3 86 
ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
Specimen Programs.-Port Henry, N. Y. — Continued, 
[From John B. Peaslee.] 
Cincinnati, O., April 9, 1888. 
Dear Sir — It is a source of great and abiding pleasure to me that the celebration of 
memorial tree-planting by public schools which was inaugurated by us in Cincinnati in 
1882, has been so generally adopted in Ohio, and in eighteen other States of our Union 
and the Dominion of Canada; and that this beautiful custom has crossed the ocean into 
England, and that it has led the Grand Army Posts in many parts of our own State and 
elsewhere, to plant trees, which are more durable than marble itself, in memory of their 
soldier dead, instead of strewing flowers which perish in a day, upon their honored graves. 
As I said at the inauguration of this memorial tree-planting celebration in Author’s Grove 
in our Eden Park, the trees which the children plant, or which they assist in dedicating, 
will become dearer and dearer to them as year after year rolls on. As the trees grow, and 
their branches expand in beauty, so will the love for them increase in the hearts of those- 
bv whom they' were planted or dedicated, and long before the children reach old age, they- 
will almost venerate these green and living memorials of youthful and happy days ; and 
as those who have loved and cared for pets will ever be the friends of our dumb animals, 
so will they ever be the friends of our forest trees. From the individual to the general, 
is the law of our nature. Show me a person who in youth planted a tree, that has lived 
and flourished, and I will show you a friend of trees and of forest culture. Besides, by 
this memorial tree-planting, the children will become interested in the lives and works of 
the distinguished men and women in whose honor and memory the trees are planted. 
Heartily thanking you for your kindness in asking me to participate by letter in your 
coming celebration, and sfncerely hoping that all who take part in planting and dedi¬ 
cating the trees may live long to enjoy their beauty and their shades, 
I remain, yours truly, 
John B. Peaslee. 
(Then Superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools.) 
[From Hon. N. H. R. Dawson.] 
Washington, D. C., April 18, 1888. 
Dear Sir —I notice with pleasure that you are preparing for the exercises of Arbor 
Day; that you desire to make it a complete success in every particular. Planting trees is 
a custom which should be fostered by all thoughtful people. The work is useful both to 
the person who does it, and the place in which it is done, and the result is both econom¬ 
ically profitable and aesthetically beautiful. A tree is a deposit in the bank of Nature 
which she repays in the future a thousandfold. Trees properly chosen and wisely planted, 
are pleasant for their shade, and profitable for their fruit, bark, or wood. They tend to 
equalize the rainfall; they promote the gradual drainage of water from soils, and increase 
the health of the locality ; they prevent the washing of surfaces into streams, and check 
the formation of shallows in rivers and bays ; while they favor the existence of insect¬ 
eating birds, and add indescribably to the charms of rural’ landscapes and of villages and 
city life. With your northern trees I am not personally familiar enough to say any thing 
of use. I know, however, that the native trees of the Middle States are various and 
beautiful enough to satisfy every condition. If you select some trees for their rapid 
growth, others for their longer life, some for their shade, and some for the value of their 
products, some for their early foliage, and some for their enduring verdure, you will not 
only make your young people familiar with the uses and beauties of trees, but you will 
be a public benefactor. I am glad to see that this custom is coming into so general use, 
and that the day is observed by the colleges and schools of many of our States. 
To give you an idea of the size which some of our trees attain, I mention a live oak which 
grew at Whale Branch plantation near Beaufort, S. C. This giant of the forest at some 
little distance looked like a clump of trees. The trunk was only fourteen feet high to 
the»branches, which were like trees in size, and extended over a circle of one hundred 
and twenty feet in diameter, nearly reaching the ground, spreading out and forming a 
delightful resting place from the heats of summer. The trunk was over thirty-six feet in 
circumference. The age of this mammoth was not known ; it was a large tree when the 
colony was settled in 1680, and continued to flourish until 1864, when it was accidentally 
destroyed by fire. For generations it had been one of the landmarks of the country, and 
the playground and trysting-place of the young people of the vicinity, sheltering them 
in their sports. In July, 1816, a party of eighty-five persons celebrated the national 
anniversary under its shade, and dined at a table spread under one of the branches of 
this majestic oak. This tree, the Quercus Virens, is indigenous to the South Atlantic 
and Gulf States, and is of very common growth. It is an evergreen, and a tree of great 
beauty and symmetry. Its branches are draped with festoons of the beautiful grey moss 
peculiar to that latitude, and the stranger in traveling through the country will frequently 
magine himself among the historical Druidical forests of Old England. These ancient 
