Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

A series of entertainments may be given by the pupils, the proceeds to be applied to the buying of the land, and the pupils may also obtain money in other outside ways to bring to the general fund. If only one acre can be bought and cleared by the pupils, and properly planted, a little at a time, a tree for each child's birthday, or by obtaining small seedlings and saplings from the forest, it will be a source of keen interest, and will give an added pleasure to the school work. Watching the growth of the trees and caring for them will keep this interest alive year after year, and in time it will become a valuable property belonging to the school. Sometimes the school officials will set aside a sum from the public money to purchase the land. In one High School, one acre is thus bought each year, and every pupil in the senior year gives and plants a tree. Sometimes the farmers or the merchants of a community may unite in buying the land, which will, of course, become public property, and set it aside for improvement after the manner of a city park.

Sometimes women's clubs become interested in such a movement and will raise the funds necessary for beginning it. It then becomes the duty of the school, year after year, to plant and care for the land. After a time the school will have a valuable property to sell, or can have a yearly income from the sale of timber.

Such plans may be carried out in many schools. Every school can and should do something to forward this great work. All school yards should be well planted and care taken that the boy with a new knife does not try it on the bark or that the bark is not rubbed from the trees in careless play. Many trees planted in school yards have been destroyed in this way.

But we shall not be safe if only the schools plant trees. Farmers and lot owners should take up the work in earnest, adding as many trees as possible each year. In this way they could insure an abundant supply of fruit, nuts and timber for the future, could increase the value of their property, and provide a steady income besides.

Farmers' institutes would find this a most important work to undertake, arranging for a common plan to be carried out in an entire neighborhood, and setting aside days in which all the members may work together to set out trees by the roadsides. This brings us to the question of what kinds of trees are best to plant.

For town or city lots, fruit trees should always be chosen, because they bear in a short time and will add to the family food supply, and so lessen the cost of living and increase the variety of food. Every farm should have a good assortment of fruit. Any nurseryman's catalogue will furnish lists of kinds so that a wise choice may be made. In selecting fruit trees, great care should be taken to choose the best varieties.

For streets and roadsides, nut or wild fruit trees are best, for the trees are generally graceful in appearance and will yield some return, as the more popular maples and poplars will not. The chestnut is one of the best trees for such planting, though it is of a rather slow growth. English or American walnuts, pecans, mulberry and persimmon trees can be grown in most parts of the United States.

One town in Kansas is planting fruit trees on all its streets, so that in a few years there will be an abundance of fruit free to every passer-by. This is a most excellent plan, but individuals would be likely to find the fruit molested if only a few trees are planted in a community.

Barn-lots and lanes should be planted with wild cherry, haws, elder, dogwood, mountain-ash, and other wild fruits to serve as food for birds, poultry, and hogs.

Where the banks of streams need to be protected from erosion, probably the best tree for planting is the basket willow, which thrives well near the water, has a heavy network of roots, and is valuable for weaving into baskets and furniture.