Arbor Day

“ But let us not confine our observance of Arbor Day alone to the schools and institutions of learning. Let us at least carry the spirit of the day also into our homes as well. And above all, let us be mindful at this time of the great scheme of nature wherein the humblest plant and flower, as well as the lordliest of the animal creation, has its proper place. ”

“ HISTORY OF ARBOR DAY.
We are taught to value the blessings of life by antithesis. When we are sick we learn to value health; when blind we long to experience the delightful sense of sight; when deaf, we yearn for the music we loved to hear; when in impoverished circumstances physically, we hope for the good things of this world and a comfortable existence. ”

“ No man in this country has had a better opportunity of observing the influence of Arbor Day in schools than Superintendent Peaslee, who, after a trial of three years, says: “The observance of Arbor Day is the most impressive means of interesting the young in this subject. Should this celebration become general, such a public sentiment would lead to the beautifying by trees of every city, town, and village, as well as the public highways, church, and school grounds, and the homes of the people. ”

“ In preparing the second number of our manual for Arbor Day, we have endeavored to keep in mind the fact that Arbor Day was originally designed not as a mere festival or holiday, a pleasant occasion for children or adults, but to encourage the planting of trees for a serious purpose—the lasting benefit of the country in all its interests. As the poet Whittier has so well said, "The wealth, beauty, fertility, and healthfulness of the country largely depend upon the conservation of our forests and the planting of trees." ”

“ Twenty-five thousand acres of woodland are consumed by the railroads, the manufactories, and the homes of the United States every twenty-four hours. How many are planted? To avert treelessness, to improve the climatic conditions, for the sanitation and embellishment of home environments, for the love of the beautiful and useful combined 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. It faces the future. ”

“ This day was christened “Arbor Day,” and is now observed by law and proclamation in thirty-one states; has entered our schools and colleges, and forestry forms part of the curriculum.
Wherever Arbor-Day has been observed it has awakened a sense of inquiry; has taught the children the names, nature, and usefulness of trees, with a lasting admiration and love for [234] them. From the influences of Arbor-Day, Nebraska has more than a million acres of planted forests, and Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, and other Western States fast following the good example. ”

“ It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetime the nation's need of trees will become serious. We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your manhood and womanhood you will want what Nature once so bountifully supplied, and man so thoughtlessly destroyed ”

“ The primary purpose of the Legislature in establishing Arbor Day was to develop and stimulate in the children of the commonwealth a love and reverence for Nature, as revealed in trees and shrubs and flowers. ”

“ New Hampshire.—Governor Currier, in his Arbor Day Proclamation: "I especially desire that our children may be taught to observe and reverence the divine energies which are unfolding themselves in every leaf and flower that sheds a perfume in spring or ripens into a robe of beauty in autumn, so that the aspirations of childhood, led by beautiful surroundings, may form higher and broader conceptions of life and humanity; for the teachings of nature lead up from the material and finite to the infinite and eternal." ”

“ It is of man’s awakening that I wish to tell you this lovely Bird and Arbor Day season, an awakening which you must try to feel if you are not so choked and stifled in towns and cities by ideas of things to wear and eat and amuse yourself with that you cannot understand the truth.
In all ages, a few men have awakened to the touch of Nature. ”

“ Arbor Day remains a time for planting and caring for trees in our cities, towns, and countryside, and it should also remind us to learn more about trees and forests and how to protect them at home and guard against desertification and destruction abroad.
Our celebration of Arbor Day should always be tinged with the spirit that the 19th-century poet Henry Cuyler Bunher captured so well in “The Heart of the Tree”:
What does he plant who plants a tree? ”

“ In view of the fact that no provision has been made in our statutes for Bird Day, I also wish to recommend that a part of Arbor Day be set aside for this purpose. I would suggest that special prominence be given to the subject of bird study and that on this occasion Audubon Societies be organized for protecting and taking care of our birds. Impress upon your pupils the folly of killing birds for past-time and for gratifying the whims of women who desire the plumage of our feathered friends for the adornment of their hats. ”

“ 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 subjects beforehand and afterward. 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 will seek to cultivate the observing faculties of the pupils by calling their attention to the interesting things with which the natural world abounds. ”

“ Birds are singing in the trees,
Tra, la, la! Tra, la, la!
Boughs are swaying in the breeze,
Tra, la, la, la, la!
The skies are clear, the skies are blue,
Tra, la, la! Tra, la, la!
The trees and flowers are drest anew,
Tra, la, la, la, la!
Their sweetest songs the birds now trill,
And brooks go tumbling down the hill;
To the woods now haste away,
Tra, la, la! Tra, la, la!
This is happy Arbor Day,
Tra, la, la, la, la!
—Journal of Education.
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ The sentiment in favor of school ground comfort and adornment has gradually increased for the last thirty years, and has been greatly aided by the establishment of an annual Arbor Day for tree planting. ”

“ As the season for Arbor Day and tree-planting comes 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 characteristic forms of the various species, the manner in which their branches are developed and arranged among themselves, 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. ”

