BY THE HON. B. G. NORTHROP, LL.D.

Recent spring floods and the diminished flow of rivers in summer have called public attention to the cause and the remedy as never before. At the opening of the last session of Congress, its attention was called to the subject of Forestry, for the first time in any presidential message. Bills for the protection and extension of forests are now before Congress, and before many state legislatures. The last census presents striking facts which prove this to be a question of both state and national importance. The recent action of the national government shows a new appreciation of forestry. The marvel now is, that the general government did not earlier seek to protect its magnificent forests, once the best and most extensive in the world. Their importance to the nation was little understood. Even after a century of reckless waste, the United States government still owns 85,000,000 acres of timber—a mere fraction of what has been cut, or burned, without a thought of reproduction. The Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, though organized but six years ago, has already spread much valuable information before the country by its reports and by those of its special agents, commissioned to investigate the forests of the country and the means of their protection and extension. Ex-Governor R. W. Furnas, of Nebraska, for example, investigated the forests of California, Oregon, Washington Territory, and the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. His official reports on the stealing and reckless destruction of those timber lands, and also in regard to the new and extensive timber growing on the treeless plains of Nebraska, were of great public interest. The reports of Dr. F. B. Hough of New York, and F. B. Baker, of Kansas—also agents of the United States Forestry Division—have been extensively circulated and still more widely summarized in the press.

The National Forestry Congress is another index of the growth of popular interest on this subject. A large volume of the proceedings of that association at its meeting in Montreal was officially published by the Dominion of Canada. The best papers given at its three subsequent meetings have been published by the United States Department of Agriculture. The subject has been ably discussed in State Agricultural Reports, and many state and local associations have been formed to further this interest. The passage of the Timber Culture Act has greatly increased the area of planted woodland.

But of all these agencies no one has awakened so general an interest in agriculture as the appointment of Arbor Day, by governors of states, by legislatures, and by state, county and town superintendents of schools. The plan of Arbor Day is simple and inexpensive, and hence the more readily adopted and widely effective. In some states the work has been well done without any legislation. The best results, however, are secured when an act is passed requesting the Governor, each spring, to recommend the observance of Arbor Day, by a special message. The chief magistrate of the state thus most effectually calls the attention of all the people to its importance, and secures general and concerted action. How forests conserve the water supplies and lessen floods is aside from the topic of this paper. While the fact of the increase of spring freshets is everywhere admitted, and scientists agree as to the cause, the popular disbelief of the true theory is the great hindrance to remedial action. The bills for the protection of the Adirondack forests, in the legislature of New York, in 1884, failed by reason of the opposition of the lumbermen, and the common doubt and denial of the benefits of forests in the conservation of the rainfall. I often met the same skepticism in the Ohio valley, even among the sufferers from the flood disasters. They were attributed to the extensive use of tile drains. But both in 1883 and 1884, these floods occurred when the ground was frozen deep, and the drains were therefore inoperative.

That so simple a cause as forest denudation should produce such disastrous results seems at first incredible. It is only when the vast areas contributing to a single river are considered, that the proof of the forest theory seems clear. Take the Ohio River, for illustration. The area drained by it is 214,000 square miles, or twenty-two times as much as that which in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut is drained by the Connecticut River; an area which includes portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The length of the Ohio is about 1,000 miles, and that of its ten leading tributaries nearly 4,000, and that of the many minor affluents as much more. The smallest influences working over such immense regions, and ultimately combining in one stream, may enormously swell its volume. As the destruction of forests has been going on for centuries, the remedy must be the work of time, for it must include slow processes and agencies, each separately minute, which become important when multiplied by myriads and extended over broad areas. Arbor Day has proved such an agency.

A brief history of Arbor Day will show its aims. The surprising results already accomplished promise a still broader influence in the near future. The plan originated with ex-Governor J. Sterling Morton, the pioneer tree-planter of Nebraska. He secured the coÖperation of the State Board of Agriculture, some thirteen years ago, when the Governor was induced to appoint the second Wednesday in April as a day to be devoted to economic tree-planting. By pen and tongue, as editor and lecturer, with arguments from theory and facts from his own practice, Mr. Morton succeeded in awakening popular enthusiasm in this work, in which he was ably seconded by Ex-Governor Furnas, of Nebraska, who has long served as Forest Commissioner for the United States Department of Agriculture.

In Nebraska a remarkable interest was awakened in the observance of her first Arbor Day, and over 12,000,000 trees were planted on that day. That enthusiasm was not a temporary effervescence. Each successive Governor has annually appointed such a day by an official proclamation, and the interest has been sustained and even increased from year to year. The State Board of Agriculture annually awards liberal prizes to encourage tree-planting. Hence Nebraska is the banner state of America in this work, having, according to official reports, as I am informed by ex-Governor Furnas, 244,353 acres of cultivated woodland, or more than twice that of any other state. The originator of Arbor Day is now recognized as a public benefactor, and hence, during the last campaign, as a candidate for Governor, ran some three thousand ahead of his party ticket. Though at first aiming at economic tree-planting, Nebraska now observes Arbor Day in schools. The example of Nebraska was soon followed by Kansas, which had over 120,000 acres of planted woodland. The Governor of that state issues an annual proclamation for Arbor Day, and it is observed by teachers and scholars and parents, in adorning both school and home grounds.

