46 FOREST FIRES IX NORTH CAROLINA. 



part towards the development of the community and the State, but we 

 are beginning to realize that in prosecuting their business they have no 

 right to trespass upon the rights of their neighbors. 



Game birds in ]^orth Carolina have generally been looked upon in the 

 light of the special property of the sportsman, and heretofore game laws 

 have been passed chiefly for his benefit. We are now, however, coming 

 to realize that the farmer, the owner of the land, has much more interest 

 in the game which lives upon his land than has the man whose sole 

 interest is killing it. To mention one instance of this, our common 

 partridge or quail is worth to the farmer for destroying noxious insects 

 a great deal more than it is to the sportsman or the hotel keeper. In 

 the future our game laAvs must consider, first, the value of the living 

 birds and animals to the landowner and the general public before it con- 

 siders their value from the old standpoint of being something to kill. 



ARBOR DAY. 



The regular observance of Arbor Day in Xorth Carolina has been 

 strongly advocated by the State Geological and Economic Survey for a 

 number of years. The first press bulletin on this subject ever issued by 

 the Survey had the above title, and not only advocated tlie general ob- 

 servance of this day throughout the State, but suggested the adaptation 

 of a program to the special conditions existing in ]N'orth Carolina. As 

 well as emphasizing the planting of trees, it was recommended that the 

 attention of the children be called to the value of the forests of the State 

 to the life of the average citizen. In the w^ords of the author of the 

 press bulletin above referred to, which was issued April 7, 1908, "It is 

 to be desired that this day shall be more generally observed and that 

 our young people shall be brought to a realization of the value of our 

 forests and the beauty and need of trees for shade and decorative pur- 

 poses. . . . How soon many of our school yards could be made 

 places of beauty if on each Arbor Day the school would plant a certain 

 number of trees or shrubs and then care for them during the year. 



"While the same reasons for the observance of Arbor Day in the 

 scantily forested western States cannot all hold in a well wooded State 

 like North Carolina, yet the celebration here of such a day has its signifi- 

 cance. Arbor Day in North Carolina could be set aside for the school 

 cliildi'cii to learn of the great natural gift which ^\•v have in the forests, 

 and the relation of the forest to the well-being and wealth of our people." 



ARBOR DAY LAW. 



An Arbor Day law such as is found on the statute books of practically 

 half the States of the Union was introduced into the General Assembly 



