest that we obtain the fuel 
 by which principally we warm our houses and sustain the fires in most 
 of our furnaces and factories. It is from the forest that we obtain the 
 timber for the construction of our houses, our ships, our railway cars, 
 and the track upon which the cars are borne so smoothly and safely. 
 It is the forests which supply us with the raw material that is wrought 
 into so many objects of usefulness and convenience. Professor Sargent, 
 who undertook ten years ago to ascertain the condition of the forests 
 of the United States, estimated the yearly value of the lumber, fuel, 
 and other forest products at that time as more than $700,000,000. Their 
 value is now at least $1,060,000,000, a sura that exceeds the value of our 
 crops of wheat, oats, rye, corn, and tobacco taken together, and is 
 greater than that of all our exports, and more than fourteen times as 
 great as the produce of our mines of silver and gold. It is esti- 
 mated that we consumed last year, of sawn lumber alone, more than 
 36,000,000,000 square or sui)erficial feet. But such figures by them- 
 selves are meaningless. Let us consider, then, that this amount of 
 lumber would load a train of cars sufficient to encircle the earth at the 
 equator. And now, if we add to the sawn lumber, which is only a 
 small part of the total produce of the forests, the timber, the railroad 
 ties, the telegraph poles, the posts for fences, and the wood cut for fuel 
 
44 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 and for mining purposes, we shall have a train 100,000 miles in length, or 
 long enough to reach ibur times around the globe. The weight of these 
 forest products would be enough to load 480,000 ships of 1,000 tons each. 
 
 When we see thus what a vast amount of material of various kinds 
 is taken from our forests every year, we have a most convincing proof 
 of their value. We see at a glance how indispensable they are to our 
 welfare, how many industries they must sustain, how many comforts 
 and conveniences they must provide for all. 
 
 The importance of the forests and their usefulness to us may be 
 shown, not only by such figures as we havf just given, which indicate 
 their total product, but in a contrasted way by considering some of 
 what may be called the nuthought-of uses of the forest, because they 
 are concerned with articles iiulividually so small and insignificant. 
 
 A toothpick, for instance, is a little thing, the merest sliver of wood, 
 yet it is reported that one factory uses 10,000 cords of wood annually in 
 the production of these splints. 
 
 Shoe pegs are small affairs, yet a single factory sends 40,000 bushels 
 of them to Europe yearly, besides what it disposes of at home. 
 
 A spool is of small account to us when emptied of the thread which 
 has been wound upon it, yet there are several factories which use each 
 from 1,800 to 3,500 cords of wood every year in making these little arti- 
 cles, and in one factory 150 men are said to be employed in their man- 
 ufacture. Thousands of acres of birch trees have been bought at one 
 time by some of our thread manufacturing companies, for the sole pur- 
 pose of securing a supply of spools. 
 
 Who thinks much of the little friction match, as he uses it to light his 
 lamp or his fire and then throws it awayl But a single factory, it is 
 said, makes 60,000,000 of these little things every day, using for this 
 purpose 12,000 square feet of the best pine timber. 
 
 It will help us also to understand how much we are indebted to the 
 forests when we find that we consume $12,000,000 worth of lumber every 
 year for the packing-boxes alone which are required simply for the 
 transportation of our various commodities from the producers to those 
 who use them, and are then destroyed. 
 
 In what has been said now about the products of the forests and the 
 benefits which they cimfer upon us, only a few out of many things have 
 been mentioned. Nothing has been said of the gums and resins and 
 spices which they afford, and which are of so much service to us. What 
 a loss would it be to us, for instance, if we were to be deprived of india 
 rubber and guttapercha, or of the resin and turpentine of our pine 
 trees, yielding us a product annually valued at $8,000,000. What could 
 take their place? How many uses we have for them, uses many of 
 which seem indispensable. How important to us also is the bark of 
 many trees. We are dependent upon it for our leather. We can not 
 put on a shoe or walk the streets without being reminded of our indebt- 
 edness to the trees. How many valuable dyestuffs, also, and how many 
 healing medicines are obtained from the bark, as well as from the leaves 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 45 
 
 and other parts of the trees. From their seeds and nuts, also, what 
 valuable products are derived. In some countries these supply a large 
 part of the food of the people. 
 
 But the forests are of great importance to us not only on account of 
 what they thus yield directly for our use and comfort, but on account 
 of their relations to climate and health, to the flow of streams, and to 
 the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. 
 
 By reason of the deep, spongy soil formed by the decay of their leaves 
 through a succession of years the forests become great storehouses of 
 moisture. The rain which falls upon them, instead of being evaporated 
 as it is from the open ground or flowing off at once into the streams, 
 perhaps with destructive violence, sinks into the soft and retentive 
 soil, from which It flows out gradually into the neighboring ruulets 
 and brooks and thence into the larger streams, and preserves in them 
 an equable flow, preventive alike of flood and droughts. It is esti- 
 mated that four-fifths of the water falling on wooded areas is retained 
 by them, whereas on those which are without timber cover only one- 
 fifth is retained, the other four-fifths rushing off in torrents and often 
 producing disastrous floods. Through many an underground channel, 
 also, the stored-up water of the forests reappears in springs iu the 
 meadows and elsewhere, to slake the thirst of man and beast and give 
 delight to old and young. The forests are thus our great regulators of 
 water supply. They also protect us and protect our crops, our fruits, 
 and our flocks from the violence of the winds. What we call a gentle 
 wind is pleasant, but we all know that the air can move with destructive 
 violence. We all know, also, how grateful is the shelter which a grove 
 or even a narrow belt of trees affords from a cold wind. When the air 
 is still it maybe quite cold without occasionrng us much discomfort; 
 but when it is in motion it absorbs the heat of our bodies more rapidly 
 by the more frequent contact of its particles with them, and this may go 
 so far as to be very painful and, perhaps, destroy life. Now, theforests, or 
 even a few rows of trees, greatly check the movement of the winds and 
 thus protect us both from their chilling effect and their violence. They 
 do the same for the crops in the farmer's fields and the fruits in his 
 orchards. They prevent them from being withered and blasted by cold 
 or hot winds or from being broken down by their force. People, in some of 
 our western States especially, have found "shelter belts," as they are well 
 called, almost Indispensable to the successful cultivation of some crops. 
 
 By equalizing the temperature and moisture of the atmosphere as 
 they do, and by other influences which they exert, the forests are also 
 promotive of health. A region of forests, especially if it is elevated, is a 
 healthful region. So we know what multitudes resort every year to the 
 White Mountains of New Hampshire, and to the Adirondacks and the 
 Catskills, or to the. great forest regions of the South or of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and how beneficial to health they find them. 
 
 In whatever aspect, then, we contemplate the forests we see that they 
 are of the greatest value to us. 
 
46 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 TREES IN THEIR LEAFLESS STATE. 
 
 1 k 
 
 As the season for Arbor Day and 
 tree planting conies on, just before the 
 buds begin to swell and are getting 
 ready to cover the trees with a fresh 
 mantle of leaves, it is well — as it is also 
 when the leaves have fallen from the 
 trees in autumn — to give attention to 
 the bare trees and notice the character- 
 istic forms of the various species, the 
 manner in which their branches are 
 developed and arranged among them- 
 selves, for a knowledge of these things 
 will often enable one to distinguish the 
 different kinds of trees more readily 
 and certainly than by any other means. 
 The foliage often serves as an obscuring veil, concealing, in part, at 
 least, the individuality and the peculiarities of the trees. But if one 
 is familiar with their forms of growth — their skeleton anatomy, so to 
 speak — he will recognize common trees at once with only a partial view 
 of them. 
 
 Some trees, as the oak, throw their limbs out from the trunk hori- 
 zontally. As Dr. Holmes says: "The others shirk the work of resist- 
 ing gravity, the oak defies it. It chooses the horizontal direction for 
 its limbs so that their whole weight may tell, and then stretches them 
 out fifty or sixty feet so that the strain may be mighty enough to be 
 worth resisting." 
 
 Some trees have limbs which droop toward the ground, while those 
 of most, perhaps, have an upward tendency, and others still have an 
 upward direction at first and later iu their growth a downward inclina- 
 tion, as in the case of the elm, the birch, and the willows. Some, like 
 the oak, have comparatively few but large and strong branches, while 
 others have many and slender limbs, like some of the birches and 
 poplars. 
 
 The teacher should call attention to these and other characteristics 
 of tree structure, drawing the various forms of trees on the blackboard 
 and encouraging the pupils to do the same, allowing them also to cor- 
 rect each other's drawings. This will greatly increase their knowledge 
 of trees and their interest in them as well as in Arbor Day and its 
 appropriate observance. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 47 
 
 LEAVES, AND WHAT THEY DO. 
 
 The leaves of the trees afford an almost endless study and a constant 
 delight. Frail, fragile things, easily crumpled and torn, they are won- 
 derful in their delicate structure, and more wonderful if possible on 
 account of the work which they perform. 
 
 They are among the most beautiful things offered to our sight. Some 
 one has well said that the beauty of the world depends as much upon 
 leaves as upon iiowers. We think of the bright colors of flowers and 
 are apt to forget or fail to notice the coloring of leaves. 
 But what a picture of color, beyond anything that 
 flowers can give us, is spread before our sight for 
 weeks every autumn, when the leaves ripen and take 
 on hues like those of the most gorgeous sunset skies, 
 
 and the wide 
 landscape is 
 all aglow with 
 them. A wise 
 observer has 
 called atten- 
 tion also to 
 the fact that 
 the various- 
 kinds of trees 
 have in the 
 early spring- 
 time also, 
 only in a more 
 
 subdued tone, the same colors which they put on in the autumn. If 
 we notice the leaves carefully, we shall see that there is a great variety 
 of color in them all thiough the year. While the prevailing color, or 
 the body color, so to speak, is green, and the general tone of the trees 
 seen in masses is green — the most pleasant of all colors to be abidingly 
 before the sight — this is prevented from becoming dull or somber because 
 it comprises almost innumerable tints and shades of the selfsame color, 
 while other distinct colors are mingled with it to such an extent as to 
 enliven the whole foliage mass. Spots of yellow, of red, of white, and 
 of intermediate colors are dashed upon the green leaves or become the 
 characteristic hues of entire trees, and so there is brought about an 
 endless variety and beauty of color. 
 
 Then there is the beauty of form, size, position, and arrangement. 
 Of the one hundred and fifty thousand or more known species of trees 
 the leaves of each have a characteristic shape. The leaves of no two 
 species are precisely alike in form. More than this is also true. IsTo 
 two leaves upon the same tree are in this respect alike. While there is 
 
48 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 a close resemblance amoug the leaves of a given tree, so that one 
 familiar with trees would not be in doubt of their belonging to the 
 same tree, though he should see them only when detached, yet there 
 is more or less variation, some subtle difference in the notching or curv- 
 ing of the leaf edge perhaps, so that each leaf has a form of its own. 
 These differences of shape in the leaves are a constant source of beauty. 
 
 What a variety of size also have the leaves, from those of the birches 
 and willows to those of the sycamores, the catalpas, and the paulownias. 
 On the same tree also the leaves vary in size, those nearest the ground 
 and nearest the trunk being usually larger than those more remote. 
 How different as to beauty would the trees be if their leaves were all of 
 the same size; how much less jjleasing to the sight. 
 
