The Project Gutenberg eBook of Arbor Day Leaves, by N.H. Egleston.

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity; children love them; tender, contented, ordinary people love them. They are the cottager's treasure; and in the crowded town mark, as with a little fragment of rainbow, the windows of the workers in whose heart rests the covenant of peace.

Ruskin.

flowersArbor Day Celebrations.

It adds to the pleasure attending the observance of Arbor Day when we think how many are uniting with us in its celebration. It is but a few years since the day was first known and its observance was limited to a single one of our States. Now the day is known and observed from Maine to Oregon and from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Not only is this true, but this our tree-festival so commends itself to all that its observance has spread more rapidly and more widely than any other public observance in the world's history. It is already established in portions of England, France, and Italy, in far-away South Africa and Australia, and we shall probably hear before long of its adoption in China and Japan.

And so, as we come together to have pleasant talks about the trees and to march out with songs and banners to plant them in school grounds, in parks, by the road-side or elsewhere, it will be pleasant to remember that so many others are engaged in similar services. It should make the day a happier one for us to think that so many will enjoy it as we do, as it should always increase our happiness to know that others are sharing with us anything that is good.

As it will, doubtless, be interesting to all engaging in the celebration of the day, we give on the next page a list of the States in which Arbor Day is observed.

STATES AND TERRITORIES OBSERVING ARBOR DAY.

Only the following five states or territories fail to observe Arbor Day—Arkansas, Delaware, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and Utah.

ENCOURAGING WORDS.

The Governors of our States and the Superintendents of our schools have generally entered heartily into the observance of Arbor Day and spoken earnest words of encouragement in its behalf. The following are specimens of what they have said.

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."

Illinois.—Governor Fifer: "Let the children in our schools, the young men and women in our colleges, seminaries, and universities, with their instructors, co-operate in the proper observance of the day by planting shrubs, vines, and trees that will beautify the home, adorn the public grounds, add wealth to the State, and thereby increase the comfort and happiness of our people."

Missouri.—From the Superintendent of Public Schools, in his annual report: "Let this love for planting trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers be encouraged and stimulated in the school-room and not only will the school-yards profit thereby, but the now barren farm-yards and pastures will remain the recipients of your instruction."

California.—From Superintendent of Public Instruction: "Our schools cannot protect the forests, but they can raise up a generation which will not leave their hillsides and mountains treeless; a generation which will frown upon and rebuke the wanton destruction of our forest trees. There is no spot on earth that may not be made more beautiful by the help of trees and flowers."

Nebraska.—From the State Superintendent of Public Instruction: "On this day, above all others, the pupils of our public schools should be educated to care for the material prosperity of the country and to foster the growth of trees. Let the child understand that he is especially interested in the tree he plants: that it is his; that upon him devolves the responsibility of protecting and cultivating it in coming years."

New York.—Hon. A.S. Draper, ex-Superintendent of Public Instruction: "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."

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 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. 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 may be 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 road-side will furnish an object lesson for pleasant and profitable discourse for many days and at all seasons. A few flowers, which teacher or pupil may bring to the school-room, will easily be made the means of interesting the oldest and the youngest and of imparting the most profitable instruction. How easy also to plant a few seeds in a vase in the school-room window and to encourage the pupils to watch their sprouting and subsequent growth.

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 planting 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 school-house ground be made also an arboretum, where the pupils might have under their eyes, continually, specimens 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 different 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 school-house, 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 bordered by green turf, with 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 another direction and by itself.

Europeans are in advance of us in school management. The Austrian public school law reads: "In every school a gymnastic ground, a garden for the teacher, according to the circumstances of the community, and a place for the purposes 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 are nearly 30,000 of these schools, each of which has a garden attached to it, and the Minister of Public Instruction 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 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 school-house 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.

TREES IN THEIR LEAFLESS STATE.

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. 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 horizontally. As Dr. Holmes says: "The others shirk the work of resisting 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 in their growth a downward inclination, 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 many 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 correct 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.

Programme for Arbor Day.

