765 



TREE-PLANTING. 



struction of their forests. Thus Michigan, 

 lately a wilderness of forest, and sending even 

 yet annually to market more lumber than any 

 other State, has become sensible of the need 

 of trees for other purposes than to be con- 

 verted into lumber, and, in 1886, made the ex- 

 periment of Arbor Day, designated, by a proc- 

 lamation of Governor Alger, as the llth of 

 April. 



A noticeable and important development of 

 the Arbor Day movement is its connection 

 with the public schools. This may be said to 

 date from the memorable tree-planting by the 

 pupils of the public schools of Cincinnati, on 

 the occasion of the meeting of the American 

 Forestry Congress, in that city, in the spring 

 of 1882. Then ; on a lovely May day, more 

 than 20,000 school-children, marshaled by 

 their teachers, formed a part of the grand pro- 

 cession, which, with the accompaniment of 

 military battalions and bands of music, while 

 flags and banners fluttered from the house-tops 

 and windows along the streets, went out to 

 Eden Park, and there planted trees in memory 

 of the most eminent authors and statesmen of 

 our own and other lands. The example set by 

 the schools of Cincinnati was speedily followed 

 elsewhere. Michigan had its Arbor Day on 

 April 11, 1886. but the most recent adoption 

 of the celebration or anniversary was by Cali- 

 fornia, on Nov. 27, 1886. The latter was a 

 popular movement carried out by private mu- 

 nificence and endeavor, and was first suggested 

 by Mr. Joaquin Miller, in the " Golden Era," 

 and pressed by Messrs. Harr Wagner, Adolph 

 Sutro, W. E. Adams, and S. W. Forman. No- 

 vember 27 was a clear, charming day. Thou- 

 sands of school-children from San Francisco 

 and Oakland were ferried over to Yerba Buena 

 Island, where the principal planting occurred, 

 while the Government steamer, " Gen. Mc- 

 Dowell," brought over the committee and in- 

 vited guests. Numerous private organizations, 

 among which may be mentioned the Oakland 

 Canoe Club, participated in the exercises. 

 Through the liberality of Mr. Adolph Sutro 

 40,000 young trees were supplied for the occa- 

 sion. The space chosen for planting at Yerba 

 Buena Island was marked out in the shape of 

 a Greek cross, the longer part 300 feet long 

 by 30 feet wide, and the transverse part, 150 

 feet long by 30 feet wide, lying toward the 

 south, on the hill-slope, its foot touching the 

 waters of the bay, its head reaching the crown 

 of the island, and its arms extending east and 

 west. The trees selected for the occasion were 

 the marine pine (Pinus maritimus), the Mon- 

 terey cypress, and the eucalyptus, with the 

 Acacia latifolia or Lophanta malva for protec- 

 tion. At the Presidio Reservation many thou- 

 sands of trees were planted, principally along 

 the roadway leading up the hill to Cemetery 

 Avenue. Holes and trenches had been previ- 

 ously dug along the side of this road, and the 

 labor of planting was thus greatly reduced. 

 At Fort Mason over 12,000 trees were planted. 



Considerable interesting literature on the 

 subject of tree-planting has been published by 

 the Forestry Division of the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, including a series 

 of reports on forestry, embodying the results 

 of much investigation and experiment, and the 

 Bureau of Education, Department of the In- 

 terior, has also published information about 

 the planting of trees in school-grounds and by 

 school-children, suggestions as to the manner 

 of celebrating the day of planting, and a col- 

 lection of extracts, from the poets and prose- 

 writers, suitable for declamation at the cele- 

 bration. The United States are but just be- 

 ginning to recognize the importance of pro- 

 tecting their forests ; but, as yet, there is no 

 accepted standard by which to determine what 

 shall be classed as forest land, how abundant 

 the trees must be, or in what proximity to 

 each other, in order to bring them within the 

 classification of forest in distinction from waste, 

 or pasture land. The following table, com- 

 piled from the State and national records, is, 

 therefore, not minutely accurate, but it is more 

 closely approximate to a correct representation 

 of our forest-area than any which have been 

 given in the past : 



