vi ARBOR DAY 



we have and the improvement of present opportu- 

 nity. If you neglect to prepare yourselves now for 

 the duties and responsibilities which will fall upon 

 you later, if you do not learn the things which you 

 will need to know when your school days are over, 

 you will suffer the consequences. So any nation 

 which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps 

 without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, 

 must expect the penalty of the prodigal, whose labor 

 could with difficulty find him the bare means of life. 

 A people without children would face a hopeless 

 future ; a country without trees is almost as hope- 

 less ; forests which are so used that they cannot 

 renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them 

 all their benefits. A true forest is not merely a 

 storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory 

 of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water. 

 When you help to preserve our forests or plant new 

 ones you are acting the part of good citizens. The 

 value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught in 

 the schools, which aim to make good citizens of 

 you. If your Arbor Day exercises help you to 

 realize what benefits each one of you receives from 

 the forests, and how by your assistance these ben- 

 efits may continue, they will serve a good end. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

 The White House, April 15, 1907. 



