ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 11 



example became somewhat alarmed by the inroads which were even 

 then being made upon their forests, and made enactments for their pro- 

 tection. This action was exceptional, however, and little was done to 

 draw attention to the rapid and dangerous depletion of our forests and 

 awaken public sentiment on the subject until within the comparatively 

 recent period of which we have just spoken. 



For the purpose of securing a supply of timber for naval construction 

 the Government, at the beginning of the present century, purchased 

 certain tracts of live-oak timber, and about twenty-five years later, by 

 an act of Congress, the President was authorized to take measures for 

 their preservation. About the same time the Massachusetts Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture offered prizes for forest planting, and thirty 

 years later the State ordered a survey of her timber lands. Thirty 

 years later still, acts began to be-passed for the encouragement of tim- 

 ber planting, chiefly in the treeless Western States. The well-known 

 timber- culture act was one of these. It made a free gift of the public 

 lands to the successful planter of forest trees on one-fourth of his entry. 



About twenty years ago the subject of forest destruction and its 

 detrimental results came before the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science for consideration, and as the result of its dis- 

 cussions the association memorialized Congress, asking that measures 

 be taken for the protection of the public timber lands. In consequence 

 of this, a committee of the House of Representatives was appointed for 

 the purpose of considering the establishment of a forestry department 

 of the Government, and two years later the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture was authorized to appoint a forest commissioner, which was the 

 foundation of the present Forestry Division in the Department of Agri- 

 culture. The commissioner, the late Dr. F. B. Hough, made protracted 

 inquiries into the condition of the forests in this country and in Europe, 

 and published a voluminous report on the subject, which is altogether 

 the most complete and valuable publication on forestry which has 

 appeared in this country. 



It was at about this time, or a few years earlier, that a practical 

 movement was inaugurated by the present Secretary of Agriculture, 

 the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, which has done more for the protection of 

 our forests and the encouragement of tree planting than all our legis- 

 lation. This was the establishment of Arbor Day, or tree-planting day. 

 It was the happy thought of this pioneer settler on the treeless plains of 

 Nebraska, who knew and felt the value of trees about the home, as well 

 as their importance for the many uses of life, to enlist his neighbors 

 and his fellow settlers throughout the State, by a common impulse, 

 growing out of common wants and feelings, in the work of tree planting 

 on one and the same given day. The wise suggestion was brought before 

 the State board of agriculture in the form of a resolution designating a 

 certain day for the inauguration of the tree-planting movement. The 

 resolution was readily adopted. The appeal to the popular feeling and 



