The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-25
WON'T PLANT TREES
ArbOr Day in the Butte Schools Will
Be Observed in Other Ways.
COURSE OF THE EXERCISES
State superintendent Steere Is
sues a Pamphlet In Which Are
Embodied instructions and
Governors Proclamation


school children of Butte on Arbor day.
May IL. although appropriate exercises
in observance of the day will be held
in all the schools of the district. There
are few well-known conditions exist
ing in Butte that would make tree
planting altogether useless. and for
that reason the letter of The law. which
provides that the teachers in the public
schools must on Arbor dy instruct the
pupils as to the Importance of tree
planting and give practical lessons IN
landscape gardening" will not be car
ried out in the Butte schools. The last
legislature gave the superintendent of
public instruction authority to prescribe
from year to year a course of exercises
and instructions for the schools of the
state appropriate to the day. and also
directed the public school authorities
to adopt the instructions of the state
superintendent.
In accordance with this power con-
ferred upon him, Mr.. Steere has just
issued a 20-page booklet, copies of
which have been received in Butte con-
tanning Governor Richards proclama-
ton, the laws on the subject of Arbor
day, and a programme which he sug-
gests for the use of the schools in OBJ
serving the day. The book quotes the
following section of the codes relating
to Arbor day:
in our public schools shall assist in the
work of adjoining the school grounds
with trees and to stimulate the minds
of the children towards the BENEFITS OF
the preservation and pcrpetuation of
our forests and the growing of timber,
IL shall be the duty of the authorities
In every public school district In this
state to assemble the children In their
charge on the above day in the school
building or elsewhere, as they may
deem proper, and to provide for and
conduct under the general supervision
of the city superintendent county su-
perintendents, teachers and trustees or
other school authorities having the gen.
eral charge and oversight of the public
schools in each city or district, to have
and hold such services as shall tend to
encourage the planting, preservation
and protection of trees and shrubs, and
an acquaintance with the best methods
to be adopted to accomplish such re-
suits.
The section providing that teachers
must instruct the pupils as to the i'm
portance of tree planting and give
practical lessons in landscape garden
ing is also quoted. and then follows a
letter from Mr. Steere to 1.-The children,
teachers and citizens of Montana" in
which the head of the Montana public
school system speaks as follows:
"Arbor day has come again and after
many years of tree-cutting we are, as
a nation, realizing that we must cry
halt and reverse our actions. We are
not alone to plant trees and have a
good time oh, no. Although the setting
of a tree and the festivities attending
ii are pleasureable and useful In inn
pressing the mind with the memory of
the occasion, the deeper object OF Arbor
day Is to Undue the coming genera
tions with a love of tree growth that
out of a nation of wood choppers there
may arise a nation of tree planters
and foresters. This earth has been our
cradle and will be our grave. Then
why not lead the child to look from
Nature up to Natures God? Wher-
ever there is a barren, desolate piece
of ground called the schoolhouse yard
in this grand commonwealth of ours
there should come a desire from some
noble heart to teach the children to
plant a tree and love 1t as one friend
loves another.
Children, If we are confronted by
the handiwork of man on the inside of
our schoolhouses, let us at least have
some of the handiwork of God on the
outside BY so doing we will have the
pleasure in the after years of having
| our minds awakened to pleasant men,
| cries and to recall the associations of
happy childhood Keep the yard at all
times beautiful and clean. Ask your
parents to help you. Enlist all about
you in this labor of love and do not
| lessen your ardor after the Arbor day
exercises are over. A tree planted but
| to die is worse than no attempt, be-
| cause il discourages. A tree planted
| however, so that 1t will live and grow
| encourages to further and larger ef-
| fort.
/ ''Our schoolhouse yards, our homes
1 Of
| should not be neglected. We do not
| have many school holidays; therefore
let this be made one of especial interest
| for the beauty and utility, for the edu.
| cational and material interests OF oui
state.
"As this is the first manual gotter
| out in this state, let us take the simple
suggestions herein contained and thus
make the country visibly more beauti
full every year. Thus. says George VIII
liam Curtis, The schoolhouse will grad
| ually become an ornament, as IL Is al
ready the great benefit of the village
and the children will be put In the wa,
of living upon more friendly and intel
ligent terms with the beautiful nature
| which is so friendly to u.s.
s'Of course, every hamlet In Montana
| cannot reasonably hope to be recog
nized, like Goldsmith's Auburn, as thu
loveliest village of the plain. nor lik'
/ New Haven, Conn.,, the City of Elms;
but IL is safe to say that there are nom
of them which may not work out 70
| Themselves a creditable, manifest des
tiny. Therefore, TO the work.
The programme suggested by Mr.
Stere is made up of songs, readings
quotations, essays and recitations. APP
propriate quotations and selections o
prose and poetry are given and subject
for 35 essays are suggested. also lis
! of appropriate selections for the conve
| pieace of teachers who have access 4
libraries. The state superintendent in
structions as TO literary exercises viii
probably be followed in the Butt