Four years ago the legislature of Michigan requested the Governor to appoint an Arbor Day. Such an appointment has been repeated each succeeding April. For the last three years a similar day has been appointed by the Governor of Ohio. Many schools, especially those of Cincinnati and Columbus, fitly kept the designated day. No man in this country has had a better opportunity of observing the influence of Arbor Day in schools than Superintendent Peaslee, who, after a trial of three years, says: “The observance of Arbor Day is the most impressive means of interesting the young in this subject. Should this celebration become general, such a public sentiment would lead to the beautifying by trees of every city, town, and village, as well as the public highways, church, and school grounds, and the homes of the people. If but the youth of Ohio could be led to plant their two trees each, how, by the children alone, would the state be enriched and beautified within the next fifty years. By our Arbor Day observance the importance of forestry was impressed upon the minds of thousands of children who then learned to care for and protect trees. Not one of those 20,000 children in Eden Park on Arbor Day injured a single tree.”

West Virginia furnishes another illustration of the influence of observing Arbor Day in schools. In the face of many difficulties, State School Superintendent Butcher appointed an Arbor Day in schools in April, 1883. Without waiting for any legislative or gubernatorial sanction, solely on his own responsibility, he invited the school officers, teachers, parents, and pupils on the designated day to plant trees on the grounds of their schools and homes. He made the April number of his School Journal an “Arbor” number, and circulated it gratuitously over the State. The results exceeded his expectations. It started good influences on minds as well as grounds. This great success prompted a similar observance last April, for which greater preparations were made, with still better results. When called to advocate this measure In various parts of West Virginia last spring, I found the people and the press most responsive in encouraging this practical movement. On the day after the celebration, the papers of Wheeling, for example, commended the work in such terms as the following: “Arbor Day was gloriously celebrated yesterday, and was a splendid success. All—the oldest and the youngest—evinced the liveliest interest. Arbor Day will be one of the institutions of our schools.”

At the annual meeting of the State Teachers’ Association of Indiana, held in December, 1883, a kindred plan was recommended and unanimously adopted, and an efficient committee appointed to carry it out. The State Board of Horticulture heartily endorsed the measure. After a statement of the plan, the State Board of Agriculture invited me to prepare a resolution in its favor, which they promptly adopted. Governor Porter received my suggestions with special interest, and said the measure should have his cordial support. He soon after gave it his official sanction, and issued a proclamation to the teachers and people of the state, in which he predicted that the appointed day would be a memorable one, and “the beginning of a movement for a much more extended system of tree-culture, and the restoration of the varieties of trees, useful and beautiful, which have been so recklessly sacrificed that nature cries aloud for redress,” closing by calling on “the teachers to do all in their power to make Arbor Day a day of the most ardent and inspiring interest.” State School Superintendent Holcombe gave his personal and official influence heartily to this work. The lectures given by his invitation on this subject were fully reported by the press, for the newspapers of Indiana cordially coÖperated in this movement. These combined influences secured the general observance of the appointed day, and the results were most gratifying. Such combined agencies in nearly every state of the Union would promise similar results.

At the last annual Convention of the State Teachers’ Association of Wisconsin, the presentation of Arbor Day in schools led to the adoption of a resolution in favor of such an observance, and to the appointment of an efficient committee to carry out the plan. At the National Educational Association held in Madison, Wisconsin, with an attendance of over five thousand, a resolution recommending the observance of Arbor Day in schools in all our states was unanimously adopted. Such a day has been observed with great interest in some of the provinces of Canada.

The American Forestry Congress, which includes the leading arborists of Canada and the United States, adopted, at my suggestion, the following resolution: “In view of the wide-spread results of the observance of Arbor Day in many states, this Congress recommends the appointment of such a day in all our states and in the provinces of the dominion of Canada,” and appointed a committee, consisting of the Chief of the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, the State Superintendent of Schools of West Virginia, and myself to secure the general adoption of this plan, and especially Arbor Day in schools. As chairman of that committee, I have already presented this subject to the Governors of many states, and the proposition has met a favorable response.