 Then, what a wide difference is there in the position of the leaves on 
 the trees and their relative adjustment to each other! Sometimes they 
 grow singly, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in whorls or clusters. Some 
 droop, others spread horizontally, while others still are more or less 
 erect. The leaves of some trees cling close to the branches, others are 
 connected with the branches by stems of various length and so are capa- 
 ble of greater or less movement. The leaves of poplars and aspens 
 have a peculiarly flattened stem, by reason of which the slightest breath 
 of wind puts them in motion. 
 
 These are some of the most obvious characteristics of the leaves, by 
 which also they are made the source of so much of the beauty of the 
 world in which we live. It will be a source of much pleasure to any- 
 'one who will begin now, in the season of swelling buds and opening 
 leaves, to watch the leaves as they unfold and notice their various forms 
 and colors and compare them one with another. There is no better 
 way of gaining valuable knowledge of trees than this, for the trees are 
 known by their leaves as well as by their fruits. 
 
 But let us turn now from their outward appearance and consider 
 what is done by them, for the leaves are among the great workers of 
 the world, or, if we may not speak of them as workers, a most impor- 
 tant work is done in or by means of them, a work upon which our own 
 life depends and that of all the living tribes around us. 
 
 Every leaf is a laboratory, in which, by the help of that great 
 magician, the sun, most wonderful changes and transformations are 
 wrought. By the aid of the sun the crude sap which is taken up from 
 the ground is converted by the leaves into a substance which goes to 
 build up every part of the tree and causes it to grow larger irom year 
 to year ; so that instead of the tree making the leaves, as we commonly 
 think, the leaves really make the tree. 
 
 Leaves, like other parts of the plant or tree, are composed of cells 
 and also of woody material. The ribs and veins of the leaves are the 
 woody part. By their stiffness they keep the leaves spread out so that 
 the sun can act upon them fully, and they prevent them also from being 
 broken and destroyed by the winds, as they otherwise would be. They 
 
AEBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 49 
 
 serve also as ducts or conduits by which the crude sap is couveyed to 
 the leaves aud by which, when it has there been made into plant food, 
 it is carried into all parts of the tree for its nourishment. Protected 
 and upheld by these expanded woody ribs, the body of the leaf consists 
 of a mass of pulpy cells arranged somewhat loosely, so that there are 
 spaces between them through which air can freely pass. Over this 
 mass of cells there is a skin, or epidermis, as it is <!alled, the green 
 surface of the leaf. In this there are multitudes of minute openings, 
 or breathing pores, through which air is admitted and through which 
 also water or watery vapor passes out into the surrounding atmosphere. 
 In the leaf of the white lily there are as many as 60,000 of these open- 
 ings in every square inch of surface and in the apple leaf not fewer 
 than 24,000. These breathing pori s, called stomates, are mostly on the 
 under side of the leaf, except in the case of leaves which float upon 
 the water. There is a beautiful contrivance also in connection with 
 these pores, by which they are closed when the air around is dry and 
 the evaporation of tlie water from the leaves would be so rapid as to 
 be harii ful to the tree and are opened when the surrounding atmos- 
 phere is mo'st. 
 
 The green color of the leaves is owing to the presence in the cells of 
 minute green grains or granules, called chlorophyll, which means leaf- 
 green, and these granules are indispensable to the carrying on of the 
 important work which takes place in the leaves. They are more numer- 
 ous and also packed more closely together near the upper surface of 
 the leaf than they are near the lower. It is because of this that the 
 npper surface is of a deeper green than the lower. 
 
 Such, then, is the laboratory of the leaf, the place where certain 
 inorganic, lifeless substances, such as water, lime, sulphur, potash, and 
 phosphorous, are transformed and converted into living and organic 
 vegetable matter, and from which this is sent forth to build up every 
 part of the tree from deepest root to topmost sprig. It is in the 
 leaves also that all the food of man and all other animals is prepared, 
 for if any do iiot feed upon vegetable substances directly but upon 
 flesh, that flesh nevertheless has been made only as vegetable food has 
 been eaten to form it. It is, as the Bible says, " The tree of the field 
 is man's life." 
 
 But let us consider a little further the work of the leaves. The tree 
 is made up almost wholly of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. It is easy 
 to see where the oxygen and hydrogen are obtained, for they are the 
 two elements which compose water, and that we have seen, the roots 
 ar absorbing from the ground all the while and sending through the 
 body of the tree into the leaves. But where does the carbon come 
 from? A little examination will show. 
 
 The atmosphere is composed of several gases, mainly of oxygen and 
 nitrogen. Besides these, however, it contains a small portion of car- 
 bonic acid, that is, carbon chemically united with oxygen. The carbonic 
 10578 4 
 
50 
 
 ARBO& DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSEEVANCE. 
 
 acid is of no use to us directly, and in any but very minute quantities is 
 harmful; but the carbon in it, if it can be separated from the oxygen, is 
 just what the tree and every plant wants. And now the work of separat- 
 ing the carbon from the oxygen is precisely that which is done in the 
 wonderful laboratory of the leaf. Under the magic touch of the sun, the 
 carbonic acid of the atmosphere, which has entered the leaf through the 
 breathing pores or stomates and is circulating through the air-passages 
 and cells, is decomposed, that is, taken to pieces; the oxygen is poured 
 out into the air along with the watery vapor of the crude sap, while the 
 carbon is combined with the elements of water and other substances 
 which we have mentioned, to form the elaborated sap or plant material 
 which is now ready to be carried from the leaves to all parts of the plant 
 or tree, to nourish it and continue its growth. Such is the important 
 and wonderful work of the leaf, the tender, delicate leaf, which we 
 crumple so easily in our fingers. It builds up, atom by atom, the tree 
 and the great forests which beautify the world and provide for us a 
 thousand comforts and conveniences. Our houses and the furniture in 
 them, our boats and ship,s, the cars in which we fly so swiftly, the many 
 beautiful and useful things which are manufactured from wood of var- 
 ious kinds, all these, by the help of the sun, are furnished us by the tiny 
 leaves of the trees. 
 
 THE BEST USE OF ARBOR DAY. 
 
 Arbor Day to be most useful, as well 
 as most pleasant, should not stand by 
 itself, alone, but be connected with much 
 study and talk of trees and kindred sub- 
 jects beforehand and afterwards. It 
 should rather be the focal or culminating 
 point of the year's observation of trees 
 and other natural objects with which 
 they are closely connected. The wise teacher 
 yi^'ff^^^ ^^ ■^il^ s®^l^ to cultivate the observing faculties of 
 / /// M the pupils by calling their attention to the inter- 
 
 esting things with which the natural world abounds. 
 It is not necessary to this that there should be formal 
 classes in botany or any natural science, though we 
 think no school should be without its botanical class or classes, nor 
 should anyone be eligible to the place of a teacher in our public 
 schools who is not competent to give efficient instruction in botany at 
 least. 
 
 But much maybe done in this direction informally by brief, familiar 
 talks in the intervals between the regular recitations of the school- 
 room, or during the walks to and from school. A tree by the roadside 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 51 
 
 will furnisli au object lessou for pleasant and profitable discourse for 
 many days and at all seasons. A few flowers, which teacher or pupil 
 may bring to the schoolroom, will easily be made the means of inter- 
 esting the oldest and the youngest and of imparting the most profit- 
 able instruction. How easy also to plant a few seeds in a vase in the 
 schoolroom window and to encourage the pupils to watch their sprout- 
 ing and subsequent growth. 
 
 The pupils can also be readily interested in getting sections of trees 
 so cut as to show the structure of the wood, and with a portion of the 
 bark left upon them. It will require but a short time to accumulate 
 quite a collection of such specimens in the schoolroom, and they will 
 serve as a standard of reference with which to compare fresh speci- 
 mens and identify them. One face of the sections should be smoothed 
 and varnished, the others should 
 
 f?*!'^'), 
 
 fin; 
 
 be left as M'hen split from the tree. 
 The cut appended shows a good 
 form for such sections. 
 
 Then it should not be difficult 
 to have a portion of the school 
 grounds set apart, where the 
 pupils might, with the teacher's 
 guidance, plant flower and tree 
 seeds and thus be able to observe 
 the ways and characteristics of 
 plants in all periods of their 
 growth. They could thus provide 
 themselves with trees for plant- 
 ing on future Arbor Days, and at 
 the time of planting there would 
 be increased enjoyment from the 
 fact that they had grown the 
 trees for that very purpose. ^ 
 
 Why might not every schoolhouse ground be made also an arbore- 
 tum, where the pupils might have under their eyes, continually, speci- 
 mens of all the trees that grow in the town or in the State where the 
 school is situated? It would require but a little incitement from the 
 teacher to make the pupils enthusiastic with the desire to find out the 
 difi'erent species indigenous to the region and to gather them by sowing 
 seeds or planting the young trees around their place of study. 
 
 And if the school premises are now too small in extent to admit of 
 such a use, let the pupils make an earnest plea for additional ground. 
 As a general fact our school grounds have been shamefully limited in 
 extent, and neglected as to their use and keeping. The schoolhouse in 
 itself and in its surroundings ought to be one of the most beautiful and 
 attractive objects to be seen in any community. The approach from the 
 street should be like that to any dwelling house, over well-kept walks, 
 
 •''iilr, , -'ilff 
 
 ■■"».. Mi 
 
52 
 
 AEBOK DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 bordered by green turf, witli trees and shrubs and flowers offering their 
 adornment' Everything should speak of neatness and order. The 
 playground should be ample, but it should be in a retired situation and 
 
 by itself. 
 
 Europeans are in advance of us in school management. 'I'he Aus- 
 trian public school law reads: 
 
 '•In every school a gymnastic ground, a garden for the teacher, 
 
 s^r ^ "-i-^*^'t 
 
 •rr^^ 
 
 
 
 according to the circumstances of the community, and a place for the 
 pturposes of agricultural experiment, are to be created."' 
 
 There are now nearly 8,000 school gardens in Austria, not including 
 Hungary. In France, also, gardening is taught in the primary and 
 elementary schools. There arc nearly oO.OdO of these schools, each of 
 which has a garden attached to it, and the minister of public instruc- 
 tion has resolved to increase the number of school gardens, and that 
 no one shall be appointed master of an elementary school unless he can 
 prove himself capable of giving practical instruction in the culture of 
 
A"RBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 53 
 
 mother earth. In Sweden, in 1871, there were 22,000 children in the 
 common schools receiving instruction in horticulture and tree planting. 
 Each of more than 2,000 schools had for cultivation from one to twelve 
 acres of ground. 
 
 Why should we be behind the Old World in caring for the schools? 
 By the munificence of one of her citizens New York has twice offered 
 premiums for the best-kept school grounds. Why may we not have 
 Arbor Day premiums in all of our States and in every town for the 
 most tasteful arrangement of schoolhouse and grounds? These places 
 of education should be the pride of every community instead of being, 
 as they so often are, a reproach and shame. 
 
 TREE PUNTING. 
 
