wealth and strength of the Commonwealth, and at the same time you aid in busbanding its resources. Is not this a worthy work? But it is so small a thing, you may say! True, but life is made up of small things. How many really great things can any one do? The great acts of any man's life are few. It is the multitude of small deeds which makes life important.

Nebraska was once almost a treeless area. Now it is a well-wooded state. This is almost entirely due to the Arbor Day planting which Secretary Morton started a score of years ago. His example has spread from state to state, until over almost the entire Union a day is set apart every year for the purpose of tree-planting. European countries are taking up with the idea. It has spread to the isles of the ocean. If we except Christmas and Easter, there is probably no anniversary more widely celebrated than Arbor Day. Of course the date must vary with the country. In our Southern States, February 22d, the birthday of Washington, is often selected as Arbor Day.

I desire especially to call attention here to a mistake too often made in connection with Arbor Day this is the planting of foreign, instead of native trees. It is now well known that no foreign species except possibly the Eastern plane-tree is so long lived as the corresponding native species. As between foreign and native trees, then, give the first place to our own species. In the country, as in smaller towns, nothing is better than our white oak, a native elm, or a sugar maple. Do not plant the silver maple. It is too weak to support its own enormous growth. It must be cut back. This opens the way for decay, and just when your tree should be in its prime it is in the stage of decay.

Reforms mature slowly. See with what infinite persecution the Emancipation problem was worked out! Before our land became in deed and in truth "the land of the free," every hamlet received its baptism of blood and every citizen felt the drain upon his finances.

The great Temperance reform has grown from contempt into respectability, and before you young people are in the prime of life you will see under restraint the monster of Intemperance, which brings untold agony into thousands of homes. So it is with the Forestry problem. We are now passing from the period of destruction to the period of restoration. Hardly a State in the Union but is concerning itself with this great reform. Pennsylvania has earned a first place as a pioneer in the movement. In my travels over the country I see on all sides the signs that a reformation is at hand. When

I was a lad I never saw or heard of planting a tree in a school-yard. Now, in the remotest parts of the State, I see growing in school yards the trees under whose ample branches the children of the next generation will play. A thriving sweet-gum tree, commemorat

ing our first Arbor Day, stands upon these grounds, bearing the honored name of Elnathan Elisha Higbee, a late distinguished citizen of Lancaster. Let it perpetuate his name and his good deed for a hundred years as our first Arbor Day Superintendent. He was once a teacher in this school, and a noble portrait of the man hangs here always before you. He it was who, as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, began the great educational work of Arbor Day in Pennsylvania. In an eloquent address on

Arbor Day with the Children," he inaugurated, April 16th, 1885, upon the spot where I now stand, the semi-annual observance of a day which is yet to take rank with the few important dates in our educational annals. And I am told, that on each recurring Arbor Day in Spring or Fall, this school remembers Dr. Higbee, and plants its hundred

or more trees.

To Governor Pattison, an honest man, belongs the honor of having at once approved the purpose of Dr. Higbee, and of having himself suggested the passage of a joint resolution by the Legislature, formally authorizing the appointment of a day. This resolution was introduced into the Senate by Hon. A. D. Harlan, of my own county of Chester, who was chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, and into the House of Representatives by Hon. Leonard Rhone, of Centre county, both gentlemen being deeply interested in whatever pertains to scientific agriculture and the well-being of the State. The first Arbor Day proclamation was therefore issued by Governor Pattison, as also the tenth, which has just been read in your hearing by one of the young ladies before me. Six of these annual proclamations have been issued by Gov. Robt, E. Pattison, the remaining four by Gov. Jas. A. Beaver, who is also an enthusiastic lover of trees and advocate of all that Arbor Day implies.

