12 SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 



is of very pressing importance, and I think the Association should endeavor 

 to have this phase of education introduced and extended. I understand from 

 our President that elementary forestry is being taught in the College of 

 Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Raleigh; with this exception, there is, so 

 far as I am aware, no forestry education carried on in the State. The trus- 

 tees of the State University have, I believe, decided to have some kind of 

 instruction along these lines introduced into that institution as soon as suffi- 

 cient funds may be provided by the Legislature. The women's clubs have 

 had much influence in starting this phase of education, and I would respect- 

 fully suggest that they take up the matter of introducing forestry into the 

 public schools and make it their chief forestry work for the ensuing year. 

 I think the women of the State are probably more interested in the educa- 

 tion of the children than they are in the passage of certain laws which the 

 men are working for, and such a division of labor among the members and 

 supporters of this Association might accomplish large results. 



There is another way in which the women of the State can assist very 

 materially in the movement to formulate a settled and permanent forest 

 policy for North Carolina, and that is by securing the universal observance 

 of Arbor Day. An Arbor Day was first advocated by the Honorable Sterling 

 Morton over thirty years ago, and his own State of Nebraska was the first to 

 adopt it. Since that time the observance of Arbor Day has become more or 

 less general throughout the country; nevertheless, while Arbor Day exercises 

 have been held sporadically in some of the schools of this State for a number 

 of years, so far the efforts to make this a State custom have failed. Two 

 or three years ago an Arbor Day Bulletin was prepared, to be published by 

 the State Board of Education, but neither it nor the State Geological and 

 Economic Survey, which prepared the bulletin, has received enough encour- 

 agement from the people of the State to justify them in publishing it. If all 

 the school children of the State could take part once a year in some Arbor 

 Day exercises, they might imbibe a certain knowledge of the value of our 

 trees, both commercial and aesthetic, which would lead them to further study 

 of the question and train them to look upon the forests as something to value 

 and conserve, rather than to abuse and destroy, as, unfortunately, their 

 fathers had been taught to regard them. I have no doubt that the women's 

 clubs in the different towns could induce at least a local observance of Arbor 

 Day, as they are doing this year in my own town, and, in so doing they would 

 very soon pave the way for State observance of this day. 



My final suggestion for work for the Association is concerned with a new 

 and very pressing duty which devolves upon all North Carolinians who are 

 in any way interested in the forests of the State, namely, the laying of thor- 

 ough plans for immediate and vigorous attack upon the chestnut bark dis- 

 ease as soon as it invades this State. I had invited Dr. Haven Metcalf, the 

 Chief Pathologist of the United States Bureau of Plant Industry, to attend 

 this meeting and lay the matter before you. But, owing to a previous and 

 more important engagement for all members of his staff engaged in this work, 

 neither he nor any of his assistants were able to attend, so that I am going 

 to take it upon myself to outline in a short paper the nature of this menace 

 and suggest action that may be taken by this Association to provide against 

 it. Suffice it to say here that when the time comes, prompt and effective 

 action must be taken, and this Association should lay its plans so that it will 

 know exactly what to do and how to do it. 



