326 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ARBOR DAY. 
HON. C. M. LORING, MINNEAPOLIS. 
An address delivered before the South Minneapolis High School, Arbor Day, 1895. 
Students of the South Side High school:—I am glad to be with 
you this morning. It always makes me feel as if I were a boy again 
to be with young people, and I have no pleasure equal to that of 
seeing them enjoy themselves. Some one has said that we are not 
as old as we look, but only as old as we feel. That being true,l am as 
young as you. On one of my voyages on an ocean steamer one of 
my fellow passengers was a gentleman apparently about 70 years of 
age, who was so active and energetic in getting up entertainments 
to amuse the company that he soon got to be looked upon as the 
youngest man in the cabin, and he made us feel young by introduc- 
ing games and plays usually indulged in by young people. iasked 
him one day how he retained his youthful spirits. His reply was: 
“How could I help it? I have eighteen daughters who have kept 
me young.” 
I was invited here today to talk about trees and not about young 
people, but as I associate them together in my mind and have the 
‘same sentiments for both, it seems quite as natural for me to talk of 
one as of the other. 
I think, the first tree I remember much about was the birch. You 
will remember that King Solomon said that to spare the rod was to 
spoil the child, and as the bible was read in the schools in the good 
old days when I was a boy, the teachers seemed to have that pas- 
sage very firmly impressed upon their minds, and the birch tree was 
the one from which the rods were cut which saved us from being 
spoiled. Naturally, you would say that kind of association with 
trees would not make us love them very much, but we soon learned 
the names of the apple, the cherry, the hickory, the beech and other 
fruit and nut bearing trees, which knowledge, by the way, sometimes 
brought us into intimate relations with the birch, but the pleasures 
ofatrip to the woods overcome our fear of it, and we soon learned 
to know and love the trees. Oh! but it was glorious to start off early 
ona bright morning in autumn to gather nuts! What did we care 
for a walk of six or eight miles? All thoughts of fatigue vanished 
as soon as the grand old hickory trees were reached. There we 
found the squirrels busy collecting their winter supplies, and the 
birds gathered in flocks preparing for their flight to their southern 
home, the old leaders flitting from tree to tree, seemingly trying to 
marshal the chattering, scolding company into some degree of order 
and discipline before the start on the long journey; and, best of all, 
the ground covered with the green shells which enclosed the white 
hickory nuts that were to furnish us refreshment during the long 
winter evenings. The bags were soon filled, and the boys on their 
way home, staggering under their loads, reaching home tired and 
happy, and their dreams were of the trees and the woods. They 
learned lessons in natural history that day which gave them pleas- 
ure through life, and they learned to love the trees. . Nearly all boys 
and girls have a natural love for trees and flowers. Do you not like 
to go to the woods in the springtime to see the young leaves break- 
