ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. -i 7 



V I 



Specimen Programs*. Port Henry, >'. Y. Continued. 



oaks line the avenues, and ornament the lawns of many of the plantations. The wood is 

 tough and durable, and is used extensively in ship-building. I need not mention the 

 immense forests of pine that grow upon the Pacific coast, as these are familiar to every 

 one. 



The wanton and willful destruction of our American forests should be arrested, or else 

 the time will come when we shall have to import our timber and lumber from foreign 

 countries. 



It is a beautiful custom to commemorate the virtues of distinguished persons by plant- 

 ing trees in their memory. 



Wishing you even- success in your effort to introduce and encourage the observation 

 of the day. I remain, yours very truly, 



N. H. R. DAWSON. 

 (Then Commissioner of Education.) 



[From Hon. A. S. Draper.] 



ALBANY. X. Y., April 30, 1 888. 



DEAR SIR I have received your esteemed favor of the 2ist instant, asking me to send 

 you a few words concerning your " Arbor Day " exercises. 



While many duties in this department occupy my time so completely that I feel I can 

 say but little that will be useful to you on that occasion, I am free to offe: my congratu- 

 lations to you and your people that you have inaugurated these exercises, which bid fair 

 to become general throughout the State. I inclose you herewith a copy of a bill which 

 has passed the Legislature and is now in the hands of the Governor, in reference to the 

 establishment of a uniform day to be observed as "Arbor Day." Should this measure 

 receive the approval of the Governor, I find that I shall hereafter be in more direct com- 

 munication with the schools of the State on the subject of which it treats. 



While the needs of commerce and of business for a number of years have been deplet- 

 ing our forests to almost an alarming extent, and have directed public attention to the 

 necessity of doing something to overcome this wholesale massacre of the "giants of the 

 forest," it is highly gratifying that in many sections of the State, those interested in con- 

 ducting our schools have inaugurated the plan, in a greater or less degree, of tree-plant- 

 ing in honor of authors, generals, statesmen, and other great men. This will partially 

 make up the loss. 



There is something touching and interesting in planting a tree and dedicating it to some 

 individual prominent in some feature of our State or National history. It is to be hoped 

 that this custom may grow with the coming years, until at least around all our school- 

 houses there may grow living monuments to remind future generations of the enterprise 

 and thoughtfulness of those who live in the present. The tree occupies a proud place 

 in nature. It holds it by a Divine right the right of life, of growth, of progress, of 

 decay, and of death. It has these elements of humanity. The tree is the life of nature. 

 "Without it, is waste and desert ; with it, comfort and beauty. Dignity and grace and 

 usefulness are its characteristics. Barren and cheerless the valley or the mountain with- 

 out the tree. The landscape robbed of it, would never tempt the brush of the meanest 

 painter in the world. 



I hope the occasion may be interesting and profitable to all who contribute to it in any 

 way. The pleasure which you feel in your work will growyear by year, as the trees grow 

 in strength and beauty, and when your children's children shall gather beneath their 

 branches, may they have delightful memories of what others have done, and continue 

 themselves in the commendable work. 



I am, yours very respectfully. 



A. S. DRAPER, 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



4. Vocal Quartet " Music of the Pine." By Pupils of the High SchooL 



5. Concert Exercise *"The Wayside Inn. An Apple Tree." By Second Primary 



Department. 



6. Praises of the Oak. By First Primary Department. 



1. The unwedgeable and gnarled oak. 6. Thy guardian oaks, my country, are thv boast 



2. The old oaken bucket. 7. The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees" 



3. Jove's own tree that holds the woods in awful 8. The oak for grandeur, strength and nobie size 



sovereignty. excels all trees that in the forest grow. 



4. A goodly oak, whose boughs were mass'd with age. 9. Tall oaks from little acorns grow 



5. King of the woods. 10. The glory of the woods. 



CONCERT RECITATION -"THE OAK." BY GEO. HILL. See Index. 



