14 ARBOR DAY. 



A large proportion of the schools in the state annually 

 observe "Arbor Day" by planting trees, shrubs, vines, 

 and flowers. Much of it is " memorial " planting, accom- 

 panied with interesting literary exercises. 



Statistics show there have been planted in Nebraska 

 since Arbor Day was instituted 355,229,919 forest trees, 

 fruit and shade trees, and grape vines in cities and 

 villages. 



To show the probable extent of tree planting in 

 Nebraska the spring of 1888, mention is made of the 

 business of three firms in the state and there are a 

 large number of smaller operators. These three firms 

 had orders for over 10,000,000 forest tree seedlings. 

 One of the firms had contracts for planting 3,500,000 

 of forest trees. There are nine U. S. land districts in 

 Nebraska. In one land district there were known to 

 be 11,000 tree claims, requiring 27,000 trees planted to 

 the claim. Say then, there were 99,000 tree claims in 

 the nine districts, multiplied by 27,000, and we have 

 2,673,000,000. This gives a rough approximation of 

 tree planting in the "Great American Desert," west 

 of the Missouri River the " New West." 