 In considering tree planting in connection 
 with Arbor Day, the first question to arise is, 
 Where shall we plant? It is obvious that the 
 practical work of Arbor Day can not include 
 forest planting. That is a work so large and 
 special in its nature as to require the com- 
 bined effort of iiersons in an organized capac- 
 ity, such as a town, county, or State, which 
 shall either do the work outright or give such 
 encouragement and help as will stimulate individual efibrt to the 
 requisite degree. Arbor Day observances, to be sure, should not lose 
 sigbt of tbe fact that we need something besides planting trees by the 
 roadside or on the lawn, or here and there one in memory of some dis- 
 tinguished person; something more than the landscape gardener's art 
 in planting appropriately public parks. ^ 
 
 These works of minor importance should lead to such a knowledge 
 of the uses of trees in masses — the extensive forests — iu connection with 
 climate, with the flow of streams and consequently with agricultural 
 operations and with manufactures, in short, with the general interests 
 of household and business life, that in due time there will be developed 
 a sentiment that will be powerful to arrest the wasteful and unneces- 
 sary destruction of our forests and insure the planting of them in 
 lilaces from which they have been removed or where they are specially 
 needed. One thing is to be remembered and it is calculated to lend 
 eft'ectiveness to the work of Arbor Day. It is that trees are living and 
 self-propagating things; that it i-s their nature to grow, and that they 
 will grow and extend themselves on every hand if not interfered with 
 and thwarted by man. As an illustration of this we see the abandoned 
 farms on our hillsides soon filling up with a wood growth. It may not 
 
 'Tho Department of Agricultnre has treated tlie subject of forest planting in 
 Bulletin No. 5, " Forestry for Farmers," recently published. 
 
54 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 be of the most valuable or desirable character, but it shows what 
 nature is ready to do, and it indicates a direction in which the influence 
 of Ai'bor Day may be made effective. 
 
 Let it be understood that the hills and mountain slopes are worth 
 more for the growth of trees than for agricultural use, or rather that 
 the tree crop is the most appropriate agricultural crop for the hill and 
 mountain slopes, the rocky surfaces which resist the plow and the hoe. 
 Let the farmer learn that if he will but exclude from his woodlands the 
 browsing cattle, which are ready to eat off every tender tree as it sprouts 
 from the ground and to break down with their heavy bulk those which 
 have already attained a hopeful size, and if he will cull the inferior 
 trees instead of the best, for his occasional uses, and fill the too wide 
 vacant spaces with a judicious planting, he may soon have a woodland, 
 though it may not have the dimensions of a forest, which will be of 
 manifold benefit to him as well as to others and be increasing in value 
 from year to year. This use of elevated and rocky lands, where ordi- 
 nary agriculture is difficult and comparatively unremunerative, ought 
 to be encouraged by the Arbor Day movement. It may and should 
 make itself felt in this direction. 
 
 The same is true in reference to many sandy and swampy lands. 
 These will nourish trees and prove a perpetual source of income. 
 Trees, unlike the ordinary farm crops, continually improve the quality 
 of the ground on which they grow. The German Government, in its 
 wise and careful management, is constantly buying up the worn-out or 
 impoverished farms of its husbandmen and by stockingthem with trees 
 restoring their fertility and fitting them again for agricultural use. 
 On a great many of our light, sandy soils, now left as wind-swept 
 barren fields or yielding only the most meager crops, a growth of that 
 most valuable tree the white pine {Pinus strohus), may be secured in 
 twenty years and even less, of marketable size. There is a great demand 
 for the wood of this tree in its early stages, for the manufacture of staves, 
 for tubs and small casks, as well as for other uses, and many land- 
 owners are finding it quite profitable to raise and market this pine at a 
 comparatively early age. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss further the subject of forest planting 
 or forest preservation, unless it be to say that perhaps a greater enemy 
 of the forest than the ax is fire, and that wherever there is regard 
 enough for trees to occasion the observance of Arbor Day there ought 
 to be also consideration enough for the preservation of the forests of 
 the vicinity to inaugurate some well-arranged and efficient plan to pro- 
 tect them from the flames which, kindled by accident or carelessness, 
 are not only a detriment to the legal owner of the forest but to the 
 whole community, for, in an important sense, the forests are common 
 property. By their beauty, their influence upon climate and water 
 supply, they are of benefit to all who live in sight of them and may be 
 to those more distant from them. All, therefore, ought to be ready to 
 make their preservation a common cause. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 55 
 
 STREET PLANTING. 
 
 Forests apart, if the question arises where to plaut, nearly all ^\'ill 
 say iilant along the borders of the streets. This is natural and right, 
 and so the tirst thing which the village iniproveuient societies, which 
 have sjn'irug up so abundantly of late, have done has been to plaut 
 trees on the roadsides. Unfortunately, also, this has too often been the 
 last thing. Village improvement has frequently exhausted itself by the 
 wayside. This speaks well for the general estimate of trees, however 
 it may speak for the people's estimate of what constitute the needs or 
 the possibilities of village life. 
 
 Lane at DarliBtitoii, Md. 
 
 Certainly no one thing adds so mnch to the appearance of town or 
 village, or alfords so much outward comfort to its people, as to have its 
 streets properly planted with trees. As a source of embellishment noth- 
 ing can surpass it. How much would it detract from the charm of 
 Washington, celebrated for beauty on account of its broad streets, ample 
 parks, and the plan on which they are constructed, if its 80,000 or more 
 trees which border those streets and adorn those parks were removed? 
 Washington would be distinctly another city than it now is. But what 
 is true of the NatioDal Capital is true of the smaller town or village. 
 The difference is not in kind, but only in scale or dimension. 
 
 In deciding, however, what trees are most desirable for street or 
 roadside planting, no little difflculty arises, ^o general list can be 
 
66 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 made for sucli an exteusive country as ours. Tree« which will grow 
 well aud are all that can be desired in one portion of it are not .suitable 
 for ancjther. Trees which are at home on the Pacific Coast will pine 
 away and die on the Atlantic. Even in localities separated by only 
 a few miles the saiue kinds of trees may not flourish. Diffeieuces of 
 soil and climate, or a particular exposure, determine to a great extent 
 what trees are to be chosen if we would be successful in our planting. 
 In cities, the prevalence of smoke in the atmosiihere, or the escape 
 of illumiuating or other gases, complicate the problem and make the 
 selection additionally difficult. 
 
 The American Forestry Association appointed a committee several 
 years ago for the purjiose of making a list of trees most desirable for 
 
 street tree phmtin 
 
 street planting, but the committee has not yet reported. To make a 
 list large enough for the whole country would be to include so many 
 trees that it would be of little use for any particuhir locality, and to 
 make one for a given ])lace would be of little use to the country at large. 
 Each locality must have its selection of trees jnade with reference to its 
 particular circumsta nces. 1 lappily, we have an uuusually large variety 
 of trees, excelling by far that of any other country, which admits a 
 choice of valuable kinds adapted to every situation. Trees can, indeed 
 bo acclimated, as people can, and when removed from their native places 
 to other and diiferent ones can bo made to adapt themselves to their new 
 enviroujnent. Their growth, however, is apt to bo more or less feeble 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 57 
 
 and unsatisfactory. Trees have their natural homes, in which they 
 attain their best development. The geologist, as ho may be traveling 
 swiftly over the country, can ascertain the character of the soil, its min- 
 eral composition, from the prevailing kinds of trees which from time to 
 time meet his sight. 
 
 Some trees are less particular than others in their choice of climatic 
 or soil conditions, and therefore are available for planting over a wider 
 range of territory and under a greater variety of exposure. They will 
 have their places, consequently, in many lists of desirable trees. 
 
 The Tree Planting and Fountain Society of Brooklyn, ISf. Y., a few 
 years ago sent a request to various nurserymen, landscape architects, 
 practical arboriculturists, and private citizens in different parts of the 
 country for a small list of what they deemed the most suitable trees to 
 be recommended "for planting on the streets of Brooklyn, a general 
 description of the character of the soil of the city having been sent 
 with the request. Three classes of trees were asked for — large, medium 
 sized, and smaller, for wide streets, narrow ones, and those of inter- 
 mediate width. The lists received were interesting as showing the vary- 
 ing estimates of the same tree by different persons and also the sub- 
 stantial agreement of the same persons in regard to a large number of 
 trees. 
 
 Fifteen lists were sent in, and in all about sixty trees were recom- 
 mended . Of these the Norway maple was most frequently found on the 
 lists, followed in the order of preference by the sugar maple, oriental 
 plane, laurel-leaved willow, silver maple, European linden, American 
 elm, sweet gum, catalpa, yellowwood, pin oak, white oak, American 
 linden, or basswood, hackberry, scotch elm, koelreuteria, and tulip 
 poplar. The other trees on the lists were named only iu one or two 
 instances each. 
 
 In another list, sent from the Division of Forestry of the Department 
 of Agriculture, and in which the rating of the trees was made up from 
 a consideration of eight separate points, viz, endurance, or ability to 
 withstand more or less unfavorable conditions, recuperative power, or 
 ability to heal wounds and outgrow other injuries, cleanliness, beauty 
 of form, abundance of shade, extent of the season when in leaf, rapid- 
 ity of growth, and length of life period, the trees stood rated in the 
 three classes thus : 
 
 LARGE-SIZED TKEES. 
 
 Red oak (Quercus rubra), 22. 
 Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea), 22. 
 Yellow oak {Quercus ttnctoria), 22. 
 American elm ( Vlmus americana), 22. 
 Siigar maple (Acer saccliarinum), 19. 
 Black maple (Acer nigrum), 19. 
 Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), 19. 
 European linden (Tilia vulgaris), 19. 
 Sweet gum (Liquidanibar slyraclflua), 19. 
 White oak (Quercus q,na), 19, 
 
 Burr oak (Quercus niacrocarpa) , 19. 
 
 Oriental plane tree (Platanus orientalis) , 
 19. 
 
 Kentucky coflfee tree ( Gymnocladus cana- 
 densis), 19. 
 
 American plane tree (Platanus occidenta- 
 lis), 18. 
 
 Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), 
 'l9. 
 
 American linden ( Tilia americana), 17. 
 
58 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 MEDIUM-SIZED TKEES. 
 
 Red maple (Acer rubrnm), 22. 
 Shingle oak {Quercua imbricaria), 21. 
 Willow oak (Qyercus pkellos), 21. 
 Slippery elm ( Ulmusfulva), 21. 
 Norway maple (Acer platanoides), 20. 
 Box elder (Negundo aceroides), 20. 
 European elm ( Ulmus campestris), 19. 
 Scotch elm ( Ulmus montana), 19. 
 Hackberry (Celtis ocvidentalia), 19. 
 Silver-leavedmaple (Acerdasycarpum), 17. 
 Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus glandulosus), 16. 
 
 Horse chestnut (^sculus hippocastanum), 
 
 16. 
 Japanese sophora (Sophora japonica), 16. 
 Hardy catalpa ( Galalpa specioaa) , 16. 
 Ginkgo or maiden hair tree (Ginkgo 
 
 biloia), 16. 
 Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthoa) , 15. 
 Cottonwood (Populus monilifera), 15. 
 Balm of Gilead (Populus balsamifera var. 
 
 candieana), 15. 
 Black locust (Rohinia pseudaeada), 14. 
 
 SMALL-SIZED TREES. 
 
