The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-04-22
SPRING ARBOR DAYS.

his ESCellenCv. GOVernOr HattlSOn.
having designated Thursday, April
I4th, and Friday, May 9th, as Arbor
Days, in accordance with the request
of the Legislature, the attention of
school Superintendents, Directors and
Teachers is invited to the fact.
No school in Pennsylvania can af.
ford to ignore day commended to it
by both the Legislative and the Exc
cutive branches of government, by the
greatest educational body in the Unit
e1 States, the National Educational
Association-in 1884, at Madison,
Wisconsin, and observed in thirty
nine States and Territories. This con-
currence of opinion at once indicates
that proper observance Of the day
must be of great educational value
even where the school grounds may be
as full as they ought to be of trees,
shrubs and vines.
A little reflection will convince
teacher that the day is needed by his
school. The prime ends of education
are character and power. The refin-
ing of character through intimate &C.
qualntance with the vegetable world
needs no comment. Her process and
products awaken the admiration of the
superficial observer, and command the
reverence of the most profound The
great modern innovation is the intro
duction of Bacon's method into the
school room. The children are to be
educated not away from their surround
ings but into sympathy with them,
and thus into the ability to use them
advantageously. 1t is well, too, for
the school when the pupils find that,
once at last, it moves in accord with
the feelings aroused by the genial sun
shine, the smell Of the fresh earth, the
balmy breeze, the budding spring. The
day is to be observed primarily to stim-
ulate the children in all their powers
OF thought, feeling and purpose,
through the incompatible agency of
the vegetable world. 1t is to be OBJ
served to promote the attractiveness Of
our surroundings and the love of home
and of country 1t is to be used to in
terest the people in the protection of
Nature in her efforts to reclothe the
mountains and waste places, and to in
terest them in economic tree planting.
1t has already promoted the planting
of thousands of acres, in our own and
neighboring States. tens Of thousands
upon Cape Cod and elsewhere, and
hundred Of thousands in the treeless
regions of the Great West.
Newspapers may be invited to aid
the work by publishing selections in
prose and rse appropriate to the day,
by suggesting what and how to plant,
and by arousing the public 10 consider
the interests represented. The excel
lent Arbor Day Manual, by Asst. Supt.
Charles R. Skinner, of New YORK,
which is published by Weed, Parsons
& Co., of Albany, is the largest work
yet prepared. Arbor Day Leaves, by
N. H. Egleton, of the Division and
Forestry of the United States Depart
mcnt of Agriculture, published by the
American Book Company, and cir
cular upon the Celebration of Arbor
Day, issued by the United States
Bureau of Education, are excellent
aids. The United States Department
of Agriculture, has also issued from
the Forestry Division, Circular No. S,
entitled, "Arbor Day Planting in East
ern States" This answers the ques-
tions, What and Howto plant, and can
be had, as can that upon the celebra.
tion of the day, issued by the General
Government, upon application to the
proper Department.
Superintendents are requested to re-
port to this Department the record OF
the trees planted by the schools during
the year. ID. ]. WALLER, JR:,
Supt. Public Instruction.