I look on the hopeful side of things. The world has constantly been, in the main, becoming better fitted for the prosperity and comfort of men. It is the natural order of evolution. It is not too late to restore our forests on land where nothing but trees will grow. It is not too late to make our roadsides, our school-yards, our swamp land and our barren ridges eloquent witnesses of God's willingness to help us beautify our living places, and perpetuate the prosperity of our Commonwealth. You may never command armies, or thrill a listening nation by your eloquence; but you may at least, each one of you, leave a thrifty, growing tree, or more than one, to show those who follow that you were unselfish enough to labor for the benefit of posterity that you may never see. You may, at least, exemplify the noble justice of leaving the world in as good condition for the prosperity of your children as you found it for yourselves. All this you may do by simply planting a tree, which will grow while you sleep and

draw its strength and its long life and large usefulness from the sunshine and the storm, costing nothing, “harming no one, blessing every one and pleasing God.". Will you do it?

Suppose each child in the State of Pennsylvania between the ages of five and seventeen years, plants a tree which grows to a mature size. Put these all together at fifteen feet apart, and you will have a forest of eleven and a half square miles. That means 7360 acres of forest, good, productive forest! Each acre of such forest can, in the growing season, give back to the air about fourteen thousand five hundred (14,500) tons of water by evaporation or transpiration. In other words, as the result of planting one tree for each school child of to-day there might be distilled back into our air, from this eleven and more square miles of forest area each growing season, more than one hundred millions (106,720,000) tons of water.

Now I want to ask you if you know what that water does up in the sky. It destroys the frost which kills your crops. That is, each one of you here who plants a longlived tree of a kind that may grow to large proportions, will, when it has grown to middle size, be placing away up there in the sky over seventy tons of water each year which is to help protect and produce the grain on which your grand-children will live. Indeed, it may be, you will find when you are done with earth that you have placed something in the sky of more importance still. You know that to "love your neighbor" is half of the Divine command. Will you plant a tree somewhere this year?

Dr. N. C. Schaeffer, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, spoke much as follows:

DR. SCHAEFFER ON ARBOR DAY.

In a forest not far from the University of Tübingen stood an ancient oak tree that was known as "Die Dicke Eiche." From the size of its trunk it was supposed to be over a thousand years old. Under its shade the early Germans may have gathered previous to their conversion to Christianity. Under its spreading branches the Druids may have initiated youths into the mysteries of their organization. Against its trunk Crusaders may have rested on their return from the Holy Land. The tree certainly witnessed the outbreak of the Reformation, and the cruel scenes of the Thirty Years' War, that resulted in the peace of Westphalia and led to religious toleration in the Fatherland. It survived the bloody wars of Frederick the Great, the terrors of the French Revolution, and all the vicissitudes of history from the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to the final fall of his dynasty in the Franco-Prussian War. When at last a mighty storm blew it over, the forester to whose circuit it belonged is said to have shed tears; and crowds of students and peasants visited the spot where

the giant oak lay stretched upon mother Earth. The remarks that were made, and the poems that were written, served to show how the affections of the heart and the associations of other days may cluster about a

tree.

It is, indeed, difficult to conceive of any object better adapted to carry the associations of school days than a class tree. It will continue to grow upon the spot where it was planted, whilst those who planted it are scattered over the globe in the pursuit of fortune or in the struggle for existence. As it grows in size and spreads its branches, those who named it may be growing in fame and affluence; but they come back to repose under its shade, and to think of earlier and happier days in which the future was radiant with hope, and the heart had not been soured by disappointment. The houses in which our childhood was spent, have been modified according to the fashions of the day; the carpets and the furniture have been renewed; but the trees under which we played have been spared, and the ground upon which they stand is hallowed by memories of the innocent sports of childhood and by the recollection of joys which seem like a bit of heaven to earth vouchsafed. The animals, in imitation of which we skipped and gamboled, went on all fours; but the trees, with their crowns pointing skywards, were like the Gothic arches in the village church, and resembled the worshipers with their faces directed towards heaven.