 English maple (Acer campestre), 21. 
 Round-top locust (liohinia pseudacacia- 
 
 form), 18. 
 Red horse-chestnut (^aculua ruMcunda), 
 
 17. 
 Laurel-leaved willow (Salix pentandra), 
 
 17. 
 
 Bay willow (Salix laurifoUa), 17. 
 Green ash (Fraxinua viridia), 16. 
 European mountain ash (Sorhus aiicupa- 
 
 ria), 15. 
 American mountain ash (Pyrua ameri- 
 
 cana), 15. 
 Yellowwood (Cladastris tinctoria), 15. 
 
 The rating of trees in this list does not differ essentially from the 
 average rating of the lists already referred to. Such lists can not be 
 taken as authoritative or decisive, but only as helps. Persons of 
 equally good judgment will differ in their estimate of particular trees, 
 and time and trial will be needed in order to reach a final decision as 
 to the trees best adapted for use iu any given place. 
 
 It hardly needs to be said that it is only on broad streets or where 
 buildings are set well back from the street that such widespreadiug 
 trees as some of the oaks are desirable for planting; but the oaks are 
 among our best trees where there is room for them, and they should be 
 planted on our streets much more than they have been. For ordinary 
 streets, and especially for those which are narrow, such trees should be 
 chosen as do not grow to large size or such as are spiry topped. Of the 
 latter a new comer among us may be favorably mentioned, the ginkgo. 
 This is one of the few trees which it seems desirable to cultivate in addi- 
 tion to the large number of valuable native trees which we have. But 
 the peculiarity of its form and of its leaves, which mark a blending of 
 the broad-leafed and the needle-shaped leaves, and its wonderful golden 
 coloring in autumn, make it very attractive, and it is well adapted for 
 planting on narrow streets as well as singly in open, lawn-like spaces. 
 "Whoever has seen the avenue leading up to the main building of the 
 Department of Agriculture, which is bordered with the ginkgo, must 
 feel that it is one of the most desirable trees for similar use. What 
 degree of cold this tree will endure remains to be seen, but it is growing 
 well as far north as Boston. 
 
 A good word should be said also for the ailanthus. It was formerly 
 a favorite tree, but has been discarded on account of its unpleasant 
 odor in its flowering season. This, however, may be avoided by planting 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 69 
 
 only the pistillate trees, as the odor is noticeable from the staminate 
 trees only. Professor Sargent speaks of the ailanthus as "probably the 
 best street tree that has ever been used in northern cities." 
 
 PLANTING ON SCHOOL GROUNDS. 
 
 Where Arbor Day is observed by the schools it will, perhaps, aeem 
 that tree planting on the school grounds deserves consideration before 
 planting on the street borders; but the two are nearly related. If an 
 attempt is made to plant around the schoollioiTse, some street planting 
 ■will almost necessarily be done in 
 connection with it. Certainly the 
 pupils of any school should be en- 
 couraged to plant trees about the 
 building to which they come day 
 after day and where so much of 
 their time is spent. They should 
 be encouraged to make it beauti- 
 ful and attractive now with foli- 
 age and flowers, and a place to 
 which they may look back in after 
 life with pleasant memories. 
 
 Even the smallest school ground 
 is large enough to admit some em- 
 bellishment of tree or shrub, and 
 even a single tree will add attract- 
 iveness to the place. Such a tree 
 planted by the children them- 
 selves will be regarded as their 
 common property. All will be in- 
 terested in it and will combine to 
 protect it and give it all needed 
 care. In so doing they will learn 
 manifold lessons in regard to tree 
 
 growth and habits, in regard also to the ways of the birds and insects 
 which will frequent it. While they are cultivating the tree they may 
 also be cultivating in themselves the best traits of character and gain- 
 ing as much as from their books. But it is to be hoped that most of 
 our school grounds are ample enough to admit of a considerable number 
 of trees and shrubs and flowery plants besides. Then there will be 
 opportunity for planting a variety of trees and for a careful study in 
 order to select the best, both for beauty and for adaptation to the place 
 where they are to stand and grow. Care should be taken that the plant- 
 ing of the school grounds shall not be done hastily or without due con- 
 sideration, nor that too much be done in a single season. Leave some 
 work to be done In coming years to give new zest to the Arbor Day 
 exercises. One tree well chosen and well planted is worth a dozen or a 
 score selected and planted as trees often are. 
 
60 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 Witli many persons a tree is a tree, and peculiarities of nature or 
 habit of growtli are taken little account of. It is enough also with 
 many, in planting, if a hole is made in the ground and the roots of the 
 tree, many or few, are thrust into it and. hastily covered with earth 
 again. One of the most difficult things to do is to get a tree properly 
 planted, and yet tree planting is a very simple thing. It consists in 
 taking a tree out of the ground without injury and placing it in the 
 ground again in another place also without injury, and with a corre- 
 sponding connection with the soil such as it had before. This simply 
 requires time, patience, and care. Yet in planting a single tree a boy 
 may learn a lesson of lifelong value to him. 
 
 The life of a tree depends upon its roots. Through them it gets its 
 nourishment. But it is not through those which are large and most 
 visible. It is through the finest roots, and still more the scarcely vis- 
 ible root hairs which are most abundant on the fibrous rootlets. The 
 large roots serve as braces to hold the tree in erect position and keep 
 it from being swayed and overthrown by the winds, and also as conduits 
 through which the water and nourishment gathered by the rootlets are 
 conveyed to the stem and thence to the branches and leaves. The large 
 roots are of no use in securing the life of the newly planted tree or pro- 
 moting its growth, if the rootlets are broken off or left behind when the 
 tree is taken from its original place. 
 
 Hence the need of time and care in undertaking this removal. The 
 roots, even in a young tree, will have spread to a considerable distance 
 from the stem and to follow them and detach them from the soil adher- 
 ing to them without breaking the tender threads is not easy. It is 
 necessarily a slow though a simple process, and we are apt to be impatient 
 and wish to do the work quickly. But the old proverb, "Haste makes 
 waste," is as true here as anywhere. So is another that "What is 
 worth doing is worth doing well." To plant a tree properly, so that it 
 sliall go on to grow vigorously and as though nothing had happened to 
 impair its vitality, instead of barely making a feeble show of life for a 
 while only to have a lingering death, is to give the pupils of a school 
 an object lesson to last them and be of use to them for a lifetime. To 
 make the lesson the more obvious and impressive, let them, under the 
 guidance of the teacher or some one accustomed to handle trees, plant 
 one properly, first preparing the ground where it is to have its new 
 home, by excavating a sufficiently large hole to receive all the roots of 
 the tree with space enough beyond to allow their unimpeded growth 
 for years to come, carefully reducing the earth to such a fine condi- 
 tion that it can be brought into close contact with the smallest roots. 
 Then, having selected the tree beforehand, let it be so taken from the 
 ground aa to preserve all the thread-like roots and replaced as soon as 
 possible in the ground prepared for it, the roots being carefully spread out 
 and the fine, soft soil everywhere brought into close contact with them. 
 
 Now, to make more clear the advantage of such a planting, it may be 
 well to plant another tree in the way that trees are so commonly planted. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 61 
 
 Let some ordinary workman be sent to bring a tree from the woods. 
 He will probably, with three or four thrusts of his sharp spade, sever 
 the main roots of the tree at about the distance of a foot from the stem 
 and then wrench the tree from the ground, rudely breaking off what 
 roots have not been cut already, and will bear off the tree with a tri- 
 umphant feeling that he was stronger than its "plaguey roots." Then 
 he will make a hole in the ground just. large enough to permit him to 
 crowd the lacerated roots into it, with much twisting and turning, and 
 then, heaping upon them the hard, lumpy ground, he will stamp it upon 
 the roots and consider the tree planted, as he will say, perhaps, "m less 
 than no time." It would have been better, probably, if he had not spent 
 even so much time as he has upon it, as the school children will be 
 likely to see to their satisfaction before the summer is over; but they 
 may also learn a lesson in tree planting worth the cost of the life of 
 one tree. It has been stated recently, on good authority, as an illus- 
 tration of improper planting, that of some hundred trees planted a few 
 years ago on the streets near Morningside Park, New York, every one 
 has died or been removed because of its diseased or dilapidated con 
 tion, and replaced by another. 
 
 Prof. J. T. Eothrock, forest commissioner of Pennsylvania, in reply 
 to a request for some suggestions in regard to the most profitable 
 observance of Arbor Day, sends the following, bearing on this subject, 
 which is most timely: 
 
 In my judgment, one of the most important factors in Arbor Day celebration is 
 space. We have had but few Arbor Day celebrations as yet in this State ; yet, as I 
 go over the Commonwealth, I find that already the question presses, Where to plant 
 next year's trees in many of our contracted school grounds? The fact is, we have 
 nowhere in this country recognized as we should how important it is to have large 
 areas attached to our schools. There should be room for all legitmiate plaj'S ; ample 
 space for a typical, well -grown specimen of each species of native tree. Then, there 
 should be a nursery where each child could plant seeds and nuts o f our trees and watch 
 them sprout and push out of the ground and see by what steps they became trees. 
 
 Furthermore, this school lot should not be the refuse land of a school district. It 
 should he well situated, have abundant water, and as much variety of soil and 
 exposure as possible. It is clear, if these suggestions have any value, that 5 acres is 
 the least space that any country schoolhouse should have. 
 
 It is time for us to recognize the fact that ground dedicated to educational pur- 
 poses should be as sacred as if act apart for a, church. We should look down the 
 coming centuries in forming our plans for it, and anticipate and prepare for a time 
 when mature oaks will transmit the love and traditions of the place from one gener- 
 ation to the next. The school located in such surroundings would soon come to be 
 recognized as a valuable possession. It would be the one cheerful spot in which the 
 whole community had an ownership, the place of dejiosit of the public library, and 
 the place where the public meetings would be held. 
 
 This may all seem utopian. But it is coming. The very hardest lesson for us all 
 to learn is that the world moves faster than we do. More than this, it moves in 
 spite of us, and the next century will probably not be very old before it has moved 
 into a higher appreciation of the value of large and well-kept school grounds. Our 
 successors will feel that space which is too small, and land that is too poor to 
 attempt to raise a crop of grain upon, is also wholly inadequate to the larger work 
 of raising a crop of vigorous, liberal-minded, law-abiding citizens upon. 
 
62 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 PLANTING ON LAWNS AND IN PARKS. 
 
 After what lias beeu said of plauting on streets and school grounds 
 little needs to be added in regard to tree planting on larger spaces, 
 such as lawns, parks, and other open places. The same trees may be 
 used in general, but no such restrictions being necessitated as iu the 
 case of street planting, the selection may be made from a greater num- 
 ber of trees. For example, trees whose beauty depends upon their 
 branches starting near the ground, so that the tree will be a solid mass 
 of verdure resting upon the earth's surface, are not appropriate for 
 street plantiDg, where the branches must all be so high from the ground 
 
 All iild MaiTie homestead. 
 
 as to admit of unimpeded passage under them. Many other trees also 
 would be misplaced upon a street border which are well adapted for 
 use on a lawn or other open space. 
 
