xvi ARBOR DAY 



by the Park Commissioners to add their tribute to 

 the day. Songs are sung during the planting, and 

 the teachers tell the pupils all about the tree they 

 have planted, how it will grow, and how grateful 

 its shade will be to future generations. A luncheon 

 spread in the open concludes the ceremonies. 

 / "A Spanish holiday (Fiesta del ArboJ) devoted to 

 tree-planting was evidently copied from our Arbor 

 Day. It is celebrated annually on March 26th. 

 The festival was instituted in 1896. The young 

 King Alfonzo with the queen regent and the ladies 

 of the court proceeded to some grounds lying near 

 the village of Hortaleza, about two miles to the east 

 of Madrid. There he planted a pine sapling. Two 

 thousand children selected from the Madrid schools 

 followed his example. Gold medals commemora- 

 tive of the event were distributed among them. 

 The inscription runs 'First Fete of the Tree, insti- 

 tuted in the reign of Alfonzo XIII., 1896.' The 

 schoolboys who planted the saplings are taken 

 periodically by their schoolmasters to note the 

 progress of their respective trees, and are encouraged 

 to foster tree-planting in their country." 



When the idea of the new holiday was fully 

 grasped there arose at once a chorus of enthusiastic 

 praise of the day and its founder from significant 

 voices. 



" I willingly confess," wrote James Russell Lowell, 

 "to so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to 