Sentiment, however, is not the only motive that should impel us to plant trees on Arbor Day. How many people in Lancaster city depend upon the industries whose principal raw material is wood? Carriage factories in this city sell, we are told, from fifty to one hundred buggies per week. Over five hundred families, it is claimed, gain their subsistence from the carriage factories, the planing mills, and the other industries that turn upon wood-work. The hickory east of the Alleghanies is said to be better fitted for spokes and wheels than the growth of other regions. If this claim is founded on fact, it will at no distant day be a serious question whence some of our industries shall obtain the wood that is needed to keep them in operation.

At the close of the war our forests of hemlock in Pennsylvania appeared to be inexhaustible. The largest tanneries in the world grew up in the northern tier of counties. Raw hides are now imported from South America and Australia, the supply from our Western prairies being insufficient. The tanners of to-day gather their bark from a territory more extensive than the whole of Bradford county-in fact, equal in area to three of our smaller counties. The magnificent specimens of hemlock treessome of them at least-which supply the bark for these tanneries, may have been saplings when Columbus erected the cru

TACHERS' LIBR

1894.]

cifix in the New World. Certain it is that the conditions are wanting for the reproduction of these hemlock forests. Where is salvation to be found for our large tanneries? The experiments in France and Germany show that new forests of oak can be reproduced, and a fair crop of bark obtained once in ten to thirteen years.

In the Province of Ontario a text-book on agriculture, approved by the Minister of Education, has been introduced into the public schools. The last chapter treats of the cultivation of forest trees for shade, ornament, and protection. The principal uses of forests are specified.

1. They are sources of timber, lumber and fuel.

2. They modify the climate during the heat of summer by making the days cooler and the nights warmer; retard the evaporation of water from the soil, and, without increasing the aggregate rainfall, cause its more even distribution throughout the year.

3. They affect the salubrity of climate not only by causing a more even temperature and a more even rainfall, but also by absorbing carbonic acid gas and exhaling oxygen during the hours of daylight.

4. The presence of forests influences the steadiness of the flow of water in streams and rivers, thus tending to prevent destructive floods and spring freshets.

5. In cold climates forests are of immense service as a protection against cold winds, which freeze out winter crops in cold places and cause snow to accumulate in drifts in the highway.

One word, in conclusion, as to the planting of trees. An Italian proverb says, "Where the sun cannot enter, the doctor must." Trees should not be planted too thickly or too near our dwellings and our school-houses. The trees on a part of our large College Campus have destroyed the grass by excluding the rays of the sun.

It

is a lesson that should be taken to heart in planting trees upon the beautifully located grounds of the Theological Seminary, which is now nearing completion in the vicinity of the College, and upon the public school grounds throughout the Commonwealth.

The editor of the Lancaster New Era, who always enjoys these Arbor Day programmes, says:

In speaking of the proceedings consequent upon the celebration of Arbor Day at the High School on last Friday, the following paragraph was used by the reporter: "If a thousand of the best people in Lancaster could have heard this programme they would know more about our High School and its value as a factor in the better life of our city." It is a thousand pities that the thousand people spoken of were not present. If they had been, we believe they would have seen and heard that which would have given them new views concerning this, the

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highest exemplification of the free-school system among us.

We do not propose to speak in detail of what was said and done on that occasion. All this has already been done in our local columns, but we cannot resist the temptation of adding a few additional words of commendation. The exercises of Arbor Day in this school serve to bring out one feature of the work done here which is never fully seen at any other time. We allude to the musical side of the school curriculum. This, as is well known, embraces both vocal and instrumental music. The latter must be exact and scientific; the former, from the necessities of the case, and from the limited time given to it, not so much so. But the result, nevertheless, seems to be most satisfactory. The foundation at least is laid, and that, perhaps, is all we have a right to expect under the circumstances. The system pursued may not turn out Pattis and Jenny Linds, but the numerous selections rendered on Friday were not only most acceptable, but of a high order of excellence. We have more than once gone to the Fulton Opera House to listen to the rendition of a high-priced musical programme which was far less satisfactory than the free concert offered by the pupils of the High Schools to our citizens without money and without price.

ARBOR DAY IN LANCASTER."

