18th January, A. D. igoo. 



E SSAY 



BY 



CORA C. JONES, Roxbury 



Theme: — Arbor Day. 



History of the Day. Us importance from an Economic and Educational standpoint, 

 and its possibilities for Women's Chilis. 



It is pleasant to have for a subject, one that in its name suggests 

 comfort and rest — a shelter for the weary — a grateful sh:ule to 

 the traveller. Arbor Day is the only holiday that exists for the 

 future ; all others eulogize the past, keep alive some memory 

 mingled with sorrow. Arbor Day speaks only of joy, progress, 

 hope, the most unselfish of days, providing for the welfare of 

 the future, adding to the joy of our descendants, rather than 

 glorifying the deeds of our ancestors. 



The first settlers found on the shores of their new home un- 

 limited forests, reaching, as far as they knew, from shore to 

 shore. The necessity of clearings for their farms, led them to 

 look upon the forests as their natural enemy, to be disposed of 

 by axe and saw ; so for years, forest destruction seemed in the 

 line of progress. The woodman's axe was the symbol of civili- 

 zation. What a change of scene met the eyes of those who, in 

 later years, emerged from the cool protecting woods upon the 

 vast, treeless, sunburned plains of the west. 



Here, under the tierce rays of the sun, in the blinding sand 

 storms, in the death dealing winds of winter, they learned the 

 value of trees ; realized as never before their beauty, their pro- 

 tection, their life-saving, life-giving properties. So, out of man's 

 necessities, grew the sentiment for which Arbor Day was born. 

 Early settlers destroyed the forests that the fields might bloom ; 



