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AFTER ARBOR DAY 



ND now we come to the most important of all After 

 Arbor Day. After the program has been rendered, 

 after the trees and shrubs have been planted what 

 will be their fate ? Is water hard to secure in your 

 district ? Will there be several long, hot, dry summer 

 vacation months when the schoolhouse is deserted, 

 when no one comes near to inquire into the condition 

 of the trees planted on Arbor Day ? Have trees and 

 shrubs been planted and left to struggle for them- 

 selves, live or die, without further care ? 



These are but a few of the pertinent questions which the teacher 

 must answer and needs must answer BEFORE Arbor Day, if success 

 is to mantle her efforts. Plans must be made for months ahead; if you 

 begin the work, carry it through. "Not how many trees planted, but 

 how many trees live," should be your watchword and battle cry. It is 

 labor lost to plant trees and then abandon them to merciless climatic 

 conditions, to become the prey of vagrant cow or horse, to die through 

 sheer neglect. 

 The teacher in 

 the southland 

 will have a 

 greater task be- 

 fore him than 

 will his northern 

 fellow teacher, 

 for in the north- 

 land rainfall is more plentiful, summer exactions less rigorous, and vege- 

 tation more prolific, but the greater renown will attach his successful 

 efforts. 



Arrange to have the janitor, a trustee, some patron, or a boy come 

 during the summer months and water the trees and shrubs; see that 

 stock is kept off the premises, enrich the soil, and cultivate where neces- 

 sary. A portion of the money set aside to pay the regular janitor (see 

 Hec. 1617, Subd. 7, California School Law) could be used to pay for this 

 vacation care, if no one can be secured to do the work and do it faith- 

 fully without compensation. 



Water supply, cultivation and care of trees and shrubs, AFTER 

 ARBOR DAY, are the important factors you should look to if Arbor Day 

 planting is to be of effect. It is difficult to decide which has the worst 

 influence upon the pupil a barren school ground, or dead stumps and 

 decaying shrubs; sad monuments to a lost cause, reminders of a poorly 

 planned campaign. 



