NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



to the teachers. Bulletins from the Agricultural a^d Forestry Bureaus 

 should be freely distributed among the schools. 



More should be made of Arbor Day. The whole responsibility should 

 not fall upon the teacher. Trustees and ratepayers should be willing to give 

 time and effort, not only on Arbor Day, but throughout the year. The school 

 grounds should be enlarged. A part of the ground should be a real arbor- 

 eum which would furnish object lessons not only to teachers and pupils, but 

 to the community at large. The school - house and grounds should be the 

 most attractive place in the district, and they might soon become so it' the 

 people really desired it. 



My brief answer, then, t > the question, What can 'the schools do td 

 promote the objects for which this Convention is assembled here is this : 



1. From the earliest school age aim to cultivate in the children an 

 abiding interest in the vegetable life, and especially in the trees surrounding 

 their homes. 



2. The means of awakening and cultivating the interest is by appealing 

 not only to the intellect but to the imagination of the child. 



3. Train the child to have a proper regard for vegetable as well as 

 animal life, and especially to guard against injury to or destruction of trees 

 through mere wantonness or carelessness. Special instructions upon the 

 danger of setting tires near groves or forests should be constantly in- 

 culcated. 



4. Place at the disposal of the teacher the reports and bulletins of 

 government bureaus and such other publications as will supply full and accu- 

 rate information in regard to the forest wealth of the country, and the 

 measures taken in other countries to promote similar interests. 



With such aids to instruction the teacher will not find it a difficult task 

 to inculcate valuable lessons, and to awaken in the child's mind an abiding 

 interest in trees. Indeed the love of groves and trees seems to be intuitive. 

 Some of our ancestors were tree worshippers. From the description of the 

 Garden of Edea in the Book of Genesis to the latest 'publications of the 

 poet, the novelist, and the historian, literature is full of references to trees. 



It is true that in New Brunswick, as in other countries, there has been 

 blind and wanton destruction of forest wealth. In pioneer days a man was 



