It is hoped that Arbor Day may be a profitable one to the pupils in the schools. It is further hoped that the influence of the contents of the pamphlet may not be confined to any one day, but may be extended to many days of the school year.
Calvin N. Kendall _Commissioner of Education_
LETTER ISSUED TO SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN 1919
Arbor Day will occur this year on Friday, April 11. An announcement concerning it may be found in the March number of the Education Bulletin.
It has been happily suggested by Secretary Houston of the Department of Agriculture at Washington that the day be observed in part this year by planting trees upon our roadways, in our yards, and in our pleasure places, each tree being named for a soldier who has fallen in the late War. Such trees would be appropriate memorials to these soldiers.
I suggest that this particular year there be wide-spread planting of trees dedicated to those whose lives have been sacrificed in the War. The planting of the trees should be marked with some appropriate exercises and these exercises should take on more than a school significance. The whole community should be invited by the school to take part.
I trust there may be a generous response on the part of the schools of New Jersey to this idea.
Calvin N. Kendall _Commissioner of Education_
Save What We Have, Let Planting Come After
When the farmers of Nebraska, led by J. Sterling Morton, established Arbor Day in 1872, they sought the threefold blessing that trees always give--shade from the summer sun, shelter from winter winds, and wood. These men found the broad prairies of the Middle West practically treeless and they soon discovered that unless nature's fault was remedied the homes they hoped to make could be neither pleasant, nor secure, nor successful.
In New Jersey, as in all parts of the East, conditions were and are different. The whole state was originally unbroken forest, and the task of the pioneers was to make room for fields and settlements. Nearly half our area (46 per cent) is still forest, though the greater part has been reduced to a woefully poor condition. Thus if _our_ festival is to serve _our_ needs, we will celebrate Arbor Day in such, a way that we shall learn to improve the forests we have rather than seek to make more; to protect and care for the trees we have as well as to plant more; to get rid of false impressions and broaden our understanding of the relations between tree life and human society.