^ 9^. Hollinger Corp. pH 8.5 Y COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION HARRISBURG. ARBOR DAY and BIRD DAY THIS IS THE FOREST PRIMEVAL. OCTOBER 2j, 1922 The Birthday of Theodore Roosevelt r St]3- "library of congri^ RECEIVED B. Suggested Program for Friday, October 27, 1922. The topics listed below, numbers two to ten inclusive, on each of which an article has been prepared by a noted authority and printed herein, suggest themes for short talks by pupils before an assembly in the school room or auditorium. Ask the children, the patrons, and the visitors to supplement each topic. Discuss thoroughly the application of the topic to local conditions and draw as many helpful lessons as possible from each subject. For the tree planting as suggested in number eleven, the school should proceed to the place where the planting is to be made. A young tree, a large number of seedling trees, or local native shrubs and flowers should then be planted. Preparations for this event should be made during the preceding week by having discussions as to how, what, and where to plant, and by assembling the proper materials for the planting operation. ARBOR DAY, BIRD DAY, AND ROOSEVELT DAY PROGRAM 1. Appropriate songs. 2. Governor Sproul's Arbor Day Proclamation. 3. Letter to the school children of Pennsylvania from Dr. Finegan, Superintendent of Public Instruction. 4. Gifford Pinchot's letter to the school children of Pennsylvania. 5. "Wild Life in Pennsylvania". 6. "Charles A. Babcock— Founder of Bird Day". 7. "Pennsylvania's Wild Flowers and Shrubs". 8. "Conservation of Pennsylvania's Forests". 9. "Pennsylvania's Water Power". 10. "The Conservation of Pennsylvania Soils". 11. Planting of native trees, shrubs, or flowers on or near the school grounds. 12. Song, "America". C. Exhibits of Pupils' Work. 1. Posters announcing the school program for Arbor Day, Bird Day, and Roosevelt Day. 2. Bird feeding shelves made by children, to be erected for feeding birds this winter. 3. Collections of specimens of native trees, including leaves, bark, vertical sections and cross sections. 4. Drawings, color studies, and paper cuttings of birds, trees, and land-scapes. 5. Decorations of appropriate kinds, such as leaves, evergreen boughs, and autumn foliage. 43 44 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION STATE COUNCIL OF EDUCATION President and Executive Officer THOMAS E. FTNEGAN Term expires HOMER D. WILLIAMS, M. S Pittsburgh, Pa. July 1, 1927 MORRIS L. CLOTHIER, LL. D. Philadelphia, Pa. July 1, 1926 MRS. E. S. H. McCAULEY, Beaver, Pa. July 1, 1926 MRS. H. S. PRENTISS NICHOLS Philadelphia, Pa. July 1, 192.S EDGAR FAHS SMITH, M. D., So. D., Ph. D., LL. D., L H. I).. Chein. D.. . Philadelphia, Pa. July 1, 1928 HON. E. S. TEMPLETON, Greenville, Pa. July 1, 1928 HON. MARCUS AARON, Pittsburgh, Pa. July 1, 1924 ERNEST LAPLACE, M. D., LL. D. ■ • Philadelphia. Pa. July 1. 1Q25 THOMAS E. FINEGAN, M. A., Pd. D., Litt. D., L. H. D., LL. U. Superintendent of Public Instruction J. GEORGE BECHT, M. A., Sc.D., LL.D Deputy Superintendent Higher Education WILLIAM D. LEWIS, M. A., Pd.D., Litt.D. Deputy Superintendent Secondary Education ALBERT M. JOHNSON, B. A., Assistant to Superintendent (School Law) Helen J. Ostrander, Secretary to Superintendent DIRECTORS OF BUREAUS Administration, Francis B. Haas, B. S., M. A. Rural Education, ■• Lee L. Driver, M. A., LL- U Attendance W. M. Denison, M. A. School Buildings, ..HuBert Clark Eicher, M. S Health Education Charles H. Keene, M. D. School Employes' Retirement, H. H. Baish, M. A Pre-Professional and Professional Credentials. .. Special Education, F. N. Ma.xfield, Ph. D Chas. D. Koch. M.A.. Pd.D., Litt.D. Teacher, Albert L. Rovi^land, M. A., Ph. D Vocational, L. H. Dennis, B S DIRECTORS OF SUBJECTS Art Education, C. Valentine Kirby, M.A Commercial Education Vacmncy English, Orton Lowe, B.S Foreign Languages, G. C. L. Riemer, M.A., Ph.D Geography, Erna Grassmuck, B.S. in Ed Inspection of High Schools, James G. Pentz, B.A., M.A Junior High Schools, James M. Glass, B.A., M.A Mathematics, J. A. Foberg, B.S Music Hollis Dann, Mus.D School Libraries Adeline B. Zachert Science, James N. Rule, B.S., M.S. Social Studies J. Lynn Barnard, B.S., Ph.D Speech Improvement. Helen M. Peppard. B.A HONORABLE WILLIAM C. SPROUL Governor IN THE NAME AND BY AUTHORITY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT HARRISBURG Proclamation Whereas, God, in His goodness, has bestowed upon our State of Pennsylvania the beautiful wooded mountains and fertile valleys threaded with their life-giving streams, and has likewise given us a great wealth of mineral deposits and abundant stores of indispensable timber, a heritage which has enabled this Commonwealth to develop into a great agricultural and industrial empire, with profitable employ- ment to great numbers of our people who are producers in our mines, mills, and factories, and upon our farms from which come such quantities of food products that we rank among the first farming states in the Union; and Whereas, For many years these great advantages were not fully appreciated by the people of our State and our natural resources were not well conserved, and we have not only drawn heavily and with- out discrimmination upon our forests but we have permitted the pollution of the streams, the depletion by waste and erosion of our fruitful hill-sides, and allowed wanton destruction of the birds, the fish, the game, and the wild flowers, which contributes so much to the comfort and enjoyment of our people; and Whereas, Far-sighted citizens, realizing the need of correcting these unsound practices and condi- tions, years ago initiated a program to preserve for future generations the wealth of nature in this God- favored area, and produced wise legislation looking toward the preservation of the forests, the saving of the streams