32 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



forces and influences that will contribute to the personal happiness and comfort of 

 the individual? What more practical, than to introduce into our homes aii appre- 

 ciative sense of the beautiful, the healthful, the useful in nature? It is but a step 

 from the school to the home, and it is clearly the part of practical wisdom to make 

 that step as fraught with beneficent results as it is possible to effect in the school. 

 A right feeling for nature means infinitely more than the planting of trees. By a 

 necessary law of association, it embraces a wide range of conditions in our every- 

 day life. It means a greater exhibition of tenderness, thoughtfulness, and gentle- 

 ness in our social intercourse; it means a greater regard for orderliness, neatness, 

 and beauty in our surroundings. A tree planted needs attention and care, which 

 can not be bestowed without entering into the general habit of the planter; it may 

 need a box to protect it; the shrub or bed of flowers suggests the well-kept lawn or 

 the more modest grassplat; and these in turn point to a neat fence, a clean yard 

 with trim walks, a painted house, and within, tidy rooms, decorated walls, pictures 

 and books, good cheer and comfort. It will be readily admitted that these things 

 can not be, without affecting wholesomely and only for good the moral tone of the 

 family life, and, through it, that of the community. 



PLANTING TREES A PATRIOTIC DUTY. 



Not less interesting and pertinent is the address of Dr. J. T. Rothrock, 

 State commissioner of forestry of Pennsylvania, to the public schools 

 of Lancaster on Arbor Day of last year: 



Less than three. centuries ago, in the providence of God, our ancestors fell heirs to 

 a laud which was not only well watered and fertile, but well wooded. It is fair to 

 say that on the eastern slope of the continent there was no second area equal in size 

 to Pennsylvania which possessed resources so varied and that bid fair to last so long. 

 So rich was our inheritance that we felt we could never come to want or see the end 

 of our resources. American extravagance has become a byword among other nations, 

 and Pennsylvania is in no respect behind others in the sisterhood of States. 



But already practically 75 per cent of our State is destitute of real forest growth, 

 and to meet the wants of a rapidly increasing population we are now importing 

 lumber. Not only this, but from about an eighth of the land which we have cleared 

 we have so exhausted the fertility that it can no longer be made remunerative in 

 agriculture. In at least one county of our State we have the word of the president 

 judge that the barren hillsides are being deserted by their population because they 

 can no longer wring a living from the impoverished lands. 



Thus far mankind has derived its food from the soil or the water. In the state- 

 house of Massachusetts there hangs a figure of a codfish, to indicate that from the 

 sea that great Commonwealth derives a large part of its support. Our waters are 

 practically barren, and our strength must come from the soil. I desire now to leave 

 a question with the young people of Lancaster. It is this : If on the one hand we 

 double our population in about thirty years, and if, on the other hand, we continue 

 to make so much of soil poorer every year, how will those who come after us obtain 

 a living? Bear in mind that when you render the soil incapable of producing a 

 crop you cut off the head of the State. Thirty years and more ago our nation's life 

 was in danger. From the hillsides of Pennsylvania more than two hundred thou- 

 sand brave men poured down to save the country, that your lives might be peaceful, 

 happy, and prosperous. I know you love the dear old flag around which so many of 

 us rallied. I know that there is not a boy or girl before me but thinks the red, white, 

 and blue of "Old Glory" are the very brightest and best colors that fly in the 

 breeze of any land. Its ample folds mark the thousands of schoolhouses where you 

 are taught to become good men and women and patriotic citizens. But you are now 

 called upon to save the State from wasting its strength, and from becoming weak 

 and poor, when it should be strong and rich. God never allowed a child to grow up 