It may be objected to Arbor Day, or to any lessons on forestry in schools, that the course of study is already overcrowded, and this fact I admit. But the requisite talks on trees, their value and beauty, need occupy but two or three hours. In some large cities there may be little or no room for tree-planting, and no call for even a half-holiday for this work, but even there such talks, or the memorizing of suitable selections, on the designated day, would be impressive and useful. The essential thing is to start habits of observation and occupation with trees, which will prompt pupils in their walks, or when at work, or at play, to study them. The talks on this subject, which Superintendent Peaslee says were the most interesting and profitable lessons the pupils of Cincinnati ever had in a single day, occupied only the morning of Arbor Day, the afternoon being given to the practical work. Such talks will lead our youth to admire trees, and realize that they are the grandest products of nature, and form the finest drapery that adorns this earth in all lands. Thus taught, they will wish to plant and protect trees, and find in their own happy experience that there is a peculiar pleasure in their parentage, whether forest, fruit, or ornamental—a pleasure which never cloys, but grows with their growth. Like grateful children, trees bring rich filial returns, and compensate a thousand fold for all the care they cost. This love of trees, early implanted in the school, and fostered in the home, will make our youth practical arborists.

They should learn that trees have been the admiration of the greatest and best men of all ages. The ancients understood well the beauty as well as the economic and hygienic value of trees. The Hebrew almost venerated the palm. It was the chosen symbol of Judea on their coins, and was graven on the doors of the Temple as the sacred sign of justice. The Cedar of Lebanon was justly the pride of the Jews, and became to them the emblem of strength and beauty. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were proficients in tree-planting. Hence Thebes, Memphis, Athens, Carthage, Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum, as their ruins still show, had their shaded streets or parks. Two thousand years ago, the richest Romans maintained a rural home, as does the wealthy Londoner, Viennese, or Berliner to-day, and their ancient villas were lavishly adorned. The Paradise of the Persians was filled with trees and roses. This taste for beautiful gardens was transplanted from Persia to Greece, and the Greek philosophers held their schools in beautiful gardens, or groves. The devastations of parks, the destruction of shade trees, the neglect of public streets and private grounds, the decay of rural tastes, and the utter slight of home adornments, were clearer proofs of the great relapse to barbarism than the vandalism which destroyed the proud monuments of classic art and literature.

Arbor Day has already initiated a movement of vast importance in eight states. In tree-planting, the beginning only is difficult. The obstacles are all met at the outset, because they are usually magnified by the popular ignorance of this subject. It is the first step that costs—at least, it costs effort to set this thing on foot, but that step once taken, others are sure to follow. This very fact that the main tug is at the start, on account of the inertia of ignorance and indifference, shows that such start should be made easy, as is best done by an Arbor Day proclamation of the Governor, which is sure to interest and enlist the youth of an entire state in the good work. When the school children are invited each to plant at least “two trees” on the home or school grounds, the aggregate number planted will be more than twice that of the children enlisted, for parents and the public will participate in the work.

Tree-planting is fitted to give a needful lesson of forethought to the juvenile mind. Living only in the present and for the present, youth are apt to sow only where they can quickly reap. A meager crop soon in hand, outweighs a golden harvest long in maturing. They should learn to forecast the future as the condition of wisdom. Arboriculture is a discipline in foresight—it is always planting for the future. There is nothing more ennobling for youth, than the consciousness of doing something for future generations, something which shall prove a growing benefaction in coming years. Tree-planting is an easy way of perpetuating one’s memory long after he has passed away. The poorest can in this way provide himself with a monument grander than the loftiest shaft of chiseled stone which may suggest duty to the living, while it commemorates the dead. Such associations grow in interest from year to year and from generation to generation. By stimulating a general interest in tree-planting among our youth, Arbor Day will yield a rich harvest to future generations. George Peabody originated the motto, so happily illustrated by his munificent gifts to promote education: “Education—the debt of the present to future generations.” We owe it to our children to leave our lands the better for our tillage and tree-planting, and we wrong ourselves and them, if our fields are impoverished by our improvidence.

Arbor Day in school has led youth to adorn the surroundings of their homes, as well as of the schools, and to extensive planting by the wayside. How attractive our roads may become by long avenues of trees! This is beautifully illustrated in many countries of Europe. In France, for example, the government keeps a statistical record of the trees along the roads. The total length of public roads in France is 18,750 miles, of which 7,250 are bordered with trees, while 4,500 are now being, or are soon to be, planted. Growing on lands otherwise running to waste, such trees are grateful to the traveler, but doubly so to the planter.

The influence of Arbor Day in schools in awakening a just appreciation of trees, first among pupils and parents, and then the people at large, is of vast importance in another respect. The frequency of forest fires is the greatest hindrance to practical forestry. But let the sentiment of trees be duly cultivated, first among our youth, and then among the people, and they will be regarded as our friends, as is the case in Germany. The public need to learn that the interests of all classes are concerned in the conservation of forests. Through the teaching of their schools this result was long since accomplished in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and other European countries. The people everywhere realize the need of protecting trees. An enlightened public sentiment has proved a better guardian of their forests than the national police. A person wantonly setting fire to a forest would there be looked upon as an outlaw, like the miscreant who should poison a public drinking fountain.