We give in this part of our manual a programme for Arbor Day observance. It is presented not so much in the expectation that it will be exactly copied as that it may serve as suggestion of what may be done. We have added various selections from poets and prose writers which may help those who are preparing for the proper observance of Arbor Day. But these are only a few specimens from the great stores of our literature. A little care and painstaking beforehand will furnish an ample supply of the desired material, for our literature abounds in such. Not the least of the benefits of the observance of Arbor Day is the opportunity it gives for making the young familiar with the best thoughts of the best writers and thus giving them a literary culture in the pleasantest manner. Thus while preparing to plant trees we may be planting in the young mind and heart growths more precious and lasting than they.

I.—Exercises In the School-Room.

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind."

"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

"I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."

"He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch."

"Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her."

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Of nature broad and free,
Of grass and flower and tree,
Sing we to-day.
God hath pronounced it good
So we, His creatures would
Offer to field and wood,
Our heartfelt lay.

To all that meets the eye,
In earth, or air, or sky,
Tribute we bring.
Barren this world would be,
Bereft of shrub and tree:
Now, gracious Lord, to Thee,
Praises we sing.

May we Thy hand behold,
As bud and leaf unfold,
See but Thy thought;
Nor heedlessly destroy,
Nor pass unnoticed by;
But be our constant joy:
All Thou hast wrought.

As each small bud and flower
Speaks of the Maker's power,
Tells of His love;
So we, Thy children dear,
Would live from year to year,
Show forth Thy goodness here,
And then above.

—Mary A. Heermans.

[As the laws regarding Arbor Day vary in different States, it will be necessary for each teacher or superintendent to procure and read the one applicable to his State.]

[These may consist of circular letters from superintendents, etc., and other incidental letters. It is suggested that notes of invitation to the exercises be sent to the parents of the children and to influential people. These will in many cases elicit replies bearing on the subject. In case such letters cannot be secured, at this point the "Encouraging Words" printed on page 15 of this pamphlet may be read with profit.]

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,—
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river, running by,
The morning, and the sunset
That lighteth up the sky.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,—
He made them, every one.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who hath made all things well.

—C.F. Alexander.

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.

—J. Sterling Morton.

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own;
Then wilt thou see it gleam in many eyes,
Then will pure light around thy path be shed,
And thou wilt nevermore be sad and lone.

—Lowell.

The leaves of the herbage at our feet take all kinds of strange shapes as if to invite us 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.

—Ruskin.

Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains, and of all that we behold
From 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.

I regard the forest as an heritage, given to us by nature, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely used, reverently honored, and carefully maintained. I regard the forest as a gift entrusted 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.

If thou art worn and hard beset
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

—Longfellow.

I said I will not walk with men to-day,
But I will go among the blessed trees,—
Among the forest trees I'll take my way,
And they shall say to me what words they please.

And when I came among the trees of God,
With all their million voices sweet and blest,
They gave me welcome. So I slowly trod
Their arched and lofty aisles, with heart at rest.

In an agricultural country the preservation or destruction of forests must determine the decision of Hamlet's alternative: "to be or not to be." An animal flayed or a tree stripped of its bark does not perish more surely than a land deprived of the trees.

—Felix L. Oswald.

By their fruit ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

A song for the beautiful trees!
A song for the forest grand,
The garden of God's Own land,
The pride of His centuries.
Hurrah! for the kingly oak,
For the maple, the sylvan queen,
For the lords of the emerald cloak,
For the ladies in living green.

So long as the rivers flow,
So long as the mountains rise,
May the forest sing to the skies,
And shelter the earth below.
Hurrah! for the beautiful trees,
Hurrah! for the forest grand,
The pride of His centuries,
The garden of God's own land.

—W.H. Venable.

Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a rippling cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For other couriers we should not lack;
We would guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,—
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how:
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,—
'Tis the natural way of living.

—Lowell: Sir Launfal.

11. VOTING FOR THE TREE OR FLOWER WHICH SHALL BE THE EMBLEM OF THE SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR.

Suggestions.—If this programme should prove too long, parts of it may readily be omitted. If the day be a fine one, it might be well to transfer the address and, perhaps, the readings to the third part of the programme at the tree.

In order to facilitate the voting of the tree or flower and have it occupy but little time, it would be well to have a blackboard facing the pupils during the exercises with a few drawings of trees and flowers, each with a characteristic attribute printed beneath it. The voting may then be expeditiously performed by pointing to the drawings.

In some States there is a provision for the children to vote on Arbor Day for a favorite flower, which shall be considered the State flower. In others a State tree may be selected by vote of the children. In such cases this is the time for the selection.

