The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-04-25
ArbOr Day.

Governor Fuller has designated May
8 as Arbor Day. His excellency rec
ommends the observance of the day in
proclamation that is particularly force
full and happy in diction, while its sug-
gestions of the varied benefits the state
may derive from the study and practice
of tree culture are full of practical wis
dom. There is nothing perfunctory in
the governors recommendations They
should have thoughtful consideration
and should be embodied in intelligent
practice, not only on the officially des-
ignated Arbor Day but on every sea-
sonable day in the year. Every day in
spring and summer, the season for
planting and cultivation, every day in
autumn and winter, the season for cut
ting wood and timber, should be Arbor
Day. Thus will the great interests for
whose advancement the day was insti-
tuted be adequately served.
The governor urges the people, and
especially the teachers and pupils of
the public schools, to observe the day
in some manner in harmony with its
purpose. Tree planting-or trans
planting-is naturally the direction the
practical observance of the day by the
people and the schools will take.
Planting will be chiefly for ornamental
purposes. The rearing of trees for
economic uses, for their timber or their
products, excepting fruit trees, has not
yet been undertaken in Vermont, as it
has been in the treeless regions of the
West, on very extensive scale; but
tree planting for such purposes will, in
the not distant future, be Systematically
pursued in Vermont, and the result
will be the reforesting of large areas
of waste lands with trees valu able for
their products or their timber.
The institution of Arbor Day in Yer
mont in 1885 by Governor Pingree was
attended with lively discussion of the
general subject of tree planting, both
for ornamental and for economic pur-
poses. The first Arbor Day was OBJ
served with an enthusiasm that has
hardly been sustained. 1t is doubtful
if the memory of the first Arbor Day is
perpetuated by many monuments that
have survived the mistakes or crude
ness in planting and lack of proper
care afterwards. The day merits a re-
vival of all the interest felt in the first
Arbor Day, tempered and guided by
an intelligent study and painstaking
in the matter of transplanting trees
and shrubs. Faulty methods have
made practical failure of the first at
tempts at tree planting, particularly by
the pupils of the schools. In the first
place, care should be taken in the selec-
ton of the variety of trees for the road
side, the school-house yards, or public
or private grounds. Vermont affords
wide range for selection. No finer
shade tree grows than the elm, and few
are more rapid growers. In maturity
~ iiieo ieo SohoPJ Va SloOOiul DlduCuCs
high above the ground, and, while it
yields delightful shade, it leaves the
outlook from even the higher windows
of public and private edifces unob-
scured. Its sinewy trunk and limbs
withstand the wrenchings of the
winds that shatter and mutilate the
maple. Still, the maple will ever be the
favorite shade tree in Vermont. The
sweets it yields in spring, its magnif-
cent ovoid of foliage in summer, its
glories of crimson and gold in the fall,
leave the maple no rival ia the prefer
ence of the Vermonter; and if he
plants tree at all, it will very likely be
one of this order. But if one is choos-
ing trees for public or private grounds,
give life and variety to selection by in
Guiding the white birch-whose sheeny
trunk relieves the somberness of the
evergreen, the elm and maple-and the
mountain ash, whose red berries en-
liven the autumn scenes. Consider