Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-04-11
ssMasR OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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i. LESSONS OF ARRoR DAY.

LESSONS OF ARRoR DAY. ~
! The United States department of
agriculture sends out an interesting
and Instructive Arbor Day bulletin,
prepared by Clifford Pinchot, forester
of the department. There are in
this bulletin many excellent sugges-
lions for the planting and care of
trees and suggestions, too, for. the
channels into which the mind of the
child 8may be turned profitably by
the things about us. 4 (, asss /.
What child has not seen a muddy
freshet? Yet this sight, so common
in the spring, is full of suggestion
for a forest lesson, The stream is
disco1ored by the earth which it has
gathered from the soil. This carries
us back to the streams source, in
the forest springs. Again, it shows
us with what. force the water has
rushed over the exposed ground
where there was no forest to shield
and bind it. In this way the Mis-
sissippi tears down and filings into
its bed, each summer, more soil than
will be dredged with years of costly
labor ITO make the Panama canal.
An experiment with fine and coarse
soils stirred quickly in tumbler of
water and then allowed to settle ex-
plains how the stream continues
muddy while it runs swiftly, and how
it clears again as it slackens on more
level stretches, dropping the soil to
the bottom. On any steep, ploWed
hillside, or on any railroad or trolly
embankment, exposed soil may be
seen washing with the rain. A for
est on a mountain slope may be pic
tured by cloth upon a tilted table;
then ifiWater be poured on the higher
edge it will creep downward through
the cloth and drip slowly from the
lower edge, as would rain falling up
on the forest. If now the cloth be
pIucked of, and the water still
poured, we may observe at once what
happens when such a forest is des-
troyed. ss& u 4
Most articles in common use, cloth
ing excepted, are made of wood
alone or in combination with metal.
Here is an excellent subject for an
5Arbor Day composition. Let one but
think of the poverty and backward
ness of life without the material that
is supplied only by the forest. No
single one of natures gifts, after air
and water, is more freely offered or
readily enjoyed than wood. We live
chiefly in wooden houses and burn
wood to keep warm. Tables and other
furniture, carriages and garden inn
plements, matches and paper are
taken in whole or in part from the
forest. Wood is easy to procure and
!. to work. How simple a matter to
cut a sapling for a fishing rod; how
hard to smelt and cast fishing rod
from iron ore. Boys who have
grumbled over having to split a
4 tough stick to feed the kitchen fire
( would have better cause to grumble
ii wood had to be painfully mined
from the rock. Nails and screws
! saw and plane and chisel, suffice. fol
a multitude Of smaller repairs which
anyone can make; to cut or rive
Il metal is no such easy affair. 10
The flowers and seeds Of trees arr
4 Interesting subjects of Investigation
The bursting of the blossoms on elm
and red maple, the tassle-like cat
kins of cottonwood, willow and aide
are among the earliest signs o
spring Some Of the most faseinatin.
facts of botany are easily studied il
tree flowers. Black locust, Eastwood
and yellow poplar, for instance, carr.
perfect flowers that pollenize thei
own pistils: chestnut, beech, pine
and spruces, on the other hand, hav
their staminate and pistillate flower
distinct though on the same tree
while such species as the cottonwood
the willows. alders and ashes, th
persimmon, and the boxelder Sbea
only the staminate or only the pts
tillate flowers on a single tree. TIL
Ingenious and often intricate device
OF nature TO secure cross fertilization
are well worth inquiring into.
Many Of the early towering tree
mature their seeds before the schoo
year ends. The adaptations BY which
forest trees secure the distribution
of their seeds are diverse Som
4 seeds. such ais the nuts and llickorie
4and chestnuts, are distributed b.