 Ko such uniformity in size or habit of growth is necessary in the case 
 of lawn or park jilantations, as in roadside ])lauting. Landscape eflects 
 are here to be sought, and in securing them there is no limit hardly in the 
 choice of trees, except in their adajitation to the soil and climate of the 
 l)lace t(i be planted. Here, as in all cases of planting, the first choice 
 of trees should be made from those which are indigenous to the locality. 
 This being done, others may be brought from a distance for the sake 
 of increasing variety, or on account of their special merits, care being 
 
ARBOE DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 63 
 
 taken to procure them from localities corresponding as nearly as may be 
 in climatic and soil conditions to the region where it is proposed to 
 plant them. 
 
 AIDS TO SUCCESS IN PLANTING. 
 
 It will conduce much to success in planting if trees are procured from 
 nurseries rather than from the woodlands or other uncultivated places. 
 In the nursery grounds the soil is in a light and soft condition, and the 
 trees as they grow are frequently transplanted. This occasions a dense 
 root growth close to the stem, and it enables the tree to be taken from 
 the ground with comparatively little danger of breaking the roots, and 
 the replanting is also accomplished with the greater facility. 
 
 Another aid to success, that is, to secure a healthy and vigorous 
 growth of trees, will be found in giving them an ample bed of deeply 
 trenched and well-broken soil when the planting takes place; and if 
 the soil is poor or of too hard and compact a character, by removing 
 it and putting in its place a liberal supply of soil of better structure 
 and abounding in plant food. The present labor and expense involved 
 in doing this will be amply compensated by the appearance of the 
 trees in the subsequent years of their growth. The chief dependence 
 of trees for the promotion of their growth is a sufficient supply of 
 water, out of the constituents of which their bodies are largely built 
 up, and which is the vehicle by means of which the mineral food in the 
 soil is conveyed to all parts of their structure. 
 
 It is more important, therefore, that the soil should be of proper 
 physical structure than that it should abound in desirable mineral 
 ingredients. If the soil is hard or clayey, so that water can not pene- 
 trate it readily, or if it is coarse-grained and very jiorous, so that water 
 falling upon it sinks rapidly to the depths below, the roots of trees will 
 fail to obtain such a supply of moisture as is needful for a vigorous 
 growth. They will have but a feeble vitality. Hence the need of 
 having a soil which is of such texture as readily to admit the rains 
 which fall upon it and yet such as to prevent the water from rapidly 
 passing out of reach of the roots. In proportion as the soil is fine it 
 presents a larger surface of moisture to the minute roots of plants. 
 
 It will conduce to the proper supply of moisture also if the ground 
 above the tree roots, especially at the first planting, is covered with a 
 mulch of straw or litter of some sort which, by shielding it from sun 
 and wind, will prevent the evaporation of moisture from the soil and to 
 that extent increase the amount at the disposal of the trees. Few 
 understand how much water is removed from the ground by the influ- 
 ence of the sun and winds, especially the latter. One of the chief diffi- 
 culties in the way of securing a desirable tree growth in many parts of 
 the country, particularly on the Western plains, arises from the prev- 
 alence of strong and often hot winds. In the existing forests the trees 
 are protected from the effects of evaporation by the canopy of shade 
 afforded by their leafy tops and by the mulch of fallen leaves accumu- 
 
64 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 lated year by year at their base. Where there are not reasons forbid- 
 ding it we can do nothing better to promote the healthful growth of the 
 trees we plant than to allow the annual fall of leaves to remain upon 
 the ground above the roots and thus form a perpetual mulch of protec- 
 tion for the trees. 
 
 METHOD OF PLANTING. 
 
 Little is necessary to be added to what has been said in different 
 parts of this pamphlet as to the proper method of planting. The whole 
 matter may be summed up by saying that a tree or plant should be 
 taken from the ground with as little disturbance or impairment of its 
 root system as possible and set in its new place of growth with such 
 care as not to harm its roots, but to bring them all into close contact 
 with the soil, by pressing it firmly around and upon them, thus giving 
 them opportunity at every point to absorb from the particles of soil the 
 moisture necessary for the steady and healthful growth of the tree, 
 and leaving no vacant spaces to ijromote decay or lessen the supply 
 of moisture. This is the most important thing to be secured. Oare 
 should be taken also iu conveying the tree from the place from which 
 it is taken to the place of planting not to allow the roots to become dry 
 by exposure either to the sun or the wind. Especially should it be so 
 in the case of evergreen trees, which have a resinous sap. If this sap 
 becomes hardened by exposure to sun or wind, it is nearly impossible 
 to restore its fluid condition so that it will perform its part in the cir- 
 culatory system, and the tree may be considered dead already. 
 
 OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 
 
 The State of Nebraska having, a few years 
 ago, made its Arbor Day to coincide with Mr. 
 Morton's birthday, the editor of one of its news- 
 papers issued, in 1888, a special Arbor Day num- 
 ber of his paper. Prominent among the features 
 of that issue was a collection of letters received, in 
 response to the editor's invitation, from a large num- 
 ber of persons distinguished in public life or otherwise, 
 expressing their appreciation of Arbor Day and their 
 regard for its author. It seemed that the sentiments therein 
 expressed, which so justly set forth the merits and importance 
 of Arbor Day, ought on that account to have a place in the 
 present publication. Portions of a few of the many letters received are 
 therefore inserted here: 
 
 I willingly confess so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to respect a mau in 
 exact proportion to his respect for them. He can not be wholly bad who has a 
 sympathy with what is so innocent and so beautiful. But quite apart from any 
 sentimental consideration, the iuilueuce of trees upon climate and rainfall gives to 
 
ARBOE DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 65 
 
 the planting of trees, and to the protection of them where nature LaB already 
 planted them, a national importance. Our wicked wastefulness and contempt for 
 the teaching of science in this matter will most surely be avenged on our descend- 
 ants. Nature may not instantly rebuke, but she never forgives, the breach of her 
 laws. 
 
 I am glad, therefore, to join in this tribute of friendly gratitude to the inventor of 
 Arbor Day. I think that no man does anything more visibly useful to posterity than 
 he who plants a tree. I should answer the cynic's question, " What has posterity 
 done for me that I should do anything for it?" by saying that it is all the pleasanter 
 to do somethi ng for those who can do nothing for us. 
 
 Marco Polo relates that the great Kublai Khan planted trees the more willingly 
 because " his astrologers and diviners told him that they who planted trees lived 
 long." Let me hope that this may prove true in the case of Mr. Morton. — James 
 Eussell Lowell. 
 
 No instructed agriculturist is unacquainted with the ameliorating influence on 
 climate, rainfall, freshet, windstorms, etc., produced by the liberal planting of trees 
 on waste lands. The cheering thing has been that the same wise ideas have crept 
 into the minds of our people and made them set resolutely to work in carrying out 
 the simple, practical, and benignant suggestion of Mr. Morton. 
 
 An essay might be written on this topic by any thoughtful man acquainted with 
 the phenomena of meteorology, and if Mr. Morton's plan shall be persevered in by 
 the whole country, nature herself will write that essay in beautiful style before a 
 quarter of a century is passed. — George H. Boker. 
 
 The best and highest thing a man can do in a day is to sow a seed, whether it be 
 in the shape of "■ word, an act, or an acorn. Last year, ou less than half an acre of 
 ground, at my summer home by the seaside at Hull, I planted 227 individual lives, 
 of creeper, shrubs, and tree. All through the winter, from the city, my mind reached 
 out, as it were, to observe and care for the young things in their strange soil. Last 
 week I went to see them, and Mr. Morton will know the thrill of pleasure, unlike 
 all other pleasures, which came from the signs of health and growth in the plants. — 
 John Boyle O'Reilly. 
 
 It is not very long since, especially in the Eastern States, when the enemy of the 
 tree was considered the friend of the human race, but the time has now come when 
 the friend of the tree is the friend of the race. 
 
 Mr. Morton deserves the gratitude of the whole land. How many naked spots on 
 this vast continent will be clothed in verdure by reason of his happy suggestion ! 
 The birds and animals, as well as the people, profit by his wise forethought. Every 
 tree planted upon this day will serve to keep green his memory. — John Barroughs. 
 
 If, as has been wisely said, he is a public benefactor who causes two blades of 
 grass to grow where only one grew before, we well may honor the man to whom his 
 country will owe, in the near future, so many beautiful groves and orchards and 
 trees, blessing with their shade its village streets. — J. T. Trowbridge. 
 
 Most of the States have sinking funds with which to provide for debts not yet due. 
 It would be a simple and wise policy for a State to invest a considerable sum annu- 
 ally from its sinking fund in forest. Individuals hesitate about a form of investment 
 which does not pay for many years. A State need not hesitate, because it does not 
 need the money for many years. A State has also the power to make and enforce 
 the laws which will protect its forests. — Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 The practice of systematic tree planting is a most excellent one, and those who 
 have encouraged and promoted it deserve well of their country. I am very glad 
 that the West has been roused to a sense of the importance of planting trees, and 
 hope that all parts of the country will soon feel the necessity of preserving them.— 
 Fiancis Parkman. 
 
 10578 5 
 
66 AHBOE DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 The material benefits of Arbor Day alone are incalculable, for it makes the barren 
 land fertile and the desert plain green with beauty. 
 
 But these material benefits, great as they are, are small compared with the moral 
 effect on the mind and heart of the people. In the young, especially, it enriches the 
 taste, cultivates the love of beauty, and provides pleasant, healthful impressions 
 that never will be obliterated. The love of trees, I think, has a more elevating 
 effect than even the love of flowers ; it is more strong and invigorating. 
 
 Besides all these inmiediate benefits. Arbor Day reaches far beyond the localities 
 where it is observed. The young, gatJ;Lered in certain sections, eventually become 
 scattered and have homes of their own. The influence of this day will foUow them 
 there, and under the influence of their early cherished impressions trees will be 
 planted, not only around their dwellings, but along the roads and water courses of 
 the place in which they live, and thus cover the land with beauty and blessing. 
 
 All honor, then, to the founder of Arbor Day. The sculptor's art could not erect 
 so noble a monument to his memory as loving hands and hearts are rearing and shall 
 rear to it all over this barren land. — J. T. Headley. 
 
 All lovers of nature may well rejoice in the establishment of Arbor Day, and join 
 in doing honor to the founder of an institution so beneficent. — Thomas Wentworth 
 Higginson. 
 
 Whatever makes a village or town more attractive promotes that local pride and 
 pnblic spirit which are the vital and conservative forces of a great republic ; and, if 
 the planter of one shade tree is a public benefactor, what shall we gay of him who 
 stimulates the planting of whole groves and forests t — Greorge William Curtis. 
 
 The observance of Arbor Day is aiding in bringing about a realization of the needs 
 of our forestry interests, and will ultimately make the whole country equal to the 
 occasion of a methodical, systematic forestry management. — B. E. Femow. 
 
 Many people, often among the most intelligent, when they first hear of Arbor Day, 
 look upon it as a kind of sentimental feast quite out of date in our matter-of-fact 
 generation, but upon a closer inspection they soon discover its practical value. — 
 H. G. Joly. 
 
 Prior to 1872 no system of forestry had been attempted in the United States. 
 The spasmodic efforts of tree planting upon a small scale, with very rare exceptions, 
 were attended with the most unsatisfactory results. 
 
