ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 27 



courage and won renown for England's arms. Nelson and Wellington, victors by 

 sea and land, were there, and hundreds more whose epitaphs were written in blood 

 which, as it poured from ghastly wounds, had borne other mortals to the unknown 

 world. Few men who won distinction in civil life are entombed at "St. Paul's, but 

 among them is the gifted architect, Sir Christopher Wren, in whose brain the con- 

 cept of St. Paul's Cathedral had a mental existence before it materialized in massive 

 marble. His epitaph is plain, brief, truthful, impressive ; it is one which each hon- 

 orable man in all the world may humbly strive for and become the better for the striv- 

 ing ; it is one which every faithful disciple of horticulture, of forestry, will deserve 

 from his friends, his family, and his country ; vast orchards which he has planted and 

 the great arms of towering elms, spreading their soothing shade like a benediction 

 over the weary wayfarer who rests at their feet, and all the fluttering foliage whis- 

 pering to the wanton winds shall tell the story of his benefaction to humanity, arbor- 

 phoning that epitaph with perennial fidelity, "Si queeris monumentum, circuni- 

 spice" If you seek my monument, look around you. 



Appropriately following the address of Mr, Morton, some extracts' 

 from an address of the Hon. B. G. Northrop, on Arbor Day, before the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, have place here : 



OBSERVANCE OF ARBOR DAY BY SCHOOLS. 



In this g^-and work initiated by Governor Morton [J. Sterling Morton], its appli- 

 cation to schools was not named. The great problem then was to meet the urgent 

 needs of vast treeless prairies. At the meeting of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, held at St. Paul, Minn., in August, 1883, a resolution which I offered in favor 

 of observing Arbor Day in schools in all our States and in the provinces of the 

 Dominion of Canada (the association being international) was adopted, and a com- 

 mittee to push that work was appointed. Continued as their chairman from that 

 day to this, I have presented the claims of Arbor Day personally or by letter to the 

 governor or State school superintendent in all our States and Territories. My first 

 efforts were not encouraging. By men in high positions Arbor Day was deemed an 

 obtrusive innovation. It was no surprise to me when my paper on "Arbor Day in 

 Schools," read at the National Educational Association (department of superintend- 

 ence) at Washington, in February, 1884, called out the comment, "This subject is 

 out of place here." Though that paper was printed by the United States Bureau of 

 Education, it was a grateful surprise that the next meeting of the National Educa- 

 tional Association, held in August of the same year, at Madison, Wis., with an 

 unprecedeutedly large attendance, unanimously adopted my resolution in favor of 

 Arbor Day in schools in all our States. 



The logic of events has answered objections. Wherever it has been fairly tried, it 

 has stood the test of experience. Now such a day is observed in forty States and 

 Territories in accordance with legislative act, or by special recommendation of the 

 governor or State school superintendent, or the State grange, or the State horticul- 

 tural and agricultural societies, and in some States, as in Connecticut, by all these 

 combined. It has already become the most interesting, widely observed, and useful 

 of school holidays. 



Arbor Day has fostered love of country. Now that the national flag with its forty- 

 four stars floats over all the schoolhouses in so many States, patriotism is effectively 

 combined with the Arbor Day addresses, recitations, and songs. Among the latter, 

 the "Star Spangled Banner" and "America" usually find a place. Who can esti- 

 mate the educating influence already exerted upon the myriads of youth who have 

 participated in these exercises? 



To the teaching of forestry in schools, it is objected that the course of study is 

 already overcrowded and this is true. But I have long urged that trees and tree 

 life and culture form a fit subject for the oral lessons now common in all our best 



