TREE PLANTING IN NEBRASKA. 109 



and at proper Intervals, the oak of strength, the maple of beauty, the 

 elm of grandeur and the pine of pride, and If need be, the willow of woe. 

 Each In itself conveys some lesson to the young and old. Each one will 

 have the effect of binding the man and the woman, the boy and the girl 

 to the soil to stay by It, to love it, to defend it, if need be. 



The trees about a home more than anything else give its character. 

 I have often thought that farmers should instead of speaking of the 

 Jones farm, or the Smith quarter, or the Brown eighty, should give some 

 name to their abode, something significant to its appearance and charac- 

 ter, elevating and suggestive. I know a few people in the county who 

 have done this and I would like to see more of it and one of the greatest 

 sources of proper farm nomenclature would be the trees about the home. 

 Men and women will endeavor to live up to the names they give their 

 homes as professional men live up to their calling. 



And I would like to see this organization start and keep a record of 

 the various farm names that may be furnished the society. I believe that 

 it would be a good and helpful sentiment. My own farm is named, I 

 call it "Fair Montlcello," named for the place of my birth and my first 

 home in Nebraska. 



There is another reason why I urge the planting of trees and the 

 naming of farm homes and this is that men and women, boys and girls, 

 may foster an interest and pride in these farm homes. I have visited 

 cities, large and small, and have seen the varied life of their numerous 

 Inhabitants and had some opportunity to observe their ways, their lives, 

 their motives and ambitions. I have considered these with reference to 

 the future of our state and country and have noted the somewhat in- 

 creasing unrest of the swarming millions as they touch and crowd should- 

 ers, one with another, and I have thought that tranquility and harmony 

 cannot always prevail and that when friction shall become trouble, and 

 trouble grow Into riot, and riot shall swell Into rebellion, and rebellion 

 threaten revolution, the strong conservative element of balance and con- 

 trol will be found in our farm homes where our young and old live in 

 health and comfort, work with strong hands and think with clear brains. 

 There will be the force which will overcome state or national danger and 

 keep our country and its institutions Intact, free and strong. That for 

 this, and for other reasons here given, we should encourage tree planting. 

 More than that, we should plant trees! 



Thomas Dunn Was an English poet, who saw the pleasures and 

 beauties of pastoral life and saw that much of them spring from the 

 perennial products of the soil. 



He wrote the following: , 



"That was a day of delight and wonder 

 While lying in the shade of the maple tree under. 

 He felt the soft breeze of Its frolicsome play. 

 He smelt the sweet odor of newly mown hay, 

 ' Of wilding blossoms in meadow and wood, 



I ' And flowers in the garden that orderly stood; 



