The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-04-18
@attbmam ( gumrmal.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL Is, 1900.
ARTHUR ROPES, General Editor {.
Concerning ArbOr Day.

Under the administration OF Gov
ernor Pingree, in 1884, Arbor Day was
instituted in Vermont. The idea was
a good one and the object both utilita'
rian and educational. Its purpose was
to promo.e the planting OF trees both
for profit and for the adornment of the
highways and the streets of village and
CITY communities. There were-and
still are-thousands of acres of rocky,
waste, unproductive lands in the State,
which were once covered with virgin
forests. They have become useless for
pasturage, and they are worthless for,
or impossible of, cultivation. Their
forest cloaks were taken off in an age
of wanton wastefulness. Vast areas of
imperial forest trees were cut down
and converted into potash. The lum-
herman, or the wood chopper followed,
working devastation where intelligent
forest husbandry should have been
practiced. The result is appar-
emit everywhere in Vermont, in I'M
slightly rocky ridges, barren plains,
brush or brier grown or brake-nfested
areas that afford neither sustenance to
animal life, profit to man nor pleasure
to the beholder. Tae reforesting of
these desolate regions was one, and the
primary, purpose of the advocates of
Arbor Day.
For a few years the institution was
observed with enthusiasm. Many trees
were planted and village improvement
societies were organized, but "inocu-
GUS desuetude" finally seized the day,
and its observance became as badly
demoralized as the institution Of Fast
Day. The question ought to be, not
shall Arbor Day go into Punishment,
but how shall its observance be made
to contribute successfully to its origi-
nal purpose? The difficulty with it's
observance has been the want of sys-
tenn and organization, the lack of ad-
equate instruction in tree planting and
the absence of proper preparation for
the practical work of the day. There
was go-as-you- please way in all the
methods, or the absence of methods,
employed. Successful tree planting
requires knowledge, care, understand
ing, as much as successful stock raising
or the successful performance of any
other undertaking. Trees cannot be
roughly torn from the ground, their
roots, or what remains of roots, depos-
tied in hole in the ground dug at ram
dom, and covered with earth, with any
reasonable expectation that they will
survive the rude surgery. But this is
the way in which much tree planting
has been done, and with inevitable
failures and discouragements.
Information as to the kind of trees
to plant, the size or age to he selected
the manner of treating them,-knowl-
edge of these and many more things is
needed to insure success in tree plant
ing. The work cannot be left to school
boys unaided by wisdom and expert
ence. The successful observance of
Arbor Day presupposes the existence
of adequate information on the subject
of intelligent tree planting, of clear
understanding of what is to be done,
and the way to do it with the best
promise of success. This implies sys.
tenn, supervision. The business of
public school management would not
succeed under haphazard, morgan
lied administration. If it is desirable
to perpetuate the observance of Arbol
Day, if the possible results of the in
stitution justify it's continuance, the
State ought to take the matter in hand
procure and publish information on the
whole subject of tree planting, enforce
the wisdom and desirability of usefu
forest husbrandry, stimulate and en-
courage it's practice by some sort O.
reward or bounty for given areas O
waste land planted to trees and brough
forward to stage of maturity that in
sures realization of the purpose of thu
enterprise and the proffered reward
In some such way the original pur
pose of Arbor Day may be realized, tn
waste lands of the State, fit only for for
est production, returned in time t
their natural function, millions of do
lars added to the real estate valuatio
of the State, and other millions by tn
pleasing prospect of verdure-clad hill
in place of the rocky and insight
ridges and barren areas that mar th
landscape and offend the sight. Her
is an opportunity for practical state'
manship,-the reclamation of We
monts waste lands.