pure and clean, the protection of the wild life and the preservation of healthful conditions for our workers, and especially for the women and children, in order that we may have a stronger and better manhood and womanhood, surrounded by wholesome conditions, which will save for future generations the blessings with which we have been endowed; and Whereas, It is especially desirable that the boys and girls of Pennsylvania — the great army of two million school children upon whom the responsibility wUl soon fall for the management of the State's resources and the conservation of its future — should be encouraged to study and become interested in this work which has been so well started and which we have endeavored to carry on, that it may be amplified and developed for the benefit of all of the people in the future: Now, therefore, I, William Cameron Sproul, Governor of Pennsylvania, do hereby appoint and desig- nate Friday, October 27, 1922, the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, to be observed as the Autumn Arbor Day and Bird Day in Pennsylvania, and I do commend to all of our people, and especially to the school children of the State, the pioper observance of this day in educational and practical efforts looking to- ward the acquisition of knowledge regarding the tree life and wild life of the State, and particularly in the planting of trees and in the protection and cultivation of the forests and birds which bless us with their useful and grateful presence. GIVEN under my hand and the Great Seal of the State, at the City of Harrisburg, this fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Commonwealth the one hundred [SEALl gjjj forty-seventh. By the Governor: BERNARD J. MYERS, Secretary of the Commonwealth /^- -«'• t^^X^-K-^ COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION HARRI5BURG October 27, 1922. To The School Children of Pennsylvania : I extend to you a most cordial greeting upon your return to the school room this autumn. What a joy it would be to ,see every one of the one million seven hundred thousand boys and i^irls of Pennsylvania at vi^ork with their books in the schoolroom ! Since this is impossible I am availing myself of the privilege of addressing you through this letter. The Honorable William C. Sproul, Governor of our Commonwealth, has issued a proclama lion requiring the observance of Friday, October 27 — the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt — as Vrbor Day and Bird Day in Pennsylvania. I am requesting you, therefore, to join us in pay- ing proper tribute to the memory of one of America's most eminent citizens. Let us all — boys and girls, fathers and mothers — express our appreciation of the services rendered to the American people by this great man. Theodore Roosevelt was a man who believed in hard work, a square deal, in education as a birthright, and in productive labor for all. Whether he was boxing, playing tennis, riding horseback, leading his men in battle, hunting big game, writing his great messages to Congress, or speaking to the thousands who loved his straightforward, honest messages, Theodore Roosevelt always did the task at hand with every ounce of strength he had. He loved the out-of-doors, the flowers, the birds, and the animals, but above all he loved boys and girls. You will take great delight in reading his books and in learning more about the wonderful life he lived. In his proclamation, our Governor has emphasized a great national interest that was dear to Roosevelt — the conservation of the natural resources in plant and animal life. We are not good citizens unless we leave for the generations that are to follow a more valuable inheritance than was left to us. We are not good sportsmen unless we leave for the men and women of tomorrow better opportunities for recreation, more game in our mountains, and more fish in our streams than were left to us. Do you know that Pennsylvania is one of the few states in the Union that has never adopted a State flower? I want you, the school children of Pennsylvania, to help us select a State flower. Next spring, when the flowers begin to bloom, I should like to have you make a careful study of the wild flowers of your community. Learn to know them and learn to love them. I am going to ask you, on the Spring Arbor Day of 1923, to decide by your votes which of the native flowers of Pennsylvania you desire designated as our State Flower. I congratulate you on the splendid opportunities which a generous citizenship in Penn- sylvania has provided for your welfare, for your growth, and for your happiness. I trust that you will use wisely and well the days of your childhood so that you may develop right ideals, and the ability to think clearly and to act with intelligence and decision. The world needs men and women of force and action. Study hard, play hard, and give your best service always. Your sincere friend, ^«-^-< Theodore Roosevelt was a practical forester. GIFFORD PINCHOT. Theodore Roosevelt By GIFFORD PINCHOT Former National Commissioner of Forestry and late Commissioner of Forestry, Pennsylvania. Theodore Roosevelt was an outdoor man. He knew the mountains, the forests, the plains, and the streams. He understood what they meant to the people of America now and here- after because he never was in the open without using his eyes. What he looked at he saw, and what he saw he thought about, so that his mind was ready to understand and adopt the policy of the conservation of natural resources the moment it was brought to his attention. The conservation policy means the use of the earth and its re.sources for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. We who are alive today have the right to use all the natural resources that are necc'^sary for our safety, comfort, and happiness, but we have no right to destroy more than we can