The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-05-02
Miss Ella Toner, a Kenosha School
Teacher, Tells of the History of
the Annual Holiday.
1T is TO BE OBSERVED FRIDAY
Special Exercises in Honor of Day Will be
Afrernoon-Trees Will be Planted.

The children of the city schools will
on next Friday observe the annual
Arbor and Bird day, and as many of
the people of the city are ignorant of
the real purpose of the day, we repro
duce today paper read by Miss Ella
Toner before the teachers of the city
on last Saturday. The paper follows:
The settlers on the naked, wind
swept prairies of the West, found it one
of their first necessities of 1ife-the
planting of trees about their cabins
and farms. But manifest as was the
need of tree planting it was not easy
to effect the work. The magnitude of
it was as discouraging as the necessity
was imperative. What could the
planting done by few settlers amount
to on wide seas of verdure tree1ess and
shore1ess? Driven by necessity, as 1
have said, they did, many of them,
plant little groves of cottonwood and
other quick growing but frai1 trees
about their cabins. These gave some
shelter to the cabin and inmates, but
what was to shelter the cattle and
crops? The hap-hazard efforts of a
few, working here and there without
concord, easily spent themselves in at
tanning results far short Of what were
needed
It was the happy thought of one
pioneer in the treeless West, in order to
re1ieveShe irksomeness of tree plant
ing, and to convert from drudgery
into what might be pleasure, to estab-
ish a certain day, at the season of the
year when trees are starting into fresh
life, ard to invite those in the same
community to engage together on that
day, Ia the work of tree planting The
designation of a certain day had the
effeclxo prevent the season from slip
ping by unobserved and also to stimu-
late cooperative endeavor. This plan
grew and spread till the one thought
seemed to pervade the very atmo-
sphere.
Gov. Morton bui1ded better than he
knew when he gave origin to this day
on April %, 1872. He was thinking
chiefly of This own state, Nebraska,
swept over by fierce billiards of the
Northwest and swe1tering blasts from
the torrid South. The whole state
worked in harmony and in less than
one year after its adoption ten million
trees were planted. From that day to
1890 there were 4O0,OOO,OOO trees
planted.
This invention, as we may call it,
spread to the neighboring states and
territories till it became fixed insti-
tuition throughout the prairie region of
the country Before 1890 twenty-seven
states and territories followed Nebras-
ka's example and were endeavoring to
replace some of the trees hitherto de-
stroyed. Wisconsin first celebrated
the day April 80, 1889.
Pennsylvania had long forgotten
VIM. PENIS law in the early colony
that in clearing the ground care should
be taken to leave one acre of trees for
every five acres cleared; and in 1885
this state had 1ega1ized two days for
tree planting.
A noticeable and important develop
ment of the Arbor day movement is in
connection with our public schools.
This may be said to date from the
memorable tree planting by the pupils
of the public schools of Cincinnati on
the occasion of the meeting of the
American Forestry Congress in that
city in 1882. No one who was present
will ever forget that scene, when, on
lovely May day, twenty thousand
school children, marshalled by their
teachers, formed a part of the grand
procession, which, amid banners hut-
tering from every window and with the
of military battallions
and bands of music, went out to the
beautiful md well named Eden Park
and there in Authors Grove, planted
trees in memory of the most eminent
authors and statesmen of Our own and
other lands. It was a grand and i'm
pressive object lesson of the best char
acter. That holiday was a valuable
school day. It was for the time, school
in the open air, face to face with Ma
ture, and her most hea1thfu1 and in
structive agencies.
It seems that the past generations
never forgave or never forgot that
early intimate acquaintances with the
birch and have been revenging them
selves ever since. Let us then, as
teachers, by our earnest endeavors,
not only teach the children in our care
to spare, plant and care for the trees,
but like them to grow upright in every
sense of the word. The child should
not allow the tree he planted, or, may
be, his name SADIE tree, to out strip him,
and should remember that a man, like
tree, is known by his fruits.