A NEW HOLIDAY 5 



tree with human life and to give the pupil a per- 

 sonal interest in it will make the public schools 

 nurseries of sound opinion which will prevent the 

 ruthless destruction of the forests. 



The service of the trees to us begins with the 

 cradle and ends with the coffin. But it continues 

 through our lives, and is of almost unimaginable 

 extent and variety. In this country our houses and 

 their furniture and the fences that inclose them 

 are largely the product of the trees. The fuel that 

 warms them, even if it be coal, is the mineralized 

 wood of past ages. The frames and handles of 

 agricultural implements, wharves, boats, ships, 

 india-rubber, gums, bark, cork, carriages and 

 railroad cars and ties wherever the eye falls it 

 sees the beneficent service of the trees. Arbor Day 

 recalls this direct service on every hand, and reminds 

 us of the indirect ministry of trees as guardians of 

 the sources of rivers the great forests making 

 the densely shaded hills, covered with the accumu- 

 lating leaves of ages, huge sponges from which 

 trickle the supplies of streams. To cut the forests 

 recklessly is to dry up the rivers. It is a crime 

 against the whole community, and scholars and 

 statesmen both declare that the proper preservation 

 of the forests is the paramount public question. 

 Even in a mercantile sense it is a prodigious question, 

 for the estimated value of our forest products in 

 1880 was $800,000,000, a value nearly double that 



