ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



363 



Specimen Programs. Port Henry, X. T. Continued. 



6. CHORUS. * " Forest Song." By W. H. Venable. High School. 



Accompanied as before. 

 This was sung to the air, " A Life on the Ocean Wave." 



7. * " THE MARRIAGE OF THE FLOWERS." Ten Pupils from 1st Interme- 



diate Department. 



Each pupil reciting two stanzas and decked with some flower represented. 



8. LESSONS FROM NATURE ABOUT TREES. Ten Pupils from 2d Grammar 



Department. 

 First Pupil : 



We will listen to some facts about a seed. 

 Second Pupil : 



A seed is a young plant and is packed ready for transportation. It has a tiny stem, 

 some seed leaves, and a terminal bud. The mother tree, before casting off her progeny 

 into the world, did not fail to give it a little outfit in the form of starch for food stored 

 up in or surrounding the thick seed leaves. As the young chicks while in the shell are 

 nourished by the yolk of the egg, so the voung Oak or Maple subsists on the starch 

 stored up before ripening. 



First Pupil : 



We would like to hear something about Nature's tree-planters, the squirrels, 

 Third Pupil: 



The squirrels eat many nuts, but earn' a portion to some distance in every direction, 

 where they plant one or two in a place. It may be the thought of the squirrel to return 

 at some future time of need, but his bump of locality is not well developed, or he has laid 

 up more than he needed. At all events some of the nuts are allowed to remain where he 

 planted them. In this way he is a benefit to the trees, and pays for the nuts he eats. He 

 has not lived in vain, for he is a tree-planter and believes in arboriculture. His Arbor 

 Days come in autumn, and he needs no Governor's message to stimulate him to work. 

 First Pupil: 



Describe the mechanism of a tree. 

 Fourth Pupil : 



A tree receives its nourishment from the roots. These correspond to the mouth in the 

 human frame. The nourishment taken in by the roots, or mouths, passes to-the lungs of 

 the tree, and then, by contact with the air, is rendered fit to supply material to the tree. 

 The tree's lungs are the leaves. This operation is effected by the passage upward from 

 the soil, through the trunk, the branches, and every twig of the tree to the leaves, of a 

 large quantity of water, containing the nutriment for the tree. Arrived at the leaves, 

 contact with the air causes a large amount of water to be given off, and the nutriment 

 with certain portions of the air are carried back and deposited in leaf, bark and root, 

 where the digestive process is carried still further. 

 First Pupil : 



When do our trees make their growth, and how do they get read}- for the next year? 

 Fifth Pupil : 



Most of our trees put forth their new growth during a few weeks in spring or early 

 summer. Do you wonder what they are doing during the rest of the warm weather? 

 Thev are by no means idle. They may be perfecting flowers and seeds, but all of them 

 are getting ready for the next winter and spring. Through the influence of light and 

 heat, the green leaves are forming' starch, which is transported and stored in the pith, 

 young wood and bark. The young leaves and stems are started and arranged, packed in 

 cotton, covered by scales and in some cases the scales are protected by pitch or varnish. 

 First Pupil : 



Describe the tree as a community. 

 Sixth Pupil : 



A tree is a composite being, a kind of communky by itself. The leaves and limbs are 

 all the time striving with each other to see which shall have the most room and the most sun- 

 shine. Each strives for all it can get. While some perish in the attempt, or meet with 

 only very indifferent success, the strongest of the strongest buds survive. Each leaf helps to- 



