The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1902-04-11
Arbor Day.

the United States is day especially
set apart for the planting of different
kinds of trees and shrubs.
Arbor Day speaks for posterity; all
other holidays commemorate events of
the past. Yet even Arbor Day begins
to have a past.
In the United States owing to the
wide range of climate and the conse-'
quent difference in the seasons, various
days are named in different States and
territories. AS spring time approaches,
the Governor of the State proclaims
certain day to be set aside for Arbor
Day. This year, in the State of Nevada,
it falls on Friday, April 18th. Many
of the States in the Union have some
little history relating back to Arbor
Day and how it originated.
The people of North Dakota were
not at all prosperous, on account of the
high winds and billiards. that swept
over the whole State, killing their i've
stock, and human lives were also in
great danger when caught in one of
these billiards. away from shelter. The
people were getting discouraged, until
one day certain man thought of
setting aside day for the purpose of
planting trees, which would soon save
their State from destruction. He sng-
gested that the trees be planted in rows
to form wind-break So promising
was the progress of this plan among
the North Dakota people that in a
brought great establishment TO their
homes, as well as their outside sur
roundings. This day is now known as
Arbor Day.
In Ohio, scores of old barns have
floors and managers of blackwalnut,
put in fifty or seventy-fiye years ago,
when the chief effort of the pioneer
was to clear the dense forests for crops.
SO popular is blackwalnut furniture
abroad that English and French agents
buy even old barn timbers and fence
/
left in Ohio was sold one year ago last
March for export as lumber. The
largest tree, eight feet in diameter at
the stump, brought twelve hundred
dollars. In view of this fact Arbor
| Day suggests more than sentiment;
it hints at financial investment. Some
of the young people who plant walnut
graves or avenues may live to reap
substantial profits from the timber
thereof. 1t is not a great while ago
that the United States government
made "Woodman, spare that tree"
practically an act of Congress for the
protection of the giant trees of Cali
! fornia.
Let us hope that, within few years,
our own State, Nevada, will have an
Arbor Day history. Trees and shrubs
grow slowly, and public sentiment
even more slowly. But if the work
already done has made the valleys
more attractive now, how much greater
will be the Improvement which few
more years will show!
The growth of finer sense of beauty,
a love of order, firmer loyalty to the
State itself is the fruit which grows on
every tree planted where bush of
sagebrush now occupies, and those
who help to plant the trees will also
share in the harvest.
The United States is looking for
ward to an extensible Arbor Day. The
Department of Agriculture has planned
for this year, 1902, new departure in
encouragement of tree planting adj
ditional to the regular annual distribu-
ton of seeds by the aid of Congress
men. The first of this month Congress
assigned to each Senator and Repre-
sentative seventy five shade trees.
The trees will be of different species,
suited to the climate and condition of
the region where they are to be planted.
There was also special distribution of
trees made in honor of the Connecticut
Constitutional Convention. When