STATE HOBTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 29 



But this is not all, the aesthetic faculties would also be trained 

 by such study. What is the standard of beauty in this world? We 

 say we find it exhibited in the fine arts, in sculpture, in painting, in 

 architecture. We look upon some imposing building with Ionic 

 or Corinthian capitals and we pronounce it beautiful. We say the 

 same thing of a Grecian statue, or of a painting by one of the great 

 masters. But these are none of them originals. So far as they 

 have any beauty at all, they are copies, — copies of what (jod has 

 already formed in nature. A statue, however smoothly chiselled, 

 would be pronounced a deformity if it did not actually represent the 

 human body. The acanthus leaves of the Corinthian capitol is per- 

 fect just in so far as it is a representation of the leaf as it grows on 

 the acanthus plant. And the same thing is true in painting. The 

 pattern of beauty is in God's creation and not in man's. Let the 

 child then study trees, flere he may find lavishly displayed in the 

 forms and colors of leaf, and blossom, and branch, and trunk, the 

 originals of so much beauty that delights man. Let him go to the 

 fountain head of beauty both of form and color. 



All the objects that have been named, — pleasure, health, educa- 

 tion, — can be more fully attained by active cooperation on the part 

 of the pupils in the planting and care of trees. I know that the 

 burdens laid upon the teacher are many. The demands made upon 

 him are often unreasonable. And I certainly have no desire to add 

 to these burdens or to multiply these demands. But I believe that 

 every teacher will find himself assisted in the discipline of his school, 

 and also in his work of instructiou by interesting his pupils in this 

 matter of tree planting. I commend this then to every teacher as 

 a means of helping forward the work in which he is engaged. Let 

 the children become interested in the planting of trees. Let them, 

 to some extent, do the work with their own hands so that the enter- 

 prise shall, in some sense, be considered their own. Let them watch 

 the growth of what they have planted. Let them feel a responsi- 

 bility for the success of the enterprise. As far as possible let their 

 feelings become awakened. The effect upon them will be in all 

 respects improving, — physically, intellectually, morally, aesthetically. 

 Of course all this will require some care on the part of the teasher, 

 but it will be care well bestowed. If the purpose of school educa- 

 tion is the development of manhood and womanhood, these efforts 

 will contribute to that result powerfully. 



In this connection let me commend to all teachers and school 

 officers the observance of the day known as "Arbor Day." By an 

 act of the legislature, approved June 10, 1887, it is made the duty 

 of the governor to " designate every spring, by an official proclama- 

 tion, a day to be known as Arbor Day, which is to be observed 

 throughout the State as a day for planting trees, shrubs and vines, 

 about the homes and along the highways, and about the public 

 grounds within this State." Now surely the grounds about school- 



