ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 13 



never-failing source of enjoyment. To studies are more wholesome 

 than those of natural objects. They are suggestive of only what is good. 

 They cultivate the sense and love of the beautiful everywhere. They 

 meliorate the nature Avithin us and lit us to be associates with one 

 another, and to become worthy members of society wherever we may be. 



And so Arbor Day and its public observance, taken with the studies 

 connected with it, has led on naturally to the formation of town and 

 village improvement societies and various other associations and organ- 

 izations for the promotion, in one way and another, of the public wel- 

 fare. The spirit of Arbor Day is benevolent. Its aim is the public 

 good in some form, and it has a wide outlook. There is nothing narrow 

 or selfish about it. If it plants trees, it is not for the benefit of any 

 individual alone, but for all who may see them and have the benefit of 

 them, whether soon or centuries hence. It plants for those who are to 

 come, as well as for those now living. 



Arbor Day is the one festival or celebration which, instead of look- 

 ing backward and glorifying the heroes and achievements of the past 

 or recounting the praises of present enterprises or actors, looks forward 

 and seeks to make a better environment and a better inheritance for 

 the coining generations. Its spirit is hopeful. Its motto is progress. 

 It is ever reaching out for new acquisitions of knowledge, and seeking 

 to impart new and more widespread benefits. 



It is not a matter for wonder, therefore, that an institution with 

 such a spirit and such possibilities, with so much to commend it to the 

 attention of persons of intelligence and generous feeling, and especially 

 to the ardent natures of the young, should have a speedy and wide 

 acceptance. And so, by its own manifest merit and without any prop- 

 agandism on its behalf, it has been adopted by nearly every State and 

 Territory of the Union; and limited by no national boundaries, it has 

 even crossed the Atlantic on the one hand, and become established in 

 Great Britain, France, and northern and southern Africa, and on the 

 other, within the present year, has crossed the Pacific and been wel- 

 comed in the Hawaiian Islands and in Japan. 



The beneficent results of an institution of this character, and already 

 almost world- wide in its read), no one can measure. Year by year it 

 will bring millions of people, young and old, into a closer and more 

 intimate contact with nature, unveiling to them its precious secrets, 

 opening to them stores of valuable knowledge, and cultivating in them 

 the best feelings. In our own country it promises to do more than 

 anything else to convert us from a nation of wanton destroyers of our 

 unparalleled heritage of trees to one of tree planters and protectors. 

 Instead of looking upon the trees with indifference, or even with a hos- 

 tile feeling, as to a great extent we have done, or regarding them chiefly 

 as material for use in the constructive arts or to be consumed as fuel, 

 we shall become tree lovers. A tree sentiment .will be created and 

 established which will lead us to recognize and cherish the trees as 