 Forests were cut away without system and without thought of future conditioner 
 wants until it was self-evident that unless some judicious and comprehensive forest 
 policy was adopted, this continent, once bristling with its primeval forests, would 
 be permanently deprived of an element which constitutes a most important part 
 in the economy of nature. 
 
 Forestry, no less than science, is a development of civilization. Colbert was 
 instrumental in preventing the useless waste of the forests of the old world, but the 
 honor of bequeathing to future generations an invaluable legacy of the perpetuation 
 of forests was reserved for a phila^nthropist of a more advanced age. 
 
 There is no State in the Union but needs such a legacy, and when that which is 
 now observed in twenty-eight States becomes a national holiday, then will each citi- 
 zen have left to him and to his heirs forever, under a seal greater than that of Csesar's, 
 "private arbors and new-planted orchards." 
 
 If a John Howard, ameliorating the evils of convict life and alleviating the suffer- 
 ings of prisoners, can be called the "world's philanthrspist,'' surely he who origi- 
 nates measures which tend directly to the improvement and fertility of the land and 
 the wealth and comfort of the inhabitants, adding as many dollars to the world's 
 exchequer as the mines of uncoined ore produce, and more rays to the brightness of 
 the world's civilization than the electric spark has generated, is not least among 
 fellow men, — A. J. Sawyer. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 67 
 
 No man now living has done moie to beautify and enrich his State and country 
 than he. Millions upon millions of green and living monuments attest his fore- 
 thought and his worth ; and as these trees grow and expand in beauty, so will the 
 love of this great benefactor increase in the hearts of our people. — John B. Peaslee. 
 
 The wisdom and pertinency of Jonathan Swift's saying may now well be recalled: 
 "And he gave for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn or two 
 blades of grass to grow on a spot of ground where only one grew before would 
 deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the 
 whole race of politicians put together." 
 
 If this were true of two ears of corn or blades of grass, how much more of a 
 tree.— T. F. Bayard. 
 
 Tribute of fruits be his, and glossy wreaths 
 
 From roadside trees, and his the people's love, 
 When east and west the wind of summer breathes 
 
 Through orchard, shaded path, and sighing grove. 
 
 — [E. C. Stedman. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR PROGRAMMES. 
 
 It is not necessary to give even a specimen pro- 
 gramme for the observance of Arbor Day. If 
 any attention to the subject is given beforehand 
 a teacher can hardly fail to arrange a scheme 
 of exercises that will be both interesting and 
 profitable, and the pupils will not be slow to 
 offer suggestions which wiU be worthy of consid- 
 eration, and the more they are allowed to have 
 a voice in the arrangements the more interested will they be in the actual 
 doings of the day, and the more beneficial also will these be to them. 
 
 The exercises will naturally begin with the reading of the proclama- 
 tion of the governor of the State or of the superintendent of public 
 instruction, by which the day is fixed, or by the law setting apart the 
 day for special uses. Any or all of these may be read. They will give 
 dignity and impressiveness to the whole service. One or more selec- 
 tions from the Bible, indicating the high moral and religious lessons 
 which the trees afford and the conspicuous place which they have in 
 our sacred Scriptures, may fitly follow. 
 
 Other particular features of the Arbor Day exercises will be deter- 
 mined by the character of the school, the age of the pupils, the studies 
 they are commonly engaged with, and various other considerations. 
 
 Teachers will bear in mind that the observance of Arbor Day has 
 behind it a serious purpose, and that it is not simply an occasion for 
 the children "to have a good time." It looks to their education in what 
 is highest and noblest, to bring their minds into contact with the best 
 thoughts of other minds, and kindle in them the purest and best feel- 
 ings. It aims to open their hearts to the sweet and precious lessons 
 which come from intercourse with nature, to make them unselfish, con- 
 
68 ARBOB DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 siderate of one another and of all around them, and to prepare them to 
 lead noble and useful lives. 
 
 In view of the duties of citizenship which are soon to devolve upon 
 them care should be taken to make the patriotic feature of the exer- 
 cises for A.rbor Day prominent. Trees should be planted in memory 
 of men who have iiobly served their country. Patriotic songs should 
 be sung, and the national flag should be displayed in the schoolhouse 
 and on the march to plant the trees. Selections abounding in patriotic 
 sentiments should also be read or recited. We have given a few speci- 
 mens of appropriate character from various authors and have made 
 reference to more, but the pupils should be encouraged to find others 
 8tm. 
 
 The endeavor should be made to give the exercises a varied char- 
 acter, adapting them to the younger pupils not less than to the older. 
 On this account songs and recitations of light and seemingly, perhaps, 
 of somewhat trivial character may be allowed a place in company with 
 those of higher grade. Let the youngest pupils become interested in 
 Arbor Day as soon as possible, if it be only at first by songs of birds 
 and flowers. 
 
 The programme for the day's observance will be imperfect if it does 
 not include as one of its items an account given by some pupil of the 
 object of Arbor Day, describing its origin and purpose, and the ends 
 which are sought to be accomplished by it. This should be kept in 
 mind by distinct reference to it from year to year. 
 
 In places so large that the schools can not well be combined in cele- 
 brating Arbor Day it will conduce to the greater interest and resulting 
 benefit of the exercises if a generous rivalry is stimulated between the 
 schools in the endeavor to see which will have the most interesting and 
 pleasing programme. 
 
 Many schools have been accustomed to adopt by vote some tree as 
 their emblematic tree or badge. This naturally causes the pupils to 
 give special attention to that particular tree and on Arbor Day to 
 make it the subject of essays, recitations, and songs, thus giving it the 
 chief place in the exercises. The result may easily be made to be such 
 a knowledge of that particular tree as will be pleasant and valuable for 
 a lifetime. The choice of other trees in the same way from year to 
 year will form a very pleasing method of learning to distinguish the 
 various species of trees from each other and to know their habits and 
 uses. 
 
 It is desirable that an address, or more than one, by some thoughtful 
 person, invited for the occasion, should form a feature of the day's 
 exercises. But the pupils should be expected to furnish essays for the 
 occasion on appropriate subjects, and to prepare them carefully. There 
 is given in this bulletin a considerable list of such subjects, but one by 
 no means exhaustive, only suggestive of the many which readily offer 
 themselves for consideration. 
 
ARBOR DAT ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 69 
 
 Then there is a large field for recitations and declamations appropriate 
 for the day. A considerable -number of such may be gathered from the 
 essays in the earlier part of this publication, but our literature abounds 
 with them, and teachers should encourage their pupils to become 
 familiar with them, committing many of them to memory, thereby 
 enriching their minds with gems of thought to be their delightful pos- 
 session for life and a constant incentive to what is noblest, purest, and 
 best. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS READINGS. 
 
 We can hardly see or think of trees without being reminded of Mr. Lowell. He 
 was eminently a lover of trees, and they were the inspiration of some of his best prose 
 and poetry. This love of trees led him to call his pleasant place of residence, in 
 Cambridge, "Elmwood." And no memorial of him would be more accordant with 
 his own feelings than a growing tree. This is abundantly shown by the following 
 letter, written only a few years ago, when it was proposed in one of our schools to 
 plant on Arbor Day a tree in his memory : 
 
 *'I can think of no more pleasant way of being remembered than by the planting 
 of a tree. Like whatever things are perennially good, it will be growing w^hilo we 
 are sleeping, and will survive us to make others happier. Birds will rest in it and 
 fly thence with messages of good cheer. I should be glad to think that any word 
 or deed of mine could be such a perennial presence of beauty, or show so benign a 
 destiny." 
 
 THE OAK. 
 
 "What gnarled stretch, what depth of shade is hist 
 
 There needs no crown to mark the forest's king; 
 How in his leaves outahines full summer's bliss! 
 
 Sun, storm, rain, dew, to him their tribute bring, 
 "Which he, with such benignant royalty 
 
 Accepts, as overpayeth what is lent; 
 All nature seems his vassal proud to he, 
 
 And cunning only for his ornament. 
 
 How towers he, too, amid the billowed snows, 
 
 An unquelled exile from the summer's throne, 
 "Whose plain, uncioctured front more kingly shows, 
 
 Now that the obscuring courtier leaves are flown. 
 His boughs make music of the winter air, 
 
 Jeweled with sleet, like some cathedral front 
 "Where clinging snowflakes, with quaint art, repair 
 
 The dents and farrows of Time's envious brunt. 
 
 How doth bis patient strength the rude March wind 
 
 Persuade to seem glad breaths of summer breezOi 
 And win the soil that fain would be unkind, 
 
 To swell his revenues with proud increase! 
 He is the gem; and all the landscape wide 
 
 (So doth his grandeur isolate the sense) 
 Seems but the setting, worthless all beside, 
 
 An empty socket, were he fallen thence. 
 
 So, from oft converse with life's wintry galea, 
 
 Should man learn how to clasp with tougher roots 
 The inspiring earth — how otherwise avails 
 
 The leaf-creating sap that sunward shoots? 
 So every year that falls with noiseless flake 
 
 Should flU old Bears up on the stormward sido, 
 And make hoar age revered for age's sake, 
 
 XTot for traditions of youth's leafy prido. 
 
70 
 
 ARBOR DAY ITS HJBTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 So, from the pinched soil of a churlish fate, 
 
 True, hearts compel the sap of sturdier growth. 
 So between earth and heaven stand simply great, 
 
 That these shall seem hut their attendants both; 
 For nature's forces, with obedient zeal 
 
 AVait on the rooted faith and oaken will, 
 As quickly the preteuder's cheat they feel, 
 
 And turn mad I*acks to flout and mock him still. 
 
 Lord ! all Thy works are lessons— each contains 
 
 Some emblem of man's all-containing soul; 
 Shall he make fruitless all Thy glorious pains. 
 
 Delving within Thy grace an eyeless mole f 
 Make me the least of Thy Bodona-grove, 
 
 Cause me some message of Thy truth to bring, 
 Speak but a word through me, nor let Thy love 
 
 Among my boughs disdain to perch and sing. 
 
 -[James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Live oak true, Audubon Park, New Orleans, antedating the settlement uf that euuutry. 
 
 UNDER THE WILLOWS. 
 
 This willow is as old to me as life; 
 
 And under it inll often have I stretched, 
 
 Feeling the warm earth like a thing alive. 
 
 And gathering virtue in at every pore 
 
 Till it possessed me wholly, and thought ceased, 
 
 Or was transfused in something to ^\hich thought 
 
 Is coarse and (lull of sense. Myself was lost, 
 
 Gone from me like an ache, and what remained 
 
 Became a part of the universal joy. 
 
 My soul went forth, and, mingling with the trev\ 
 
 Danced in the leaves ; or, floating in the cloud, 
 
 Saw its white double in the stream below. 
 
 -[Lowell. 
 
ABBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 71 
 
 BENEATH THE SHADOW OP OAKS. 
 
 I thank heaven every summer's day of ray life that my lot was humbly cast within 
 the hearing of romping brooks, and beneath the shadow of oaks, and away from all 
 the tramp and bustle of the world, into which fortune has led me in these latter 
 years of my life. I delight to steal away for days and for weeks together, and bathe 
 my spirit in the freedom of the old woods, and to grow young again lying upon the 
 brookside, and counting the white clouds that sail along the sky, softly and tran- 
 quilly, even as holy memories go stealing over the vault of life, — Donald Gr. Mitchell. 
 
