TREES AS GOOD CITIZENS 



CHAPTER I. 



TREES AS GOOD CITIZENS 



The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 



To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 



And spread the roof above them ere he framed 



The lofty vault to gather and roll back 



The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, 



Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, 



And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 



And supplication. 



William Cullen Bryant. 



MAN owes it to himself to see that the street and road- 

 side shade tree is given its well-earned place in the sun. 



This place has been won through a service of centuries. 

 Since time began, the shade tree has been the changeless 

 and unfailing friend of the human race. It has graced 

 earth with its beauty, and to every generation has given 

 freely of its protective shelter. Beneath its friendly boughs 

 man has found refuge from the blazing sun and the angry 

 storm. To every human being the shade tree is a bene- 

 factor; to every community a blessing and a benediction. 



Shade-giving is the one thing in which the tree's 

 relations with man have stood unchanged. All other 

 relationships of tree and man have varied with the ages, for 

 the uses of wood have gone through a steady development 

 with the progress of the race. Shade trees alone, among the 

 children of the forest, have been ever constant. 



There has, it is true, been no change in the influence of 



trees on literature. To-day, as for countless centuries, 



man seeks the shade of a friendly tree to write or to enjoy 



what others have written. The poets of by-gone ages 



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