ARBOR DAY OBSERVANCE PRAISED 



E 



DITORS of the nation have given the 

 most remarkable response to the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association's Arbor Day 

 semi-centennial activities in honor of J. 

 Sterling Morton. Whether it be memorial 

 tree planting. Roads of Remembrance, or 

 sending tree seeds to Great Britain and 

 France, they all seize upon the theme for 

 editorial expression of the greater lesson 

 behind it all an endeavor to interest the 

 public in the broader aspects of the ques- 

 tion, the perpetuation of our forests. 



Of course, the people responded in mag- 

 nificent fashion to the tree, planting call 

 and the editors saw that response. Take, 

 for example, the plans of the Rock Island 

 Railroad for instituting tree planting along 

 its lines to celebrate the seve.ntieth anniver- 

 sary of the first train out of Chicago for 

 the West. The educational possibilities of 

 this plan alone cannot be estimated at this 

 writing, but the fact remains that the mes- 

 sage of the trees and what they mean is 

 being carried from one end of the country 

 to the other. 



To recount the tree planting activities 

 of the nation this spring would take too 

 much space. We must be content with giv- 

 ing the members of the .Association a con- 



densed review of those mirrors of public 

 opinion, the editorial pages of the country. 

 They best reflect what the country is doing, 

 fast becoming a tree-planting nation. Some 

 of the editorial comment follows : 



Tacoma Ledger: Fifty years ago the first 

 .\rbor EXay was celebrated in Nebraska, in 

 response to a recommendation of the State 

 board of agriculture. From that small 

 beginning, it has grown into an institution 

 of vast scope and influence, whose possi- 

 bilities are even now only beginning to be 

 realized, as Americans see the depletion 

 of their forests and appreciate more fully 

 the need of new planting. 



Albany Press: The occasion of the semi- 

 centennial of the day should be a good time 

 to make resolutions to the effect that tree 

 planting will be given unsurpassed atten- 

 tion in the next fifty years. New York 

 State has started this year remarkably well. 



Battle Creek Journal: Trees are for all 

 moods and all ages, bestowing their bless- 

 ings on any who will deign to accept them. 

 If you want a sure, true friend for life, 

 plant a tree. 



Boston Post: If every State in the Union 

 coaM show as wonderful results as have 

 obtained in Nebraska where 700,000 acres 

 have bee;i planted with trees, the natural 

 forest States would have standing timber 

 in abundance and every State in the Union 

 would be able to boast of valuable forest 

 reservations. A treeless United States 

 would eventually mean a sterile United 

 States through the gradual drying up of 

 rivers and other waterways, the arteries 

 of fertility. 



Dayton News: It is not generally known 

 that to the State of Ohio belongs another 

 distinction that of being the birthplace 

 of the American Forestry Association. 

 The actual organization took place in 1882, 

 just forty years ago. Many men whose 

 names were identified with distinguished 

 service for their country, were a part of the 

 organization work. Of course, anniver- 

 saries are important only in proportion to 

 the good results they bring and for the 

 inspiration which they offer. The Forestry 

 .Association has been an important feature 

 of life in America. The American Forestry 

 Association proposes to keep on educating 

 people in the subject of conservation and 

 forest preservation. 



MIL ANOS DE VIDA PARA ESTE ARBOLITO INTERNACIONAL National Photo 



The first tree ever planted by women representing^ twenty-one countries was placed, on the afternoon of April 28, in the 

 grounds of the Pan .American Union at Washington, District of Columbia, and was dedicated in four languages. The wornen 

 used the .American Forestry .Association's famous tree planting trowel first wielded by Mrs. Warren G. Harding, which, 

 since she first used it a year ago, has traveled far in tree planting in many parts of the country. 



In dedicating the willow oak, this phrase, "Long Life to This International Tree," was spoken in Spanish, Portuguese, 

 I rciioh and English. 



The pI.Tiiting ceremony was just before the tea given by Mrs. Charles Evans Hughes for the Pan American delegates to 

 the B.ilrini'.rf conference. Vice President Coolidge made a short address after being introduced by Director General L. S. 

 K'>-,vp. Mr> Coolidge. Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Maude Wood Park, president of the conference, then took the little trowel 

 ir.ni :t^ Mcmhlo box in which it has traveled so far and placed earth about the roots of the tree. They were followed by 

 ladles rciircMiitiiiK twenty-one countries of the Pan American Union. 