When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there;
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

—J.R. Drake.

II.—The March.

1. There's Springtime in the air
When the happy robin sings,
And earth grows bright and fair,
Covered with the robe she brings.

Cho. March, oh, march, 'tis Arbor Day,
Joy for all and cares away;
March, oh, march, from duties free
To the planting of the tree.

2. There's Springtime in the air
When the buds begin to swell,
And woodlands, brown and bare,
All the summer joys foretell.—Cho.

3. There's Springtime in the air
When the heart so fondly pays
This tribute, sweet and rare,
Which to mother earth we raise.—Cho.

III.—Exercises at the Tree-Planting.

Gather we here to plant the fair tree;
Gladsome the hour, joyous and free,
Greeting to thee, fairest of May!
Breathe sweet the buds on our loved Arbor Day.
Gather we now, the sapling around,
Singing our song—let it resound:

Refrain.
Happy the day! Happy the hour!
Joyous we, all of us, feel their glad power.

Shovel and spade, trowel and hoe,
Carefully dig up the quick-yielding ground;
Make we a bed, softly lay low
Each little root with the earth spread around;
Snug as a nest, the soil round them pressed,
This is the home that the rootlings love best.

Refrain.

Moisten and soften the ground, ye Spring Rains;
Swell ye the buds, and fill ye the veins,
Bless the dear tree, bountiful Sun;
Warm thou the blood in the stem till it run;
Hasten the growth, let leaves have birth,
Make it most beautiful thing of the earth.

Refrain.

—[Dr. E.P. Waterbury]

Plant in the spring-time the beautiful trees,
So that in future each soft summer breeze,
Whispering through tree-tops may call to our mind,
Days of our childhood then left far behind.

Days when we learned to be faithful and true;
Days when we yearned our life's future to view;
Days when the good seemed so easy to do;
Days when life's cares were so light and so few.

Plant trees for beauty, for pleasure and for health;
Plant trees for shelter, for fruitage and for wealth.

True worth is in 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 Cary.

Oh, happy trees which we plant to-day,
What great good fortunes wait you!
For you will grow in sun and snow
Till fruit and flowers freight you.

Your winter covering of snow,
Will dazzle with its splendor;
Your summer's garb, with richest glow,
Will feast of beauty render.

In your cool shade will tired feet
Pause, weary, when 'tis summer,
And rest like this will be most sweet
To every tired new-comer.

STATES.	YEAR OF FIRST OBSERVANCE.	TIME OF OBSERVANCE.
Alabama	1887	22nd February.
Arizona	1890-91	First Friday after first of February.
California	1886
Colorado	1885	Third Friday in April.
Connecticut	1887	In Spring, at appointment of Governor.
Florida	1886	January 8.
Georgia	1887	First Friday in December.
Idaho	1887	Last Monday in April.
Illinois	1888	Date fixed by Governor and Supt. of Public Instruction.
Indiana	1884	" " Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Iowa	1887	" " " " "
Kansas	1875	Option of Governor, usually in April.
Kentucky	1886	" "
Louisiana	1888-9	" Parish Boards.
Maine	1887	" Governor.
Maryland	1889	" " in April.
Massachusetts	1886	Last Saturday in April.
Michigan	1885	Option of Governor.
Minnesota	1876	" "
Mississippi	1892	" Board of Education.
Missouri	1886	First Friday after first Tuesday of April.
Montana	1887	Third Tuesday of April.
Nebraska	1872	22nd of April.
Nevada	1887	Option of Governor.
New Hampshire	1886	" "
New Jersey	1884	" " in April.
New Mexico	1890	Second Friday in March.
New York	1889	First Friday after May 1.
North Carolina	1893
North Dakota	1884	Sixth of May, by proclamation of Governor.
Ohio	1882	In April " " "
Oregon	1882	Second Friday in April.
Pennsylvania	1887	Option of Governor.
Rhode Island	1887	" "
South Carolina	Uncertain	Variable.
South Dakota	1884	Option of Governor.
Tennessee	1875	November, at designation of County Superintendents.
Texas	1800	22nd of February.
Vermont	1885	Option of Governor.
Virginia	1892
West Virginia	1883	Fall and Spring, at designation of Supt. of Schools.
Wisconsin	1889	Option of Governor.
Wyoming	1888	" "
Washington	1892