ARBOR DAY. 35 



others will soon become interested. Get the work well 

 started and it will become so fascinating to the children 

 that it will be comparatively easy to continue it hereafter. 

 " Arbor Day" in schools was observed last year in about 

 twenty-five states, and it is expected that it will be ob- 

 served in at least ten more this season. Strong growers 

 should be selected for school yard planting. Elm, catalpa, 

 and sugar maple are, all things considered, the most desir- 

 able. The latter grows slowly while young, but after a 

 few years quite rapidly, and for symmetry of form and 

 beauty of foliage is unsurpassed. If a greater variety is 

 wanted add tulip tree and linden or basswood. If ever- 

 greens are desired, select Norway spruce, white pine, and 

 Scotch pine. 



CHURCHYARDS. No state can boast of more or better 

 country churches than Illinois. They are as a rule com- 

 modious, comfortable, and tasty, and speak well for the 

 moral and religious condition of our people. But stand- 

 ing, as so many of them do, without a tree or shrub about 

 them, " white, glaring, and ghastly," it does not speak so 

 well for the aesthetic taste of their attendants. Let every 

 rural church in the state observe the approaching Arbor 

 Day by ornamenting its grounds with trees, and remember- 

 ing that 



" The groves were God's first temples," 



and that it is a duty we owe to Him, to ourselves, and to 



