A

ASSOCIATION.

No. 10.

BRIEF sketch of Arbor Day in schools, its aims and results, will show its relation to horticulture. Arbor Day, for economic tree-planting, and Arbor Day in schools, differ in origin and scope. The former was originated by ex-Governor J. Sterling Morton, in Nebraska, in 1872. In January of In January of that year the State Board of Agriculture heartily endorsed his plan, and offered liberal prizes for its encouragement. The newspapers of the State strongly commended the scheme, and the founder eloquently advocated it by pen and tongue. The result was a marvelous success the first year, and still greater success the second and each subsequent year. In 1874, Robert W. Furnas, then governor, issued the first Arbor Day proclamation ever made. In 1885 Ar bor Day was made a legal holiday by the Legislature and its observance has been growing in interest and usefulness from that day to this. So broad and beneficent have been the results of the Arbor Day move. ment in Nebraska, that its originator is there gratefully recognized as a great benefactor of the State-now the leading State in America for tree-planting. It glories in the old misnomer of the geographies "The Great American Desert," since it has become so habitable and hospitable by cultivation and tree-planting. Where twenty

* Address delivered February 27, 1892, by Hon. B. G. Northrop, of Clinton, Connecticut, before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

years ago the books said trees would not grow, the settler is now the exception who does not plant them. The Nebraskans are justly proud of this great achievement, and with the demonstration made all over the State of the cash value of their planted forests, both for fuel and lumber, are determined to maintain this preeminence.

CENTENNIAL TREES IN CONNECTICUT.

I have been thus explicit as to the origin. of Arbor Day, because it has so often been erroneously attributed to me. Though over twenty years ago I advocated tree-planting by youth, in the press and in official State reports, and in January, 1876, started the scheme of centennial tree-planting (a suggestion seconded by the press of Connecticut and transmitted across the continent) and offered a dollar prize to every boy or girl in Connecticut who should plant or help in planting five "Centennial Trees,"-an offer which met an unexpected response over the state-still, the happy idea of designating a day, when all citizens should be invited to unite in this work, was not mine, but was duly credited by me in the Century magazine and other journals, to its proper

source.

In this grand work, initiated by Governor Morton, its application to schools was not named. The great problem then was to meet the urgent needs of vast, treeless prairies. At the American Forestry Association,

held at St. Paul, Minn., in August, 1883, a resolution which I offered was adopted in favor of observing Arbor Day in schools in all our states and in the provinces of the Dominion of Canada (the association being international), and a committee to push that work was appointed. Continued as their chairman from that day to this, I have presented the claims of Arbor Day personally or by letter to the Governor or State School Superintendent in all our States and Territories. My first efforts were not encouraging. By men in high positions Arbor Day was deemed an obtrusive innovation. It was no surprise to me when my paper on "Arbor Day in Schools," read at the National Educational Association (Department of Superintendence) at Washington, in February, 1884, called out the comment, "This subject is out of place here." Though that paper was printed by the United States Bureau of Education, it was a grateful surprise that the next National Educational Association, held in August of the same year, at Madison, Wis., with an unprecedentedly large attendance, unanimously adopted my resolution in favor of Arbor Day in schools in all our States.

The indifference of State officials at the outset was expected, and, therefore, occasioned no discouragement. A Governor of Massachusetts, for example, received me personally with courtesy, but my proposition with coolness. That incident increased my pleasure in listening to the admirable address given in this hall September 22, 1886, when Governor Robinson eloquently welcomed the American Forestry Association to Massachusetts, and expressed his sympathy with all its aims. In like manner the indifference of Governor Oglesby, of Illinois, was followed by active interest. He kindly named but one of the objections obviously in mind; for, to use his own words, that was "insuperable-the great variation in our climate, extending, as Illinois does, five and a half degrees, from the latitude of Salem, Mass., to that of Petersburg, Va." To which I replied, "Why not designate two days, one early and another later for the northern section, as is done in Canada?" On the first Arbor Day of Illinois, Governor Oglesby procured an elm and set it out on the State House grounds, digging the hole himself. The other State officers followed his example, planting in all fifteen trees of various kinds. Other governors and school superintendents, who at first were apathetic, on fuller information have worked heartily for the adoption of Arbor Day. The logic of events has

answered objections. Wherever it has been fairly tried, it has stood the test of experience. Now such a day is observed in thirty-nine States and Territories in accordance with the legislative act, or by special recommendations of the Governor or State School Superintendent, or the State grange, and the State horticultural and agricultural societies, and in some States, as in Connecticut, by all these combined. It has already become the most interesting, most widely observed and most useful of school holidays. It should not be a legal holiday. That was no doubt a wise provision for the once treeless prairies of Nebraska. At the meeting of the American Forestry Association held in Washington in December last, a resolution was passed against efforts to make Arbor Day in school a legal holiday, for in some States such efforts defeated or delayed the passage of an Arbor Day law.

