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ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



A MONUMENT OF TREES. 



"T^XTRACT from remarks by Prof. J. P. McCaskey, of Lancaster, Pa., editor 

 Iv of the Pennsylvania School Journal, and Principal of High School, at 

 Lancaster. April 26, 1889: 



The people of a certain locality in Japan, it is said, love to tell this story of 

 what is perhaps the most beautiful road in the Japanese Empire. When the 

 great general and law-giver lyecsasu died, his former tributary princes vied 

 with one another in rich mortuary gifts to perpetuate his memory. One daimio, 

 loving and loyal, instead of the customary gift of rare bronze or wrought stone > 

 to honor his dead lord, gave from his forest land, thousands of cryptomeria 

 trees, which he wisely knew would be an ever-growing delight for generations 

 in a densely populated region. 



These young trees, which were then but eighteen inches or more in height, 

 he planted at equal distances along the two roads leading to Nikko, where .the. 

 body of the dead prince was interred. Two hundred years have passed, and the 

 trees, so small when planted, are giants now, whose branches interlock across 

 the wide roadway, presenting to the traveler in either direction a vista of green 

 as far as the eye can reach. Extending for thirty miles in one direction, and 

 for twenty miles in another, these rows of noble trees meet seven miles from the 

 temple where lie the ashes of the honored dead, and for this last seven miles a 

 double row of trees is found on each side of the roadway. In describing this 

 unique and very beautiful tribute of respect and affection, a recent traveler 

 says : 



" Many who visit Nikko may forget the loveliness of the mountain scenery, 

 the waterfalls and rushing streams, the carving and gilding of the temples, the 

 soft low tone of the bells, the odor of incense and the chanting of priests, but 

 few will forget their twenty miles' ride beneath the over-arching branches of 

 the stately trees. What more beautiful memorial could be suggested than this, 

 which benefits rich and poor, prince and coolie, alike, while mere bronze lant- 

 erns and costly but dead memorial stones are of no service except as reminders 

 of a bygone age ? " 



One of the most useful trees of tropic climes is the cocoa palm. It has a 

 straight, erect stem, surmounted by a tuft of great leaves. The natives obtain 

 drinking water from the fruit before it is ripe ; almonds of a delicate flavor from 

 the ripe fruit, milk from the nut, and a substance resembling cabbage from the 

 tree. It also furnishes a delicious wine, and sugar is made from the sap. The 

 wood is used to make houses, the leaves to thatch them, and to make sails, the 

 net fiber to calk ships, and the oil to season meats and burn in lamps. With- 

 out this tree many otherwise barren and desolate coral islands of the Pacific 

 would be uninhabitable by man, bird or beast. 



" He who plants trees loves others besides himself." 



