Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1910 — TREES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TREES

his assistants has w Public sentiment r fey against the wan/af}/-/ ton, wasteful conBum Pti°n of timher. Conservation V *' of the natural resources of the country has become an off used phrase during the last decade. There is none so dull or isolated these.days as not to be able to explain more or less learnedly the need of protecting and safeguarding the trees, of their relation to the country’s climate, the important part they play in the precipitation of its rain and the evaporation of its moisture.

Even in colonial days, only a few years after the white man with his ax had started his work of felling the seemingly exhau3tless forests which stretched from Maine to the gulf an.l from the Atlantic to the Alleghanies, some were far-sighted enough to realize that too great a zeal in clearing away the primeval growth might work an injury not easily repaired. Only 17 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the trustees of the little town of Watertown, Mass., adopted a resolution fining anyone guilty of felling a shade tree by the'roadside. A few years later New York found It necessary to regulate the indiscriminate cutting of trees. It was to his practical side that J. Sterling Morton, the originator of Arbor Day, appealed. As a farmer in treeless Nebraska, he had realized, as had his neighbors, the vital need of trees. They needed them as a protection from the blizzards of winter and the hot droughts of summer. The government recognized the need when it offered tree claims to settlers, giving them free land if a certain number of trees were planted. Some of these settlers of German origin probably knew the efforts which the German government wa3 putting forth, even in the middle of the nineteenth century, toward the scientific management of the nation’s woodlands. European countries learned long before America' the lesson that the forests should be cherished as among the nation’s most precious possessions. That was why Pincbot and .Graves could find in Europe schools corresponding to American colleges, established for the special purpose of training men for the successful planting and cultl-

"Vation of forests; why they found the growth of trees atid their maintenaneo reduced to a science and the management of public forests lands an important department of state. At the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture held in Lincoln, January, 1872, J. Sterling Morton,. afterward<aSecretary of Agriculture, introduced a resolution which read: “Resolved, That Wednesday, the 10th day of April, 1872, be, and the same is hereby, especially set apart and consecrated for tree planting in the State of Nebraska, and the State Bo.ard of Agriculture hereby name It Arbor day; and to urge upon the people of the State the vital importance of tree planting, hereby offer a special premium of SIOO to the agricultural society of that county In Nebraska which shall upon that day, plant properly the largest number of trees; and a farm library of $25 worth of books to that person, who on that day shall plant properly, In Nebraska, the greatest number of trees.”

The idea was quickly adopted by other States. Dr. B. G. Northrop, a Congregational minister of Massachusetts, known as the “great apostle of Arbor day,” gave up his other work to devote his entire time to the tree culture movement. The American Forestry Association made him chairman of a committee to push it, and in lectures, newspapers and pamphlets he spread the Arbor day propaganda until before his death he had seen It adopted by almost every State and Territory. He even carried it across the waters) of the Pacific and induced Japan to make it one of the national holidays. This was in 1895. His word bore some weight in the land of the mikado, and his visit was a happy one for him, as he was well known. At one time be acted as guardian s to three young Japanese women who had earns to this country to he educated. One of these became the wife of Oyama, and alMhat she could do to honor her old friend was done while he was in Japan. November 3, the date of the emperor’s birthday, was selected as a fitting time for the Japanese to observe as tree planting day. In this country Arbor day Is a moveable holiday, each State selecting the date most seasonable and convenient. April seems the most generally favored time, but its observances ranges from January, the date of the Florida Arbor day, to December, though none of the States uses the summer months. Washington’s birthday has been selected by-a number of Southern States. In many of the 3tates the date is fixed, as in Illinois, by the governor. The forms of observance have gradually become identified with the schools, so that in one sense It is practically a school holiday.