ARBOR DA Y MANUAL, 
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Specimen Programs.— Port Henry, N, Y. — Continued. 
oaks line the avenues, and ornament the lawns of many of the plantations. The wood is 
tough and durable, and is used extensively in ship-building. I need not mention the 
immense forests of pine that grow upon the Pacific coast, as these are familiar to every 
one. 
The wanton and willful destruction of our American forests should be arrested, or else 
the time will come when we shall have to import our timber and lumber from foreign 
countries. 
It is a beautiful custom to commemorate the virtues of distinguished persons by plant¬ 
ing trees in their memory. 
Wishing you every success in your effort to introduce and encourage the observation 
of the day. I remain, yours very truly, 
N. H. R. Dawson, 
(Then Commissioner of Education.) 
[From Hon. A. S. Draper.] 
Albany, N. Y., April 30, 1888. 
Dear Sir — I have received your esteemed favor of the 21st instant, asking me to send 
you a few words concerning your “ Arbor Day ” exercises. 
While many duties in this department occupy my time so completely that I feel I can 
say but little that will be useful to you on that occasion, I am free to offer my congratu¬ 
lations to you and your people that you have inaugurated these exercises, which bid fair 
to become general throughout the State. I inclose you herewith a copy of a bill which 
has passed the Legislature and is now in the hands of the Governor, in reference to the 
establishment of a uniform day to be observed as “Arbor Day.” Should this measure 
receive the approval of the Governor, I find that I shall hereafter be in more direct com¬ 
munication with the schools of the State on the subject of which it treats. 
While the needs of commerce and of business for a number of years have been deplet¬ 
ing our forests to almost an alarming extent, and have directed public attention to the 
necessity of doing something to overcome this wholesale massacre of the “giants of the 
forest,” it is highly gratifying that in many sections of the State, those interested in con¬ 
ducting our schools have inaugurated the plan, in a greater or less degree, of tree-plant¬ 
ing in honor of authors, generals, statesmen, and other great men. This will partially 
make up the loss. 
There is something touching and interesting in planting a tree and dedicating it to some 
individual prominent in some feature of our State or National history. It is to be hoped 
that this custom majr grow with the coming years, until at least around all our school- 
houses there may grow living monuments to remind future generations of the enterprise 
and thoughtfulness of those who live in the present. The tree occupies a proud place 
in nature. It holds it by a Divine right — the right of life, of growth, of progress, of 
decay, and of death. It has these elements of humanity. The tree is the life of nature. 
Without it, is waste and desert; with it, comfort and beauty. Dignity and grace and 
usefulness are its characteristics. Barren and cheerless the valley or the mountain with¬ 
out the tree. The landscape robbed of it, would never tempt the brush of the meanest 
painter in the world. 
I hope the occasion may be interesting and profitable to all who contribute to it in any 
way. The pleasure which you feel in your work will grow year by year, as the trees grow 
in strength and beauty, and when your children’s children shall gather beneath their 
branches, may they have delightful memories of what others have done, and continue 
themselves in the commendable work. 
I am, yours very respectfully, 
A. S. Draper, 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
4. Vocal Quartet.— <! Music of the Pine.” By Pupils of the High School. 
5. Concert Exercise.— *“ The Wayside Inn.— An Apple Tree.” By Second Primary 
Department. 
6. Praises of the Oak. By First Primary Department. 
1. The unwedgeable and gnarled c 
2. The old oaken bucket. 
3. Jove’s own tree that holds the 
sovereignty. 
4. A goodlv oak, whose boughs we 
5. King of the woods. 
rds in awful 
6. L hy guarc 
7. j.nc uiuua.ii;ii oak, the patriarch of trees. 
8. The oak for grandeur, strength and nobh 
excels all trees that in the forest grow. 
9. Tall oaks from little acorns grow. 
10. The glory of the woods. 
CONCERT RECITATION-“THE OAK,” BY GEO. HILL. See Index. 
