450 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
J. STERLING MORTON. 
J. Sterling Morton was president of the International Society of Arbori- 
culture, which office he held at the time of his death, on April 25, rgo2. 
Mr. Morton was too well known by his countrymen to need any word 
of commendation at our hands. The best that can be said of any man 
may be said of our former president, he was an honest man. Among 
Americans none has done so much to create a sentiment in favor of forest 
perpetuation and the planting of trees, as the author of Arbor Day. His 
motto, “Plant trees,” will be retained by this society. Public men, after their 
career has closed, are often soon forgotten, their names remain as a faint mem- 
ory in history. Mr. Morton, the politician, the Secretary of Agriculture, the 
editor, and as private citizen, will in a few years have faded from our view, 
but so long as a public school exists children will be taught to observe the 
beautiful custom of annual tree-planting, and the name of J. Sterling Morton 
will be revered as the father of Arbor Day, 