We take from the West Chester Local News of April 16 the following note from Dr. J. T. Rothrock to the editor of that live newspaper:

Editor News: Rain or shine in Lancaster they have a successful Arbor Day. If the tree-planting cannot be done on the day appointed by the Governor, because of excessive inclemency of the weather, it is done just the same on the first suitable day afterward. The one hundred or more trees are bought by the Boys'- High School, and they plant them. This they have done nineteen times. There is something inspiring in the thought-two thousand and more trees planted in all, if we have caught the idea correctly, by the Lancaster High School. The day is a red-letter day in Lancaster's calendar. It is made memorable for a whole year, and finally lost sight of only because the one which follows is likely to be as good or better than the previous one. It is like a real old world jubilee among the boys and girls. There is music in which the whole school may join, and does, and an orchestra which under the splendid direction of its leader makes you feel the exceeding power of harmony. Recitation and music are combined with such effect that the hardiest sinner present can scarcely keep the tears out of his eyes, as he wishes he was a boy again and had to begin life with the young people there. How much better he would be and how much more of worth to the world he could do! Yes, the school gets out of the day all there is in it, not only tree-planting,

but a royal good time. And as the writer remembers the glorious march composed by Prof. Carl Thorbahn for the occasion, the chorus and the orchestra led by Prof. Carl Matz, the inspiring words of Profs. Schaeffer

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and McCaskey, he comes home rejoicing that he was there to make new resolves for better work the coming year, and thanking the young people for the fresh, full hope he received in Lancaster. J. T. R.

DEPARTMENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, HARRISBURG, May, 1894.

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NEW blank form for the Annual District Reports will be mailed from the Department of Public Instruction to the Secretaries of the several school boards. Under the head of "Expenditures" it will be observed that two additional items are called for, namely, "School text-books" and "School supplies other than text-books, etc." The attention of Superintendents is called to this fact in order that they may return for correction to the proper officers, any report that has not been made on the new blank.

Superintendents will please note this change and see that no Annual District Report is forwarded to this Department which does not conform strictly to the requirements indicated in the prescribed form.

Superintendents will carefully verify the reports and itemize both the receipts and expenditures by placing the several items in the "Superintendent's Column," according to the directions given on the opposite page, and see that items and totals are correct in all cases. Trouble and delay can be avoided by carefully observing the directions given.

BEDFORD.-Supt. Potts: East St. Clair has let the contract for a new house in the Acker district. The educational meeting held at Everett was a grand meeting. Dr. N. C. Schaeffer spoke on Friday evening and Saturday morning. The schools are closing and we feel that a successful term of work has been done. Many teachers pass from the school room to become students elsewhere. The different State Normals will be largely attended.

BERKS-Supt. Zechman: Three local institutes were held during the month at Boyertown, Gibraltar and Albany, respectively. The two former were very well attended. We held fifteen local institutes this term.

BLAIR-Supt. Wertz: Most of the schools in the rural districts have closed with gratifying results. Some of our teachers have gone to State Normal Schools, and many others will follow this laudable example at the expiration of their school terms. The directors of Antis township are to be complimented on their good judgment displayed in remodeling the school-house at Elizabeth Furnace. It has been made practically a new house at a nominal cost.

CAMERON-Supt. Herrick: Local institutes were held in Sterling Run and Castle Garden. These meetings were well attended by patrons and teachers. Interesting questions were discussed.

CHESTER-Supt. Walton: Our schools are improving in their English. The written

expression of the child's thought in all grades can now be inspected in over half of our schools. An abundance of mechanical composition work is done in nearly all the schools. The school library at Franklin in West Nantmeal township is one of the largest and best in the county. Directors are beginning to see that ten dollars per year for each school, wisely expended in books, is an investment for posterity.

CLARION-Supt. Beer: During the month nine examinations for graduates in the common school course were held; fifty-six elementary school diplomas were granted. During the present term I visited two hundred and thirty-nine schools.