 QUALITY BETTER THAN QUANTITY. 
 
 Not merely growing like a tree 
 
 In bulk doth make man better be 
 
 Or standing long an oak three hundred years, 
 
 To fall a log at last, dry, bald and sear, 
 
 A lily of a day is fairer far in May. 
 
 Althongh it fall and die that night, 
 
 It was the plant and flower of light ; 
 
 In small proportions we just beauties see 
 
 And in short measure life may perfect be. 
 
 — [Ben Jonson. 
 
 THE TASTE FOR TREES. 
 
 There is something noble, simple, and pure in a taste for trees. It argues, I think, 
 a sweet and generous nature to have this strong relish for beauties of vegetation, and 
 this friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest. There is a grandeur 
 of thought connected with this part of rural economy. It is worthy of liberal and 
 freeborn and aspiring men. He who plants an oak looks forward to future ages, and 
 
 plants for posterity. Nothing can be less seltish than this. He cannot expect to sit 
 in its shade nor enjoy its shelter, but he exults in the idea that the acorn which he 
 has buried in the earth shall grow up into a lofty pile and shall keep on flourishing 
 and increasing and benefiting mankind long after he shall have ceased to tread his 
 paternal fields, — ^Washington Irving. 
 
 ACCORDANCE OP NATURE. 
 
 For Nature beats in perfect tune, 
 
 And rounds with rhyme her every rune, 
 
 Whether she work in land or sea, 
 
 Or hide tindergronnd her alchemy. 
 
 Thou cans't not wave thy staft" in air, 
 
 Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
 
 But it carves the bow of beauty there, 
 
 And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake. 
 
 The wood ia wiser far than thou ; 
 
 The wood and wave each other know. 
 
 Not unrelated, uuaified, 
 
 But to each thought and thing allied. 
 
 Is perfect Nature's every part, 
 
 Booted in the mighty Heart. . 
 
 — [Emerson. 
 
72 A.RBOR DAY— ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 DOING GOOD. 
 
 When we plant a tree we are doiug what we can to mate our planet a more whole, 
 some and happier dwelling place for those who come after us, if not for ourselves. — 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 NOBILITY. 
 
 True worth is ia being, not seeming. 
 
 In doing each day that goes by 
 Some little good — not in the dreaming 
 
 Of great things to do by and by. 
 
 — [Alice Gary, 
 
 THE BANK OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 While I live, I trust I shall have my trees, ray peaceful idyllic landscape, my free 
 country life, at least half the year; and while I possess so much, » * • I shall own 
 100,000 shares in the Bank of Contentment. — Bayard Taylor. 
 
 TREES COMPOSITE BEINGS. 
 
 A tree is a composite heing ; a kind of community by itself. The leaves and limbs 
 are all the time striving with each other to see which shall have the most room and 
 the most sunshine. Each strives for all he can get. While some perish in the 
 attempt, or meet with only very indifTerent success, the strongest of the strongest 
 bnds survive. Each leaf helps to sustain the limb which carries it, and each limb 
 furnishes some uovirishment to the common trunk for the common welfare. The tax 
 is always adjusted according to the ability of each to contribute. As the limbs of 
 a tree are constantly striving for the mastery, so each bush and tree in grove or forest 
 is striving with others for the mastery. The weakest succumb to the strongest; 
 some perish early; som» lead a feeble existence for many years, while even the 
 strongest are more or less injured. With plenty of room, the trunk will be short, 
 the branches many and widespread; where crowded, the lower limbs perish for want 
 of light. Dead limbs fall to the ground to protect and enrich it for nourishing the 
 surviving limbs and the trunk. The scars heal over, more limbs perish .as new ones 
 creep upward, and thus we find tall, clean trunks in a dense forest.^Anon. 
 
 TEACHING. 
 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good, 
 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 —[■Wordsworth. 
 
 OBSERVATION. 
 
 It is better to know the habits of one plant than the names of a thonsand; and 
 wiser to be happily familiar with those that grow in the nearest field than arduously 
 cii^uizant of all that plume the isles of the Pacific or illumine the Mountains of the 
 Moon. — Ruskin. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 73 
 
 LEAF-TONGUES OP THE FOREST. 
 
 The leaf-tODgues of tlie forest, the flower- 
 lips of the sod, 
 
 The happy hirds that hymn their rapture in 
 the ear of God, 
 
 The summer wind that bringeth music over 
 land and sea, 
 
 Have each a voice that singeth this sweet 
 song of songs to me ; 
 
 "This world is full of beauty, like other 
 worlds above 
 
 And if we did our duty, it might be full of 
 
 love." — [Gerald Kassey. 
 
 LESSONS OF THE TREES. 
 
 I shall speak of trees as we see them, love them, adore them in the fields where 
 they are alive, holding their green sunshades over our heads, talking to us with 
 their hundred thousand whispering tongues, looking down on us with that sweet 
 meekness which belongs to huge but limited organism — which one sees most in the 
 patient posture, the outstretched arms, and the heavy drooping robes of these vast 
 beings, endowed with life, but not with soul — which outgrow us and outlive us, but 
 stand helpless, poor things, while nature dresses and undresses them. — Holmes. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS. 
 
 Keeping up a fit proportion of forests to arable land is the prime condition of 
 human health. If the trees go, men must decay. Whosoever works for the forests 
 works for the happiness and permanence of our civilization. A tree may be an 
 obstruction, but it is never useless. Now is the time to work if we are to be blessed 
 and not cursed by the people of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The nation 
 that neglects its forests is surely destined to ruin. — Hon. Elizur Wright. 
 
 NATURE'S BOOK. 
 
 ***** 
 
 And Nature, the old Durse, took 
 
 The child upon ber knee, 
 Saying : ' ' Here la a storybook 
 
 Thy Father has written for thee." 
 
 "Come, wander with me," she said, 
 *'Into regions yet untrod; 
 And read what is still unread 
 In the manuscripts of God." 
 
 And he wandered away and away 
 
 "With Nature, the dear old nurse, 
 "Who sang to him night and day 
 
 The rhymes of the universe. 
 
 And whenever the way seemed long» 
 
 Or his heart began to fail, 
 She would sing a more wonderful song, 
 
 Os tell a more marvelous tale. 
 • • * * * 
 
 —Longfellow— "The Fiftieth Birthday of Agaasie." 
 
74 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 BEST GIFTS, 
 
 Gifts that grow are bests 
 
 Hands that bless are blest; 
 
 Plant : Life does the rest ! 
 Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree, 
 And his work its own reward shall be. 
 
 — [Liicy Larcom. 
 
 SYMPATHY WITH TREES. 
 
 I care uot how men trace their ancestry, 
 
 To apu or Adam; let them please their whim) 
 
 But 1 in June am midway to believe 
 
 A tree among my far progenitors, 
 
 Such sympathy is mine with all the race, 
 
 Such mutual recognition vaguely aweet 
 
 Xhere is between as. 
 
 —[Lowell, 
 
 BRYANT, THE POET OF TREES. 
 
 "ItispleaRnnt/'asMr. George W. Curtis has said, "to remember, on Arbor Day, that 
 Bryant, our oldest American poet and the father of our American literature, is ospe- 
 cially the poet of trees. He grew up amoug the solitary hills of western Massachu- 
 setts, where the woods were his nursery and the trees his earliest comrades. The 
 solemnity of the forest breathes through all his verse, and he had always, even in 
 the city, a grave, rustic air, as of a man who heard the babbling brooks and to whom 
 the trees told their secrets.^' 
 
 His ''Forest Hymn ** is familiar to many, but it can not be too familiar. It would 
 be well if teachers would encourage their pupils to commit the whole, or portions 
 of it at least, to memory. Let it be made a reading lesson, but, in making it such, 
 let pains be taken to point out its felicities of expression, its beautiful moral tone 
 and lofty sentiment, and its wise counsels for life and conduct. Nothing could be 
 more appropriate, especially for the indoor portion of the Arbor Day exercises, than 
 to have this poem, or portions of it, read by some pupil in full sympathy with its 
 spirit, or by some class in concert. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM BRYANT'S "FOREST HYMN." 
 
 Father, Thy hand 
 Hath reared these venerable colimina ; Thou 
 Didst weave this verdant loof. Thou didst look down 
 TJpoD the naked earth, and forthwith rose 
 AU these fair ranks of trees. They, In Thy sun, 
 Budded, and shook their green leaves in Thy breeze, 
 And shot toward heaven. The century -living crow 
 Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died 
 Among their branches, till, at last, they stood, 
 As they now stand, massy, and tall, and dark, 
 jFit shrine for humble worshiper to hold 
 Communion with his Maker. These dim vaults, 
 These winding aisles, of human pomp or pride 
 Iteport not. No fantastic carvings show 
 The boast of our vain race to change the form 
 Of Thy fair works. But Thou art here— Thou filFst 
 The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds 
 That run along the summit of these trees 
 In music ; Thou art in the cooler breath 
 That from the inmost darkness of the place 
 Comes, scarcely felt; the barky trunks, the ground, 
 Xhefresht moist ground, are all instinct with Thea. 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 76 
 
 Here is continaal worship. Nature, here, 
 In the tranquillity that Thou dost love, 
 Enjoys Thy presence, Noiselessly around, 
 From perch to perch, the solitary bird 
 Passes i and yon clear spring, that, 'midst its herbs, 
 "VV ells softly forth, and, wandering, steeps the roots 
 Of half the mighty forest, tells no tale 
 Of all the good it does. Thou hast not left 
 Thyself without a witness, in these shades, 
 Of Thy perfections. Grandeur, strength and graco 
 Are here to speak of Thee. This mighty oak— 
 By whose immoTable stem I stand and seem 
 Almost annihilated — not a prince 
 In all that proud old world beyond the deep, 
 E'er wore his crown as loftily as he 
 "Wears the green coronal of leaves with which 
 Thy hand has graced him. Nestled at his root 
 Is beauty such as blooms not in the glare 
 Of the broad sun. That delicate forest flower, 
 "With scented breath and look so like a smile, 
 Seems, as it issues from the shapsless mold, 
 An emanation of the indwelling Life, 
 A visible token of the upholding Love, 
 That are the soul of this wide universe. 
 ***** 
 
 Be it ours to metUtato 
 In these calm shades, Thy milder majesty, 
 And to the beautil'iU order of Thy works 
 Learn to conform the order of our lives. 
 
 — [Bryant. 
 
 BLESSING FOR THE TREE PLANTER, 
 
 O painter of the fruits and flowers ! 
 
 Wo thank Thee for thy wise design 
 Whereby these human hands of ours 
 
 lu nature's garden work with Thine. 
 ***** 
 Give fools their gold and knaves their power; 
 
 Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; 
 "Who sows a field or trains a flower, 
 
 Or plants a tree is more than all. 
 
 For he who blesses most is blest; 
 
 And God and man shall own his worth 
 "Who toils to leave as his bequest 
 
 An added beauty to the earth. 
 
 And, soon or late, to all who sow, 
 
 The time of harvest shall be given; 
 The flower shall bloom, the fruit shall grow, 
 
 If not on earth, atlast in heaven. 
 
