ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
38 . 
11 (“ Ik Marvel ”), an American author.] 
Edgewood, April 27, 1889. 
3. Dedication Selections by seven pupils, representing the seven departments in the 
main school building. 
First Pupil: 
We, representatives of the school children of New York State, meet to-day to do our 
share toward making our country more beautiful and fertile. A treeless yard or street is 
unsightly and desolate, and how much more a whole city or district! Believing that the 
wholesale destruction of trees is an injury to our land, and wishing to make the place 
where we live more beautiful, we now replace a worthless tree by a new, thrifty and 
Sixth Pupil: 
“There is something noble, simple and pure in a taste for'trees. It argues, I think, 
a sweet and generous nature to have this strong relish for beauties of vegetation, and this 
friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest. There is a grandeur of thought 
connected with this part of rural economy. It is worthy of liberal, and free-born, and 
aspiring men. He who plants an Oak looks forward to future ages, and plants for pos¬ 
terity. Nothing can be less selfish than this. He cannot expect to sit in its shade nor 
enjoy its shelter; but he exults in the idea that the acorn which he has buried in the earth 
shall grow up into a lofty pile, and shall keep on flourishing and increasing and benefit¬ 
ing mankind long after he shall have ceased to tread his paternal fields.” 
Seventh Pupil .* 
After reciting his selection each pupil placed a shovel of dirt around the tree. This 
he did as a representative of his department. 
