New Britain herald., 1915-09-08
CHOU 7zU.CHI TAKES
 INTEREST IN TREES
Chinese Agricultural Minister
 Institutes Arbor Day
Correspondence of the Associated Press.)

1 the minister of agriculture and com l r1erce For years MT. Chou has been | deeply interested in afforestation, and
 in the furtherance of his plans he has l created a Chinese Arbor day when all farmers are especially urged to l plant and cultivate trees in honor of | their ancestors.
 | The day selected is a festival which l the Chinese have celebrated for over $500 years. It is called the Spring festival. This year it fell on April 6, l but the date changes yearly, as the l occasion is fixed by the lunar calen- l dar.
 l Formerly it has been the practice
 Of Chinese to observe this day by l burning paper boats, paper horsss 1 and carts which are supposed to assist their ancestors in esca ping evil
 spirits Its celebration has been
 general in rural communities, but
 cities have not been constant in ob ! serving this and other festivals de- 1 signed to do honor to ancestors. ! MT. Chou hopes to have the old 1 Chinese festival perpetuated in a more practical way, and his plan to com bine the new idea borrowed from l America with the ancient feast Is typical Of the present governments
 plan to build a new China on the best
 of the old traditions and not make an
 effort to uproot entirely customs 1 which have endured for many cen- 1 turies.
 Origin of Festival.
 l The Spring Festival is somewhat l legendary in it's origin, but is sup 1 posed to date back to 654 B. c. l Prince Tsin had a devoted supporter l Kiai Che-Tui, who followed the
 prince into exile in northern China l and lived with him there for eighteen years When Prince Tsin was able l to leave exile and again gained the favor of the court retried to reward
 Kiai Che-Tui for his faithfulness
 But Kiai was unwilling to have his 1 devotion to his friend rewarded and
 escaped with his mother into the
 mountains where they lived for
 several years regardless of Tsin's
 efforts to entice him out into the
 world. Finally Tsin had the forests l in the mountain fired to compel Kiai l tc leave his hiding place. The unfor- 1 tunate recluse and his mother were | both burned. Great clouds of smoke engulfed the mountain for single day. The following day was one Of
 unusual brightness, and this orll- liancy inspired the Spring festival.
 The Chinese celebrate the day by
 ca ting brilliantly dyed eggs ana decorate the doors of their homes with willow branches. Originally this was a period of fasting. As first the celebrants would eat no hot food TOT
 2. period of thirty days, but this was
 found to affect the health of the public so seriously that an imperlal ;ot bidding this feature.
 The University of Ranking, an in
 stitution maintained by Americans has a department of agriculture and forestry which has attracted wide at- tention in China and has done much to inspire the movement for affores- tation. Professor Joseph Bailie, an
 American, is at the head of this de- partment and has impressed the gov ernment so favorably by his work in tree planting on Purple mountain, near Ranking, that the secretary or agriculture and commerce has dls- banded the college of agriculture es- abolished by the government in Pe-
 king and sent twenty-four Of the
 most promising students to work
 under Professor Bailie.
 Students of Forestry.
 Practically all the provinces are
 now sending students to study forestry at Ranking, and the school which
 grew out of the efforts of few
 missionaries to point the way in the conservation of natural resources
 promises to become a vital influence in the movement to restore trees to the cut-over lands of China.
 Because of the extreme poverty of nsk I.
 winter in the northern sections, all trees are seized upon for fuel by the poverty stricken. Even the roots are
 brubbed out. Many Chinese are com pelled to burn dry grass to keep from freezing in extreme weather. The re- suit is bare hillsides which heavy
 rains rob of all fertile soil. Similar conditions exist also in many of the lowlands Chinese rivers have be- come subject to terrible floods since the devastation of forests in the hills
 and mountains. Lands which were
 once fertile have been robbed of their top soil by high waters and it has
 been deposited in river beds or on
 ground so near the level if the river that 1t can seldom produce crop
 because of the floods.
 Need of Trees.
 Engineers who have made surveys
 Of the Chinese rivers for the gov ernment in an effort to devise sys- tems of flood control hold out little
 hope until trees are restored in the
 hills to retain the water which now
 dashes off the bare lands into the
 streams with such speed that the
 channels are inadequate to care for it. MT. Chou was educated in America and has travelled widely in Europe