CLEARFIELD-Supt. Youngman: Eight local institutes were held during the winter. The interest in these meetings is well sustained. A number of our leading teachers are taking steps toward opening summer schools in favorable parts of the county. The text-book question is giving them much trouble. Schools are rapidly closing for a six months' vacation, in which to digest and assimilate the knowledge gained from books and teachers during the winter.

CLINTON Supt. Snyder: Two local institutes were held, one at Wayne, the other at Charlton. Both were well attended, and considerable interest was manifest. Several evening entertainments have been given by the schools of Beech Creek for the purpose of raising money to start a library. They have been well patronized. The schools generally have closed, and the work done has, on the whole, been creditable.

FRANKLIN Supt. Zumbro: Our county lost the services of an excellent teacher in the death of Miss Bertha Kate Rhodes, of Antrim district. Miss Rhodes was an enthusiastic, energetic and progressive teacher, a graduate of the C. V. S. Ñ. S., and a most exemplary young lady; her death is mourned by all who knew her. The schools of the county, outside the boroughs, are nearly all closed. The term has been a good one, the work of the year being generally satisfactory.

GREENE-Supt. Stewart: An unusually large number of teachers will attend school this summer. Many have gone to State Normals. The colleges at Waynesburg and Jefferson report increased attendance; and there will be schools for advanced pupils and teachers at Carmichaels, Taylortown, Jacksonville, Clarkville, Hamilton's Schoolhouse, and the Joint Schoolhouse-all to be taught by teachers of skill and experience, and each having the prospect of a large at tendance.

INDIANA-Supt. Hammers: The course of study for the ungraded schools of the county is going into use rapidly. The verdict of our best and most progressive teachers is that it insures a higher percentage of attendance, more and better work on the part of pupils, and that it disposes entirely of the vexed question, “neglected branches."

During the month examinations have been held in different parts of the county for pupils who have completed the course. The work submitted by pupils for this purpose compares favorably with that of applicants for provisional certificates, itself a potent argument in favor of a graded course.

JUNIATA-Supt. Marshall: The district schools are closed. During the last school month the attendance was seriously affected by the wide-spread prevalence of measles. The work done has been satisfactory. We have many excellent teachers, earnest, honest workers, who have done nobly. If a teacher fails, either wholly or in part, after being supported by the various agencies necessary for a successful school, we are certainly running too great a risk to employ that teacher again. Two well attended and successful local institutes were held during the month. The one held at East Salem was characterized by lively, interesting and instructive discussions. Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh addressed the meeting Saturday afternoon, and in the evening lectured on "Education and the Community." As the institute held at Johnstown was so near the close of the term, the teachers deserve great praise for the lively interest they manifested. Although institutes were held at points convenient for all teachers in the county, some failed to avail themselves of the advantages.

LEBANON-Supt. Snoke: With a few exceptions all our schools have closed, and the work of another term has become history. Upon the whole, commendable progress has been made. A class of six was graduated from the Myerstown high school. members of the class acquitted themselves creditably.

The

Mr.

LEHIGH-Supt. Rupp: During the month we lost two of our directors by death. Levi Werley, of Weisenburg, was stricken down by paralysis and died suddenly. Mr. Jonas Wetzel, the Secretary of Upper Milford, fell a victim to that dread scourge of our climate, consumption. His illness dated from the beginning of November. Many of our schools closed with the end of this month (March).

LYCOMING-Supt. Becht: Examinations for common school diplomas were held, March 17th, in different parts of the county. The questions were prepared by the Superintendent, sealed, and sent to the appointed examiner to be opened on the morning of the examination in the presence of the teacher and class assembled. The papers and grades were examined by a committee of the Teachers' Exchange. As a result forty diplomas were awarded, Four district institutes were held during the month, and all were very well attended.

MIFFLIN Supt. Cooper: Most of the schools in the country districts have closed. Longer terms, good, conscientious school officers, and practical teachers well paid, are the chief essentials to the success of our schools. Too many persons are ambitious