66 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



The material benefits of Arbor Day alone are incalculable, for it makes the barren 

 land fertile and the desert plain green with beauty. 



But these material benefits, great as they are, are small compared with the moral 

 effect on the mind and heart of the people. In the young, especially, it enriches the 

 taste, cultivates the love of beauty, and provides pleasant, healthful impressions 

 that never will be obliterated. The love of trees, I think, has a more elevating 

 effect than even the love of flowers; it is more strong and invigorating. 



Besides all these immediate benefits, Arbor Day reaches far beyond the localities 

 where it is observed. The young, gathered in certain sections, eventually become 

 scattered and have homes of their own. The influence of this day will follow them 

 there, and under the influence of their early cherished impressions trees will be 

 planted, not only around their dwellings, but along the roads and water courses of 

 the place in which they live, and thus cover the land with beauty and blessing. 



All honor, then, to the founder of Arbor Day. The sculptor's art could not erect 

 so noble a monument to his memory as loving hands and hearts are rearing and shall 

 rear to it all over this barren land. J. T. Headley. 



All lovers of nature may well rejoice in the establishment of Arbor Day, and join 

 in doing honor to the founder of an institution so beneficent. Thomas Wentworth 

 Higginson. 



Whatever makes a village or town more attractive promotes that local pride and 

 public spirit which are the vital and .conservative forces of a great republic ; and, if 

 the planter of one shade tree is a public benefactor, what shall we say of him who 

 stimulates the planting of whole groves and forests? George William Curtis. 



The observance of Arbor Day is aiding in bringing about a realization of the needs 

 of our forestry interests, and will ultimately make the whole country equal to the 

 occasion of a methodical, systematic forestry management. B. E. Fernow. 



Many people, often among the most intelligent, when they first hear of Arbor Day, 

 look upon it as a kind of sentimental feast quite out of date in our matter-of-fact 

 generation, but upon a closer inspection they soon discover its practical value. 

 H. G. Joly. 



Prior to 1872 no system of forestry had been attempted in the United States. 

 The spasmodic efforts of tree planting upon a small scale, with very rare exceptions, 

 were attended with the most unsatisfactory results. 



Forests were cut away without system and without thought of future condition or 

 wants until it was self-evident that unless some judicious and comprehensive forest 

 policy was adopted, this continent, once bristling with its primeval forests, would 

 be permanently deprived of an element which constitutes a most important part 

 in the economy of nature. 



Forestry, no less than science, is a development of civilization. Colbert was 

 instrumental in preventing the useless waste of the forests of the old world, but the 

 honor of bequeathing to future generations an invaluable legacy of the perpetuation 

 of forests was reserved for a philanthropist of a more advanced age. 



There is no State in the Union but needs such a legacy, and when that which is 

 now observed in twenty-eight States becomes a national holiday, then will each citi- 

 zen have left to him and to his heirs forever, under a seal greater than that of Caesar's, 

 "private arbors and new-planted orchards." 



If a John Howard, ameliorating the evils of convict life and alleviating the suffer- 

 ings of prisoners, can be called the "world's philanthrepist," surely he who origi- 

 nates measures which tend directly to the improvement and fertility of the land and 

 the wealth and comfort of the inhabitants, adding as many dollars to the world's 

 exchequer as the mines of uncoined ore produce, and more rays to the brightness of 

 the world's civlization than the electric spark has generated, is not least among 

 fellow men. A. J. Sawyer. 



