ARBOR DAY. 



799 



The forces that operated for Arbor Day in the United States are less 

 existent in this country, for there the value of timber annually used and 

 exported exceeds the value of the cereal crop. Here we are so largely 

 dependent on foreign supply that we do not feel the necessity for plant- 

 ing, but we ought to remember that the countries from which we draw 

 our supplies are themselves alarmed at the prospect of forest depletion. 

 There are nevertheless the strongest arguments for extensive planting of 

 timber-trees in our own land, in Ireland particularly, but only the 

 strongest advocacy will secure proper attention to the question. 



Agricultural depression has led to serious social changes in our rural 

 districts, bringing about a system of disintegration. Old bonds have 

 been broken ; the exodus to the towns has weakened the local tie, that is 

 to say, the love of locality ; and high rents with bad housing accentuate 

 the mischief. In many parts there no longer exists as formerly among 

 the labouring population the old affection for rural life and surroundings, 

 and the absence of this sentiment offers obstacles to the enlistment of 

 interest in Arbor Day observance among the rural population. 



The great evil which afflicts country districts within twenty or thirty 

 miles of London and of other populous centres is the housing of the 

 rural labourers under town conditions, for they are in fact housed as badly 

 and almost as extravagantly in regard to rent as where population is dense 

 and land is dear. Unoccupied land is everyw^here abundant which can 

 never have much more than an agricultural value, and on which thousands 

 of families could enjoy all the privileges that should be the birthright 

 of country-born children. But many landowners make housing in the 

 country far more difficult than it is in towns, and this pernicious policy 

 intensifies the evils of rural depopulation, which is virtually rural 

 degeneration. An urban system of housing in blocks without gardens 

 obliterates the attractive features of the rural landscape and degrades the 

 rustic population. The rehabilitation of the cottager on the soil more 

 than anything else would revive the spirit of country life. Cheap hous- 

 ing on ample plots where the pigs, the poultry, the hutches, and the 

 hives largely contribute to the rent would render cottager industries 

 again possible ; moreover, a feasible scheme of endowment life assur- 

 ance would put many a thrifty labourer in possession of his freehold. 

 The rural housing problem really underlies the rural education problem, 

 and all rural educational reforms must fail of their effect until the rural 

 labouring population is housed under conditions natural to country life. 



A satirical poet in the time of James I. reproved the prodigality of 

 the rich when he said — 



They wore a farm in shoestrings edged with gold, 

 And spangled garters worth a copyhold. 



Unhappily, many a labouring man in the course of a few years spends 

 more on hurtful self-indulgence than would secure him a freehold house 

 and land in middle age. A trifle over one shilling a week at the age of 

 twenty-five will secure £100 at fifty-five, or at death if previous ; if com- 

 menced later in life the premium is, of course, proportionately higher. 

 The furtherance of freeholding for our rural dwellers would furnish 

 Arbor Day with votaries and at the same time really inculcate the 



