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Tree-planting is fitted to give a needful lesson of forethought 

 to the juvenile mind. Living only in the present and for the 

 present, youth sow, too often, only where they can quickly 

 reap. A meager crop soon in hand, outweighs a golden 

 harvest long in maturing. They should learn to forecast the 

 future as the condition* of wisdom. Arboriculture is a disci- 

 pline in foresight it is always planting for the future, and 

 sometimes for the distant future. Says Washington Irving, 

 " There is something nobly simple and pure in such a taste for 

 trees. It argues a sweet and generous nature to have this 

 strong friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest. 

 There is a serene majesty in woodland scenery that enters into 

 the soul, dilates and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclina- 

 tions. There is a grandeur of thought connected with this 

 heroic line of husbandry. It is worthy of liberal and free- 

 born and aspiring men. He who plants an oak, looks forward 

 to future ages and plants for posterity. He cannot expect to 

 enjoy its shelter, but he exults in the idea that the acorn 

 which he has buried in the earth shall grow up into a lofty pile, 

 ,and shall keep on flourishing and increasing and benefiting 

 mankind long after he has ceased to tread his paternal fields." 

 It was the trees of his own planting at Sunnyside-on-the- 

 Hudson, more than the beauty of the surrounding landscape, 

 that led Irving to say, "After all my wanderings, I return to 

 this spot with a heartfelt preference for it over all others in the 

 world." It was the simple beauty he had created at Marsh- 

 field, the grassy lawns, the shaded approaches, the hundreds 

 of trees of his planting, that bound Daniel Webster so 

 strongly to that sequestered spot. The charm of Abbotsford, 

 the grand Mecca of Scotland, comes mainly from its beautiful 

 ivy and shrubbery and the thousands of trees planted by the 

 hand of its illustrious proprietor. Says Sir Walter Scott, 

 " My heart clings to this place I have created. There is scarce 

 a tree in it that does not owe its being to me. Once well 

 planted, a tree will grow when you are sleeping, and it is 

 almost the only thing that needs no tending." 



Over three million dollars have been expended in the last 

 ten years in Connecticut, in building and repairing school 

 houses. Wise and necessary as was this expenditure, had one- 



