At the annual meeting of the State Teachers’ Association of Indiana, held in December, 1883, a kindred plan was recommended and unanimously adopted, and an efficient committee appointed to carry it out. The State Board of Horticulture heartily endorsed the measure. After a statement of the plan, the State Board of Agriculture invited me to prepare a resolution in its favor, which they promptly adopted. Governor Porter received my suggestions with special interest, and said the measure should have his cordial support. He soon after gave it his official sanction, and issued a proclamation to the teachers and people of the state, in which he predicted that the appointed day would be a memorable one, and “the beginning of a movement for a much more extended system of tree-culture, and the restoration of the varieties of trees, useful and beautiful, which have been so recklessly sacrificed that nature cries aloud for redress,” closing by calling on “the teachers to do all in their power to make Arbor Day a day of the most ardent and inspiring interest.” State School Superintendent Holcombe gave his personal and official influence heartily to this work. The lectures given by his invitation on this subject were fully reported by the press, for the newspapers of Indiana cordially coöperated in this movement. These combined influences secured the general observance of the appointed day, and the results were most gratifying. Such combined agencies in nearly every state of the Union would promise similar results.
At the last annual Convention of the State Teachers’ Association of Wisconsin, the presentation of Arbor Day in schools led to the adoption of a resolution in favor of such an observance, and to the appointment of an efficient committee to carry out the plan. At the National Educational Association held in Madison, Wisconsin, with an attendance of over five thousand, a resolution recommending the observance of Arbor Day in schools in all our states was unanimously adopted. Such a day has been observed with great interest in some of the provinces of Canada.
The American Forestry Congress, which includes the leading arborists of Canada and the United States, adopted, at my suggestion, the following resolution: “In view of the wide-spread results of the observance of Arbor Day in many states, this Congress recommends the appointment of such a day in all our states and in the provinces of the dominion of Canada,” and appointed a committee, consisting of the Chief of the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, the State Superintendent of Schools of West Virginia, and myself to secure the general adoption of this plan, and especially Arbor Day in schools. As chairman of that committee, I have already presented this subject to the Governors of many states, and the proposition has met a favorable response.
It may be objected to Arbor Day, or to any lessons on forestry in schools, that the course of study is already overcrowded, and this fact I admit. But the requisite talks on trees, their value and beauty, need occupy but two or three hours. In some large cities there may be little or no room for tree-planting, and no call for even a half-holiday for this work, but even there such talks, or the memorizing of suitable selections, on the designated day, would be impressive and useful. The essential thing is to start habits of observation and occupation with trees, which will prompt pupils in their walks, or when at work, or at play, to study them. The talks on this subject, which Superintendent Peaslee says were the most interesting and 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. Such talks will lead our youth to admire trees, and realize that they are the grandest products of nature, and form the finest drapery that adorns this earth in all lands. Thus taught, they will wish to plant and protect trees, and find in their own happy experience that there is a peculiar pleasure in their parentage, whether forest, fruit, or ornamental—a pleasure which never cloys, but grows with their growth. Like grateful children, trees bring rich filial returns, and compensate a thousand fold for all the care they cost. This love of trees, early implanted in the school, and fostered in the home, will make our youth practical arborists.
They should learn that trees have been the admiration of the greatest and best men of all ages. The ancients understood well the beauty as well as the economic and hygienic value of trees. The Hebrew almost venerated the palm. It was the chosen symbol of Judea on their coins, and was graven on the doors of the Temple as the sacred sign of justice. The Cedar of Lebanon was justly the pride of the Jews, and became to them the emblem of strength and beauty. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were proficients in tree-planting. Hence Thebes, Memphis, Athens, Carthage, Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum, as their ruins still show, had their shaded streets or parks. Two thousand years ago, the richest Romans maintained a rural home, as does the wealthy Londoner, Viennese, or Berliner to-day, and their ancient villas were lavishly adorned. The Paradise of the Persians was filled with trees and roses. This taste for beautiful gardens was transplanted from Persia to Greece, and the Greek philosophers held their schools in beautiful gardens, or groves. The devastations of parks, the destruction of shade trees, the neglect of public streets and private grounds, the decay of rural tastes, and the utter slight of home adornments, were clearer proofs of the great relapse to barbarism than the vandalism which destroyed the proud monuments of classic art and literature.
Arbor Day has already initiated a movement of vast importance in eight states. In tree-planting, the beginning only is difficult. The obstacles are all met at the outset, because they are usually magnified by the popular ignorance of this subject. It is the first step that costs—at least, it costs effort to set this thing on foot, but that step once taken, others are sure to follow. This very fact that the main tug is at the start, on account of the inertia of ignorance and indifference, shows that such start should be made easy, as is best done by an Arbor Day proclamation of the Governor, which is sure to interest and enlist the youth of an entire state in the good work. When the school children are invited each to plant at least “two trees” on the home or school grounds, the aggregate number planted will be more than twice that of the children enlisted, for parents and the public will participate in the work.
Tree-planting is fitted to give a needful lesson of forethought to the juvenile mind. Living only in the present and for the present, youth are apt to sow only where they can quickly reap. A meager crop soon in hand, outweighs a golden harvest long in maturing. They should learn to forecast the future as the condition of wisdom. Arboriculture is a discipline in foresight—it is always planting for the future. There is nothing more ennobling for youth, than the consciousness of doing something for future generations, something which shall prove a growing benefaction in coming years. Tree-planting is an easy way of perpetuating one’s memory long after he has passed away. The poorest can in this way provide himself with a monument grander than the loftiest shaft of chiseled stone which may suggest duty to the living, while it commemorates the dead. Such associations grow in interest from year to year and from generation to generation. By stimulating a general interest in tree-planting among our youth, Arbor Day will yield a rich harvest to future generations. George Peabody originated the motto, so happily illustrated by his munificent gifts to promote education: “Education—the debt of the present to future generations.” We owe it to our children to leave our lands the better for our tillage and tree-planting, and we wrong ourselves and them, if our fields are impoverished by our improvidence.
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! This is beautifully illustrated in many countries of Europe. In France, for example, the government keeps a statistical record of the trees along the roads. The total length of public roads in France is 18,750 miles, of which 7,250 are bordered with trees, while 4,500 are now being, or are soon to be, planted. Growing on lands otherwise running to waste, such trees are grateful to the traveler, but doubly so to the planter.
The influence of Arbor Day in schools in awakening a just appreciation of trees, first among pupils and parents, and then the people at large, is of vast importance in another respect. The frequency of forest fires is the greatest hindrance to practical forestry. But let the sentiment of trees be duly cultivated, first among our youth, and then among the people, and they will be regarded as our friends, as is the case in Germany. The public need to learn that the interests of all classes are concerned in the conservation of forests. Through the teaching of their schools this result was long since accomplished in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and other European countries. The people everywhere realize the need of protecting trees. An enlightened public sentiment has proved a better guardian of their forests than the national police. A person wantonly setting fire to a forest would there be looked upon as an outlaw, like the miscreant who should poison a public drinking fountain.