The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1908-03-21
ARBOR DAY CIRCULAR TO
COUNTY SVPERINTENDENTS

Friday, March twenty second, has been designated by
proclamation from the Office of Governor Curry as Arbor Day.
You will note that section I625 A of the compiled laws of 1897,
provides that the day shall be a holiday in all public schools
of the territory, and school officers and teachers are required to
have the schools under their respective charge observe the day
day then, IS a holiday, provided it is properly observed, other.
wise it is not to be so regarded.
You will note that the actual planting of trees may be
done on the day designated, or at such other most convenient
time as may best conform to local climatic conditions, such
other time to be designated and due notice thereof given by the
counties"
In addition, l would respectfully call your attention to
the fact that the respective superintendent OF schools shall
also promote by all proper means the observance of the day,
and the said county superintendent OF schools shall make an
nual reports to the Governor of the Territory of the action
taken in this behalf in their respective counties"
President Roosevelt addressed ITO the Children of the
United States a letter concerning Arbor Day under date of
April IS, 1907. This letter came to our Office too late for use
last year, but it is an excellent letter and fully as applicable to-
day as a year ago: am enclosing a copy herewith, therefore,
and request meditation upon its contents for it touches a mat.
ter of vital importance to our territory. A statement from DIR.
Felix L. Oswald is enclosed also.
Trusting that through your efforts Arbor Day 1908 may
bring real improvement to every school site in New Mexico,
and that the growing generation may give serious consideration
to the value of our forests, am Yours Sincerely.
(Signed) ]. E.. CLARK.
Santa Fe, N. NJ, March "a. 1908.
p. S. We fully realize that it is difficult for the great majority
of our teachers in the outlying districts to collect sufficient, sat
regret to this department that the funds of our office are not
sufficient to warrant the publication of a manual fo. use by the
teachers in the exercises of Arbor Day.
To the School Children of the United States:
Arbor Day (Which means simply tree day. is now OBJ
served in every state in the Union-and mainly in the schools.
al III lIUtS hOu duudI " bSSCiuDCl III Chiefly III kIS
month of April, you give a day or part OF a day to special exer-
cises and perhaps to actual tree planting in recognition Of the
Importance of trees to US as a Nation, and of what they yield in
adornment, comfort and useful products to the communities in
which you live.
1t is we'll that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thought
fully, for within your lifetime the Nations need of trees will be-
come serious. We of an older generation can get along with what
we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full man
hood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bounti-
fully supplied and man SO thoroughly destroyed, and because OF
that want you will reproach US, not for what we have used but
for what we have wasted.
For the Nation as for the man or woman boy or girl, the
provement of present opportunity. If you neglect to prepare
yourselves now for the duties and responsibilities which will fall
upon you later, if you do not learn the things which you will
need to know when your school days are over, you will suffer
the consequences. So any Nation which lives only for the day
reaps without sowing, and consumes without Outstanding, must
expect the penalty of the prodigal, whose labor could with diff
Guilty find him the bare means OF life.
A people without children would face a hopeless future;
a country without trees is almost as hopeless. Forests which
are so used that they cannot renew themselves will soon vanish,
and with them all their benefits. A true forest is not merely a
store house full of wood but, as it were, a factory Of wood and
at the same time a reservoir OF water. When you help to pre-
serve our forests or plant new ones you are acting the part of
good citizens. The value OF forestry deserves, therefore to be
taught in the schools, which aim to make good citizens Of you.
If your Arbor Day exercises help you to realize what benefits
each one of you receive from the forests, and how by your as
sistance these benefits may continue, they will serve a good
end. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House.