AN EXAMPLE IN CONSERVATION WORK 



481 



Orphans' Asylum, at Topton, by the orphans. At the 

 suggestion of the Association, a municipal nursery was 

 started at Lake Antietam, where there now are 30,000 



THE PLANTING SQUAD 



After the boys had dug the holes for the seedlings, the planting squads of girls followed 

 and planted the pine seedlings quickly and well. The character of the work is excellently 

 shown by the photograph. 



seedling trees furnished by the State ; 8000 

 pines were planted on the Antietam Water- 

 shed by 430 school girls; 7000 pines and 

 spruces were planted on Mount Penn by 

 125 high school boys ; 3000 pines were 

 planted on the water-shed of the municipal 

 water-works at Fleetwood ; thousands of 

 pines were planted by individuals. 



" Travel trails were laid out to all 

 points of interest in Berks County, to be 

 marked by flying birds and a book called 

 a Blue Book. At the instance of the 

 Association, a Volunteer Forest Fire Patrol 

 was organized among the school boys, boys' 

 clubs and Boy Scouts, for the purpose of 

 educating them in fire prevention and for- 

 est fire fighting. A press campaign was 

 organized for fire prevention through the 

 public and the schools of the county; and 

 the Association had educational exhibits at 

 the Reading Fair, Pure Food Exhibit and 

 Electrical Show on the subject of conser- 

 vation and fire prevention. 



" During the year 1916, up to the present time, we 

 started a permanent office and elected as secretary, Mr. 

 Solan L. Parkes. We started a campaign in the begin- 

 ning of the year for further forest planting, and requests 

 for one-half a million trees were received from every 

 township in the county. The State Forestry Department 

 furnished these. A million trees were planted in April 

 and May of this year ; 10,000 were planted on Reading City 



property, its water-sheds and its mountain property, 

 by 220 boys and 770 girls of the high schools; 25,000 

 were planted at the State Insane Asylum, South Moun- 

 tain, by the inmates of that institution; 10,000 

 more were planted by the orphans at Bethany 

 Orphans' Asylum at Womelsdorf ; 10,000 by the 

 orphans at the Topton Orphans' Asylum, at Top- 

 ton; 21,000 were planted by James A. Schofer, at 

 his place on State Hill ; 20,000 more were planted 

 by the Borough of Fleetwood by the school chil- 

 dren; 5000 were planted by County Controller 

 Rhode ; 6000 by W. E. Sharman, a lawyer near 

 Fritztown ; 6000 by Sherman H. Hoverter, an- 

 other lawyer, in Alsace Township; 26,000 by 

 another lawyer, Herbert R. Green, on the slope 

 of Neversink Mountain ; 45,000 by Jacob Nolde 

 on his property in Cumru Township; and 17,000 

 were planted on the Horst tract. 



" At the instance of the Association, the 

 Reading School District employed an expert 

 to trim all the trees on the Reading School 

 District grounds, and hundreds of people were 

 instructed how to plant trees and how to pre- 

 serve them. Representatives of the Associa- 

 tion spoke on the subject of tree planting and 

 conservation before granges, schools and conven- 



Before the regiment 

 holes and 



PREPARING FOR THE PLANTING 



of tree planters arrived, squads of men cleared the ground, burned the brush dug 

 put the water-shed in condition for the invasion of the conservationists. 



"tions, and every kind of meeting, and wherever possible 

 information was given to hundreds as to the beautifica- 

 tion of school grounds and public buildings. A move 

 was started to have a shade tree commission for the 

 City of Reading; 150 bird houses were furnished by 

 the Reading School District through Samuel J. Waid 

 to the country schools as samples and these grew 

 into 1500 bird houses in the county; an educational 



