Arbor Day Leaves Part 3

Why might not every school-house ground be made also an arboretum, where the pupils might have under their eyes, continually, specimens of all the trees that grow in the town or in the State where the school is situated? It would require but a little incitement from the teacher to make the pupils enthusiastic with the desire to find out the different species indigenous to the region and to gather them, by sowing seeds or planting the young trees, around their place of study.

And if the school premises are now too small in extent to admit of such a use, let the pupils make an earnest plea for additional ground.

As a general fact our school-grounds have been shamefully limited in extent and neglected as to their use and keeping. The school-house, in itself and in its surroundings, ought to be one of the most beautiful and attractive objects to be seen in any community. The approach from the street should be like that to any dwelling house, over well kept walks bordered by green turf, with trees and shrubs and flowers offering their adornment. Everything should speak of neatness and order. The playground should be ample, but it should be in another direction and by itself.

Europeans are in advance of us in school management. The Austrian public school law reads: "In every school a gymnastic ground, a garden for the teacher, according to the circ.u.mstances of the community, and a place for the purposes of agricultural experiment are to be created." There are now nearly 8,000 school gardens in Austria, not including Hungary. In France, also, gardening is taught in the primary and elementary schools. There are nearly 30,000 of these schools, each of which has a garden attached to it, and the Minister of Public Instruction has resolved to increase the number of school gardens and that no one shall be appointed master of an elementary school unless he can prove himself capable of giving practical instruction in the culture of Mother Earth. In Sweden, in 1871, there were 22,000 children in the common schools receiving instruction in horticulture and tree-planting. Each of more than 2,000 schools had for cultivation from one to twelve acres of ground.

Why should we be behind the Old World in caring for the schools? By the munificence of one of her citizens, New York has twice offered premiums for the best-kept school-grounds. Why may we not have Arbor Day premiums in all of our States and in every town for the most tasteful arrangement of school-house and grounds? These places of education should be the pride of every community instead of being, as they so often are, a reproach and shame.

TREES IN THEIR LEAFLESS STATE.

As the season for Arbor Day and tree-planting comes on, just before the buds begin to swell and are getting ready to cover the trees with a fresh mantle of leaves, it is well--as it is also when the leaves have fallen from the trees in autumn--to give attention to the bare trees and notice the characteristic forms of the various species, the manner in which their branches are developed and arranged among themselves, for a knowledge of these things will often enable one to distinguish the different kinds of trees more readily and certainly than by any other means. The foliage often serves as an obscuring veil, concealing, in part at least, the individuality and the peculiarities of the trees. But if one is familiar with their forms of growth, their skeleton anatomy, so to speak, he will recognize common trees at once with only a partial view of them.

Some trees, as the oak, throw their limbs out from the trunk horizontally. As Dr. Holmes says: "The others s.h.i.+rk the work of resisting gravity, the oak defies it. It chooses the horizontal direction for its limbs so that their whole weight may tell, and then stretches them out fifty or sixty feet so that the strain may be mighty enough to be worth resisting." Some trees have limbs which droop toward the ground, while those of most, perhaps, have an upward tendency, and others still have an upward direction at first and later in their growth a downward inclination, as in the case of the elm, the birch, and the willows. Some, like the oak, have comparatively few but large and strong branches, while others have many and slender limbs, like many of the birches and poplars.

The teacher should call attention to these and other characteristics of tree-structure, drawing the various forms of trees on the blackboard and encouraging the pupils to do the same, allowing them also to correct each other's drawings. This will greatly increase their knowledge of trees and their interest in them as well as in Arbor Day and its appropriate observance.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Programme for Arbor Day.

We give in this part of our manual a programme for Arbor Day observance. It is presented not so much in the expectation that it will be exactly copied as that it may serve as suggestion of what may be done. We have added various selections from poets and prose writers which may help those who are preparing for the proper observance of Arbor Day. But these are only a few specimens from the great stores of our literature. A little care and painstaking beforehand will furnish an ample supply of the desired material, for our literature abounds in such. Not the least of the benefits of the observance of Arbor Day is the opportunity it gives for making the young familiar with the best thoughts of the best writers and thus giving them a literary culture in the pleasantest manner. Thus while preparing to plant trees we may be planting in the young mind and heart growths more precious and lasting than they.

I.-Exercises In the School-Room.

=1. READING.= (BY THE TEACHER, OR BY CLa.s.sES.)

"And G.o.d said, Let the earth bring forth gra.s.s, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth gra.s.s, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind."

"And out of the ground made the Lord G.o.d to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

"I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the s.h.i.+ttah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."

"He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch."

"Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her."

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of G.o.d and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

=2. INVOCATION SONG.=

TRIBUTE TO NATURE.

[Tune--"AMERICA."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Music notation]

Of nature broad and free, Of gra.s.s and flower and tree, Sing we to-day.

G.o.d hath p.r.o.nounced it good So we, His creatures would Offer to field and wood, Our heartfelt lay.

To all that meets the eye, In earth, or air, or sky, Tribute we bring.

Barren this world would be, Bereft of shrub and tree: Now, gracious Lord, to Thee, Praises we sing.

May we Thy hand behold, As bud and leaf unfold, See but Thy thought; Nor heedlessly destroy, Nor pa.s.s unnoticed by; But be our constant joy: All Thou hast wrought.

As each small bud and flower Speaks of the Maker's power, Tells of His love; So we, Thy children dear, Would live from year to year, Show forth Thy goodness here, And then above.

--MARY A. HEERMANS.

=3. READING ARBOR DAY LAW, OR PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR.=

[As the laws regarding Arbor Day vary in different States, it will be necessary for each teacher or superintendent to procure and read the one applicable to his State.]

=4. READING LETTERS IN REFERENCE TO ARBOR DAY.=

[These may consist of circular letters from superintendents, etc., and other incidental letters. It is suggested that notes of invitation to the exercises be sent to the parents of the children and to influential people. These will in many cases elicit replies bearing on the subject. In case such letters cannot be secured, at this point the "Encouraging Words" printed on page 15 of this pamphlet may be read with profit.]

=5. RECITATION.=

ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL.

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful,-- The Lord G.o.d made them all.

Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain, The river, running by, The morning, and the sunset That lighteth up the sky.

The tall trees in the greenwood, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden,-- He made them, every one.

He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell How great is G.o.d Almighty, Who hath made all things well.

--C.F. ALEXANDER.

=6. READING. Bryant's Forest Hymn.= (SEE PAGE 8.)