CHAPTER XXII 



ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 



THE CULTURE AND APPRECIATION OF TREES 



Who does his duty is a question 



Too complex to be solved by me, 

 But he, I venture the suggestion, 



Does part of his that plants a tree. 



LOWELL. 



To surround the home and schoolhouse and to shade 

 the roadsides with trees is a worthy purpose about which 

 to group our studies, and without some such aim what is 

 learned about bark, leaves, and forms of tree tops one day 

 may be forgotten the next. As with flowers the inner 

 purpose is to develop an enduring interest, love, and appre- 

 ciation of trees that shall make impossible their so com- 

 mon injury and abuse. To this end we must again have 

 recourse to the fundamental principle of " doing." 



Ask the pupils to write a description from memory of 

 the trees about their homes, telling the different kinds they 

 know, giving the story of their planting, the rapidity of 

 their growth, their present size, and other points of inter- 

 est. For another writing lesson the pupils may sketch a 

 plan giving the kinds of trees they would like to rear and 

 plant about the schoolhouse. These exercises will serve 

 to bring out what the children know about trees, and by 

 giving some attention to the subject each year, according 



365 