Popular interest in this work has been stimulated by the annual proclamations of Governors, and by the admirable circulars and programmes of school superintendents, the latter sent to every school in the State. The excellent proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec nine years ago (one of the first of the kind issued on this continent) predicted that Arbor Day "would become one of the institutions of the country, in which our boys and girls will take an eager share and genuine pleasure, and thus gain a liking for trees that will never be effaced," a prediction happily verified in that province, largely through the efforts of Hon. H. G. Joly, of Quebec, whose address in this hall five years ago many of you remember.

HOW LOVE OF COUNTRY IS FOSTERED.

Arbor Day has fostered love of country. It has become a patriotic observance in the Southern States, which have fixed its date on Washington's birthday. Having lectured in all the Southern States except Arkansas, I have been delighted to find there as true loyalty to the stars and stripes as in the North. Mingling freely with former officers in the Confederate service, I have often asked the question, "Have you any lingering regrets that you did not succeed in the war?" The answer of one is substantially that of all, "Not a bit. Our success would have proved a lasting disaster. Our defeat in arms is already the source of our prosperity in peace." It was to me a scene of thrilling interest at De Funiak Springs, Fla., when such an enthusiastic crowd, young and old, gathered to plant a

around their beautiful lake, besides memorial trees to Washington and other patriots and philanthropists. A brief State panegyric was made at the dedication of each tree. A cablegram received the day previous from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts welcomed such a tribute, and a memorial tree was planted to her. It was my lot to make the "eulogy" in dedication of that tree.

This custom of planting memorial trees in honor of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, and other patriots, and also of celebrated authors and philanthropists, has become general, Now that the national flag, with its forty-two stars, floats over all the school-houses in so many States, thanks to to the earnest appeals of the Youths' Companion, which inaugurated this movement ment in 1888, and in this, as in other ways, has become a national educator, patriotism is effectively combined with the Arbor Day addresses, recitations, and songs. Among the latter the "Star Spangled Banner" and "America" usually find a place. Who can estimate the educating influence already exerted upon the myriads of youth who have participated in these exercises? A few educators in high official positions still stand aloof, whose co operation is greatly desired and still expected.

This custom has been heartily commended by the eminent authors of America. The Arbor Day circulars within the reach of every scholar contain choice selections in prose and poetry (many of them written for Arbor Day celebrations) on the value and beauty of trees. What growth of mind and heart may come to our youth as they learn these rich gems of our literature, and still more as they are thus led to apply them by planting and caring for trees! What multitudes of youth have thus united sentiments of patriotism, and the study of literature. and history, with the love of trees, vines, shrubs and flowers, and thus with the love of Nature in all her endless forms of beauty.

It was formerly my privilege to travel widely over Massachusetts, both by carriage and cars, with that eminent arborist, George B. Emerson (long a member of this association and of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and author of "Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts'). To show how susceptible is the juvenile mind when consciously brought into contact with Nature by a teacher competent to be her interpreter, he told me the following incident as the turning point in his history. "When I was a mere boy my teacher handed me a flower,

And when I had done so, for the first time in my life for I had never before truly seen a flower he gave me their several botanic names, introducing each with its Saxon. synonym which I never forgot. That brief talk of twenty minutes inspired me with an interest in observation and study of Nature that led to liberal culture." How heartily would he have welcomed Arbor Day in the Massachusetts schools! Mr. Emerson's experience shows that love of knowledge is the vital force in education, preparing the soil and fertilizing the seeds of truth. It is the parent of perception and attention, of memory, imagination and expression. Though at first a restless instinct, it should mature into a ruling passion. Curiosity should be to the mind what appetite is to the body, creating a hungering for knowledge-the mind's food. mind's food. Love of truth was as strong a passion with Emerson or Agassiz as love of conquest with Napoleon. Under its healthful inspiration study is a pleasure; without it a task, often the dullest drudgery.

TREES FIT SUBJECTS FOR ORAL TEACHING.

To the teaching of forestry in schools, it is objected that the course of study is already overcrowded-and this is true. But

I have long urged that trees, tree life and culture, form a fit subject for the oral lessons now common in all our best schools. When agent of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, I sometimes took to the schools and institutions a collection of our common woods, as an object lesson, one of many aids in observation, discriminating wood by the grain. The same plan was occasionally tried in Connecticut, and with good results. To give one of many illustrations: A citizen of Norfolk, Connecticut, offered eighteen volumes of Appleton's Science Primers to any pupil who should gather and arrange the largest and best collection of the different kinds of wood, shrub or vine growing in that town. Great interest was awakened and 135 varieties were gathered by all the competitors, of which the collection of Washington Beach (who won the prize) numbered 125. What a discipline in quickness and accuracy of perception those school boys gained while exploring the fields, hills and mountains of this large town, and discriminating all these varieties by the grain or bark! With no interruption of studies, there was a quickened zest and vigor for school work, and best of all-that rare and priceless attainment-a trained eye. John M. Woods, of Somerville, has given a simi