♦SCOPE AND USE OF ARBOR DAY. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING THE PLANTING OF TREES BY SCHOOL 

 CHILDREN AN EXERCISE IN FOREST WORK. 



Arbor Day was instituted in Nebraska in 1872 by Hon. J. 

 Sterling Morton, afterwards Secretary of Agriculture, and has 

 since made its way from State to State until provision for its 

 observance exists in almost every State and Territory. 



The central idea of Arbor Day is the intelligent and apprecia- 

 tive planting of trees by school children. The planting is 

 usually accompanied by exercises, which are intended to impress 

 upon the children the beauty and usefulness of trees and thus to 

 lend to the work the value of a bit of nature study. Arbor Day 

 has undoubtedly done much to inculcate a love of trees, and has 

 given added impetus to the general movement for the better 

 knowledgerand the'wiser use of forests.f^C^^^P^^lp'lfp^ 



Yet there is no question that Arbor Day can be made more 

 practical than it has been; that it can be brought into closer touch 

 with forestry by being made the opportunity for carrying out 

 simple steps in forest work. The permanent results of Arbor Day 

 from the standpoint of successful planting have frequently been 

 disappointing. Too often species entirely unsuited for either 

 economic or ornamental planting have been used. Still more 

 common causes of failure have been the lack of sufficient care 

 in doing the work, and neglect of the trees after they are planted. 

 In this way much of the educational value of the work is lost. 

 By leaving the trees unprotected from animals, insects, and 

 other destructive agencies the intended good example is turned, 

 for want of a little care, into a negative one. 



But even when the planting has been well conceived and 

 wisely carried out, there is often lacking, in work of this nature, 

 all reference to the larger aspect of forest planting. The ultimate 

 aim of the da}- might well be to prompt and encourage not so 

 much a sentiment for trees as a sentiment for the forest. Yet 

 the practice has been to plant individual trees rather than groves, 

 and the relation of the single tree to the forest has not been 

 pointed out. Talks on Arbor Day have not dwelt enough upon 

 the economic side of forestry, or have tended to give a wrong 

 impression of the whole subject by lamenting all cutting of trees. 



* U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service Press Bulletin, No. 123. 