 — [Whittier, 
 
 GREAT CRYPTOMERIA AVENUE OF JAPAN, 
 
 The people of a certain locality in Japan, it is said, love to tell this story of what 
 is perhaps the most beautiful road in the Japanese Empire. When the great general 
 and lawgiver lyecsasu died, his former tributary princes vied with one another in 
 rich mortuary gifts to perpetuate his memory. One daimio, loving and loyal, instead 
 of the customary gift of rare bronze or wrought -stone to honor his dead lord, gave 
 from his forest land thousands of cryptomeria trees, which he wisely knew would 
 be an ever-growing delight for generations in a densely populated region. 
 
 These young trees, which were then but 18 inches or more in height, he planted 
 at equal distances along the two roads leading to Ni^koj where the body of the 
 
76 ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 dead prince was inteirtid. Two hundred years have passed, and the trees, so small 
 when planted, are giants now, whose branches interlock across the wide road- 
 way, presenting to the traveler in either direction a vista of green as far as the eye 
 can reach. Extending for 30 miles in one direction, and for 20 miles in another, 
 these rows of noble trees meet 7 miles from the temple where lie the ashes of the 
 honored dead, and for this last 7 miles a double row of trees is found on each side of 
 the roadway. In describing this unique and very beautiful tribute of respect and 
 aifection, a recent traveler says: 
 
 **Many who visit Nikko may forget the loveliness of the mountain scenery, the 
 waterfalls and rushing streams, the carving and gilding of the temples, the soft, 
 low tone of the bells, the odor of incense, and the chanting of priests, but few will 
 forget their 20 miles' ride beneath the over-arching branches of the stately trees. 
 What more beautiful memorial could be suggested than this, which benefits rich 
 and poor, prince and coolie, alike, while mere bronze lanterns and costly but dead 
 memorial stones are of no service except as reminders of a bygone age?" 
 
 These trees have been growing for two centuries; a half dozen generations have 
 . enjoyed their coolness, their beauty, refreshing to tired eyes and weary limbs, and 
 they will be the delight of fijenerations to come. — Prof. J. P. McCaskey. 
 
 AN APRIL DAY. 
 
 When the warm sun, that brings 
 Seedtiino and harvest, has returned again, 
 *Ti8 Bweet to visit the atill "wood, where springs 
 
 The first fiower of the plain. 
 ***** 
 
 From the earth's loosened mold 
 The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives; 
 Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold, 
 
 The drooping tree revives. 
 
 The softly warbled song 
 Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings 
 Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along 
 
 The forest openings. 
 * * * * » 
 
 Sweet April I many a thought 
 Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed ; 
 Nor shall they fajl, till, to its autumn brought, 
 
 Life's golden fruit is shed. 
 
 — [ Longfellow. 
 
 THE WOODS AND THE COURT. 
 
 In the forest of Arden, Shakespeare makes the banished duke say to his companions: 
 
 "Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, 
 Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
 Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods 
 More free from peril than the envious court? 
 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, 
 The seasons' difference; as the icy fang 
 And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, 
 Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, 
 Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and aay : 
 
 * This is no flattery; these are counsellors 
 
 That feelingly persuade me what I am.' 
 Sweet are the uses of adversity; * * * 
 
 ***** 
 And this our life, exempt from pnbhc haunt, 
 Finds tongues in trees, books In the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything. ' ' 
 
 —[As You Like It, act 3, soenttl. 
 
ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 77 
 
 THE SPIRIT OP POETRY. 
 
 There is a quiet spirit iu these wooda, 
 Tbat dwells where'er the gentle south wind blows; 
 "Where underneath the white-thorn, in tbo glade, 
 The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air, 
 The leaves above their sunny palms outspread. 
 With what a tender and impassioned voice 
 It fills the nice and delicate ear of thought, 
 "When tbo fast-ushering star of morning cornea 
 O'erriding the gray hills with golden scarf; 
 Or when the cowled and dusky-sandaled Eve, 
 In mourning weeds, from out the western gate, 
 Departs with silent pace ! That spirit moves 
 In the green valley, where.the silver brook, 
 From its full laver, pours the white cascade; 
 And, babbling low amid the tangled woods, 
 
 Slips down through moss-grown stones with endless laughter. 
 
 And frequent, on the everlasting hills. 
 
 Its feet go forth, when it doth wrap itself 
 
 In all the dark embroidery of the storm. 
 
 And shouts the stem, strong wind. And here, amid 
 
 The silent majesty of these deep woods. 
 
 Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from earth, 
 
 As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air, 
 
 Their tops the green trees lift, * * * 
 
 — [Longfellow. 
 
 SELECTIONS FOR RECITATIONS. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OP ARBOR DAY. 
 
 To avert treelessness ; to improve the climatic conditions; for the sauitatiou and 
 embellishment of home environments ; for the love of the beautiful and useful com- 
 bined in the music and majesty of a tree, as fancy and truth unite in an epic poem, 
 Arbor Day was created. It has grown with the vigor and beneficence of a grand 
 truth or a great tree. — J. Sterling Morton. 
 
 FOREST HYMN. 
 
 The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
 
 To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 
 
 And spread the roof above them — ere he framed 
 
 The lofty vault, to gather and roll bach 
 
 The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, 
 
 Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, 
 
 And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
 
 And supplication. For Ms simple heart 
 
 Might not resist the sacred influences 
 
 "WTiich, from the stilly twilight of the place, 
 
 And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven 
 
 Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound 
 
 Of the invisible breath that swayed at once 
 
 All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed 
 
 His spirit with the thought of boundless power 
 
 And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why 
 
 Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect 
 
 God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 
 
 Only among the crowd, and under roofs 
 
 That our frail hands have raised ? Let me, at least, 
 
 Here, in tbe shadow of this aged wood, 
 
 Offer one hymn— thrice happy if it find 
 
 Acceptance in His ear. 
 
 ***** 
 
 —[Bryant. 
 
78 AEBOR DAT — ITS HISTORY AND OBSEEVANCE. 
 
 LEAVES. 
 
 The leaves of the herbage at our feet take all kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite 
 U3 to examine them. Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, 
 fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated, in whorls, in tufts, in spires, in wreaths, 
 endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from footstalk to blossom, 
 they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness and take delight in outstripping 
 our wonder. — Euskin. 
 
 INFLUENCE OP NATURE. 
 
 Therefore am 1 still 
 A lover of tlie meadows and the woods 
 And mountains, and of all that we behold 
 Prom this green earth; of all the mighty world 
 Of eye and ear, both what they half create 
 And what perceive; well pleased to recognize 
 In nature, and the language of the sense, 
 The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, 
 The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul. 
 Of all my moral being. 
 
 — [Wordsworth. 
 
 THE FOREST A HERITAGE. 
 
 I regard the forest as an heritage, given to us by nature, not for spoil or to devas- 
 tate, but to be wisely used, reverently honored, and carefully maintained. I regard 
 the forest as a gift intrusted to us only for transient care during a short space of 
 time, to be surrendered to posterity again as unimpaired property, with increased 
 riches and augmented blessings, to pass as a sacred patrimony from generation to 
 generation. — Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. 
 
 STEADFASTNESS. 
 
 A little of thy steadfastness, 
 Bounded with leafy gracefulness, 
 
 Old oak, give me — 
 That the world's blasts may round me blow, 
 And I yield gently to and fro, 
 While my stout-hearted trunk below 
 
 And firm-set roots unshaken be. 
 
 — [Lowell. 
 
 THE WASHINGTON ELM. 
 
 ^his tree still stands at Cambridge, Mass. It is on Garden street, a short distance 
 from the colleges, and is a large, well-preserved tree. An iron fence is built around 
 it, and on a stone in front is the following inscription: "Under this tree George 
 Washington took command of the American Army, July 3, 1775." 
 
 Beneath our consecrated elm 
 
 A century ago he stood. 
 
 Famed vaguely for that old fight in the wood 
 Whose red surge sought, but could not overwhelm 
 The life foredoomed to wield our rough-hewn helm> 
 
 * * * It * 
 
 Firmly erect, he towered above them all. 
 The incarnate discipline that was to free 
 With iron curb that armed democracy. 
 
 —[Iiowell—" Under the Old Elm." 
 
ARBOR DAY — ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 79 
 
 WEALTH IN WOOD. 
 
 The true basis of national wealth is not gold, but wood. Forest destruction is 
 the sin that has caused us to lose our earthly paradise. War, pestilence, storms, 
 fanaticism, and intemperance, together with all other mistakes and misfortuoes, 
 have not caused half as much permanent damage as that fatal crime against the 
 fertility of our Mother Earth. — Felix L. Oswald. 
 
 SUBJECTS FOR DECLAMATION 
 
 Character of Washington Thomas JefTerson 
 
 Eulogium on Washington Daniel Webster 
 
 Antiquity of Freedom Bryant 
 
 Paul Eevere's Ride Longfellow 
 
 Story of Bunker Hill Battle O. W. Holmes 
 
 The American Flag ^ J. Rodman Drake 
 
 Centennial Hymn Whittier 
 
 Tribute to Abraham Lincoln J. R, Lowell 
 
 Sheridan's Ride Read 
 
 Song of Marion's Men Bryant 
 
 Centennial Song Bayard Taylor 
 
 America S. F. Smith 
 
 The Flag of the Union ..'. George P. Morris 
 
 Union and Liberty O. W. Holmes 
 
 Other selections for recitation or declamation, a few out of the many, 
 are the following : 
 
 A June Day Lowell: SirLaunfal 
 
 Planting of the Apple Tree Bryant 
 
 The Last Leaf Holmes 
 
 Under the Greenwood Tree Shakespeare 
 
 Among the Trees Bryant 
 
 The Spirit of Poetry Longfellow 
 
 Plant a Tree Lucy Larcom 
 
 The Prairies Bryant 
 
 Popular Poplar Tree Blanch W. Howard 
 
 Woodman, Spare that Tree Morris 
 
 The Ivy Green Dickens 
 
 The Oak Lowell 
 
 The Pine Tree Emerson 
 
 Fair Tree Lady Winchelsea 
 
 Hiawatha, extracts from Longfellow 
 
 Landing of the Pilgrims Mrs. Hemans 
 
 Love of Nature Wordsworth 
 
 May Queen Tennyson 
 
 Discourse on Trees Beecher 
 
80 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 
 
 TOPICS FOR ARBOR DAY ESSAYS. 
 
 Celebrated trees. 
 
 Short liistory of Arbor Day. 
 
 What Arbor Day is for. 
 
 How to plant a tree. 
 
 Best trees to plant. 
 
 The most useful tree. 
 
 Trees and their relation to birds. 
 
 Trees and their relation to fishes. 
 
 Varieties of trees on our larm. 
 
 Schoolhonses : What they are and what they should be. 
 
 Sohoolgrounds: How to improve them. 
 
 What ihe leaves do. 
 
 Best trees to plant on the roadside. 
 
 Planting nut-bearing trees: Encouragement for it. 
 
 Best trees and shrubs for ornamental planting. 
 
 What to do with signs that are nailed to trees and fences and painted on the rocks. 
 
 How to do away with rubbish on the roadsides. 
 
 Advantages of good sidewalks. 
 
 Roads and walks, and how to make them. 
 
 How to make Arbor Day most useful. 
 
 Teaching of botany and horticulture in schools. 
 
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