Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

Many farmers have planted orchards on a part of their farm-lands and many trees have been planted in town and country, but until a few years ago there was no organized effort to plant trees.

Now many states have set apart a day which is called Arbor Day, for this purpose, but in no state does it hold so important a place as it should. It is observed by the schools but not by the general public.

In Germany there are regular tree-planting days in which all the people take part. Every one who is not too poor—and he must be poor indeed—plants a tree in his own garden, or in front of his home, in the forest or in the highway; for himself or for the general good.

Each child plants a tree on his or her birthday every year, and watches and cares for it as it grows. The roadsides are lined with fruit or nut or flowering trees which have been planted in neat, orderly rows. These things are in striking contrast to the observance of Arbor Day in this country, where one tree suffices for an entire school, or at best each class has a tree of its own. It is all a matter of enthusiasm and education.

In considering the best trees for planting we come to the last great use of trees of which we have not spoken. Fruit and nut trees supply us with large quantities of the most wholesome and delicious food. The apple, pear, peach, plum, and cherry grow in the central part of the United States, and oranges, lemons, figs, olives and apricots in the warmer parts.

By planting these trees in suitable places one may have a rich harvest for many years to come. If a small fraction of the seeds of fruit trees which are wasted each year were planted, the general food supply would be greatly increased, and many benefits would be derived from the trees themselves.

Have you ever heard the story of "Apple-seed John," the man who, according to tradition, went through what is now western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana while the country was still a wilderness and planted orchards for the settlers who, he was sure, would come later?

So many stories have been told of him that it is hard to discover how much of the tale is really true. At least one poem has been written about him, and the Reverend Newell Dwight Hillis has woven the facts and fancies of his career into a charming book, The Quest of John Chapman.

The story is that he spent his winters in the settlements near the Atlantic coast teaching the children or working at small tasks about the farms, and taking his pay always in the seeds of apples, peaches, pears, plums, and grapes. The farmers and their families saved all their seeds for him and when spring came he filled his boat with seeds and started down the Ohio River. When he reached a suitable landing-place he took his bags of seeds on his back and trudged through the forest.

Whenever he came to an open space he planted an orchard, built a fence of boughs about it, and started on again. And so he traveled on and on, through all the spring and summer months, year after year, planting his seeds for those who would come after him, until he grew too old to work.