“ In many cases school teachers and superintendents have introduced its observance. But it has soon so commended itself to all that, in most cases, it has been established by law and made a legal holiday.
[Pg 3]
Readings for Arbor Day. ABOUT TREES. From the originator of Arbor Day.
A tree is the perfection in strength, beauty, and usefulness of vegetable life. It stands majestic through the sun and storm of centuries. Resting in summer beneath its cooling shade, or sheltering besides its massive trunk from the chilling blast of winter, we are prone to forget the little seed whence it came. ”

“ Arbor Day is not necessarily the best day for tree-planting, especially in the matter of big trees for streets, school grounds, and public places. The experts prefer to handle such trees in mid-winter ”

“ ARBOR DAY.
"A tree is a deposit in the bank of Nature which she always repays a thousandfold,"
[Date specified by Governor.]
Responsive Exercise—Scripture Reading.
Song—Arbor Day March.
Heading—The History of Arbor Day.
Recitation—What do we plant?
Recitation—What will you be?
Song—Arbor Day.
Exercise for Four Children We Love the Trees.
Recitation—Which Tree is Best?
Exercise for Eight Girls—Historic Trees.
Recitation— [1] Planting of the Apple Tree. ”

“ Arbor day is now observed in nearly every state and territory in the Union, and in many places in Canada and in parts of Europe. The day is made a feature in the Kansas schools each year, when appropriate exercises are given in connection with the planting of trees and shrubs. ”

“ Other states which have associations or societies of special influence in forest matters are California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, New Hampshire, Georgia and Oregon. Arbor Day, instituted in Nebraska in 1872 as a day for shade-tree planting by farmers who had settled on the treeless prairies, has been taken up as a means of interesting school children in the planting of trees, and has spread until it is now observed in every state and territory. It continues to serve an admirable purpose. ”

“ Arbor Day can best be celebrated by planting one or more suitable trees around a school or club area or by establishing a school plantation. In addition to paying tribute to the beauty of trees, one can call attention to the importance of trees to man’s welfare. The Texas Forest Service continues to assist clubs and schools in organizing Arbor Day programs. ”

“ ARBOR DAY
The following is a copy of the Oklahoma Law creating Arbor Day:
Section 1. The Friday following the second Monday in March of each year shall be hereafter known throughout Oklahoma as Arbor Day.
Sec. 2. ”

“ Say Springtime is here, tra-la, tra-la.
Springtime is here, tra-la, tra-la,
Brooklets run clear, tra-la, tra-la,
Birds are winging, flowers springing,
For Springtime is here, tra-la, tra-la.
(Simple costumes make this more effective. All the girls wear white gowns—Chorus has a simple Greek dress. Arbor Day a crown of flowers and scepter, her maids baskets of flowers; the flower girls wear chaplets of blossoms, artificial ones are best; The Holidays can wear appropriate dress; the School-Children enter as if from play with their baskets, dolls, flowers, fishing rods, etc.) ”

“ On arbor day, and other days when convenient, the teachers shall cause such laws to be read to the scholars of their respective schools and shall encourage them to aid in the protection of such birds. ”

“ There is far too much tree-planting of this kind on Arbor Day. In many an instance a plot of ground has been replanted year after year. I fancy we will have to reach more nearly to the stage of tree appreciation before Arbor Day will be a pre-eminent success. 138Can we not, indeed, accommodate ourselves a little more to the trees growing where Nature planted them? I know a village well, where the houses are placed to accommodate the trees that stood there when the spot was a wilderness. The main street is a little crooked, but what a noble street it is! ”

“ There should be such a committee in every village and town. We wish that the teachers might help in this work, for they would not only be lending their aid to planting, but also be interesting their pupils in some concrete and useful work, and teaching them the value of public spirit. Arbor Day should be more than a mere ceremonial. It should be a means of awakening interest in definite plans for the adornment of the neighborhood and of directing the attention of the children nature-ward. ”

“ Arbor Day in school has led youth to adorn the surroundings of their homes, as well as of the schools, and to extensive planting by the wayside. How attractive our roads may become by long avenues of trees! ”

“ In the same direction of education is the appointment of Arbor Day, which has become a legal holiday in thirty States and Territories. Being celebrated in the public schools, it is made a most important factor in creating an interest in trees and a knowledge of plant life among people at their most impressionable age. ”

“ Too often the work has been impulsive and the interest transient. Trees planted with ceremonious dignity in April have died of neglect before September, and those that survived have been left to fight unaided their battles for existence. So little attention has been paid to the choice of trees and to the methods of planting that those entirely unfit for the situation have often been used, and have been planted in places where they could not receive protection while young, or serve any useful purpose when grown. Arbor Day has often come on dry, windy days, or clear out of season for planting. ”

“ When the question of introducing Arbor Day into the schools was brought before the National Educational Association in February, 1884, the objection was made that the subject was out of place in the schools. The value of the innovation could not be appreciated by those who did not see the practical bearing of the subject on an ordinary school course. ”

“ I am delighted with the idea of being present at your first Arbor day celebration. I hope there is to be in the order of exercises an oration which you are [Pg 177] to deliver. If so, I know you will not disappoint me! I am prepared to prophesy that you will do yourself justice, do credit to Solaris and at the same time you will cover the subject with a halo of glory. Such a result seems assured when I consider the extraordinary interest which was aroused by your lectures on forestry. ”