use, nor to prevent the new growth of the renew- able resourcas by destructive methods of use. Thus we have no right to destroy the forest, which is a renewable resource, when we harvest the timber crop. On the contrary, we are under the most solemn obligation to cut our trees in such a way that new trees will grow so that land of little use for other purposes will keep on producing trees. That is one of the essential ideas of conservation. What Colonel Roosevelt did with respect to conservation has made this Nation his debtor so long as streams run and forests grow. Not only did he accept the conservation policy, but he preached it all over the United States. He preached it just as vigorously where there was opposition as where the people were all friendly. He was never afraid to tell what he thought, and it was because of his fearless backing of the conservation policy that it made such won- derful progress during the years he was President. Very often the opposition to conservation in Congress and in many of the States of the West was so bitter that almost any other President would have been induced to speak less clearly for fear of making enemies. Not so Colonel Roosevelt. He told the truth as he saw it no matter whether those in high places liked it or not, and the result in this case was to make the rank and file of the American people believe as he did, that conservation is absolutely necessary for the welfare of America in this generation and in all the generations to come. Colonel Roosevelt never spared himself when there was good to be done. No man in America ever had greater power. Pie used it to make this country a better land in which bovs and girls and men and women might live. No matter what it cost him, he stood for what was right. He will be remembered longest for his part in conservation, a great and lasting policy in which the American people has come to have abiding faith. It is his greatest monument. Pennsylvania needs conservation as much as any other State. We must save and renew our forests, protect and develop our streams, and make this wonderful Commonwealth of ours even richer and more beautiful than it is. Pennsylvania will not die with us. Those who come after us have rights which we must respect. GIFFORD PINCHOT. "Martha", The last passenger pigeon known to science died in the Zoological Garden in Cincinnati, September, 1913. 10 WILD LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA By Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker At the time of William Penn's first appearance on the Delaware there was probably no part of the world, Africa included, where nature had been more laA'ish with wild animals, bird and fish life than Pennsylvania. In a letter to a friend in England he spoke enthusias- tically of the bounteous supply of game, for food and furs, and the fish "as a cheap and plentiful food supply for the common people." In those days, so Watson's Annals of Philadelphia tell us, deer and bears, and even panthers, were killed in what is now Philadelphia and Germantown. The wild pigeons which flew by the millions were likened bj'- the early settlers to the quails mentioned in the Bible, and helped to tide them over several severe winters when the crops had been poor. Fur buying and trapping were soon established on a large scale in the province, and there is a description extant by a French traveller of the long rows of sheds at Harris' Ferry, later Louisburg and now Harrisburg, jammed full of bison hides. (Courtesy Pennsylvatiia State Game Coiinnission) Deer become tame when protected. This group was photographed in the Kalbfus Game Preserve. In the early days the buffaloes or bison, migrated between the Great Lakes and Georgia, crossing the Susquehanna River at Haldeman's Island, near Clark's Ferry Bridge, that huge covered structure built by Theodore Burr and so charmingly described by Charles Dickens in his "American Notes." In Brooks' "Annals of Harrisburg" the killing of a buffalo within the limits of that city in 1792 is recorded. The last herd was wiped out in Snyder County in 1799. A bison was killed by Theodore Stamm in Northumberland County in 1810. That is not the latest eastern record, as one was .shot on Tygart River, West Virginia, in 1825. The moose which came to Pennsylvania from the North during exceptionally severe winters were exterminated about the same time. As late as the middle of the last century elk were found in some of the northern counties of the State. The beaver existed in a wild state, and the wolf, the panther, and the Canada lynx were met with, as were the fisher fox, pine marten and wolverine. 11 Today all of these interesting forms of wild life are gone, and are we any better off for their passing? Dogs kill more sheep in one year than the wolves ever killed, and the small amount of game destroyed cannot be weighed against the thrill and charm of their existence in our forests. Twenty years ago the deer were all but extinct, yet half a century ago professional hunters thought nothing of killing a hundred in a season for the New York and Philadelphia markets. There were two varietie,'^, the northern and the southern forms of the Virginia deer. Most of the big northern type are gone, but the southern type have interbred with western and southern deer introduced by the State Game Commission, and now deer hunting is again a popular sport in our mountains. The red and grey fox are present in diminishing numbers, squirrels are scarce, including the black squirrel and the picturesque flying squirrel. The 'coon, the 'possum and the groundhog are still with us, affording much sport for the average man. The black bear seems to be holding his own, and is our noblest game animal — thanks to Governor Sproul's watchful interest. Our older people love to tell of the flighti-> of the wild pigeons on their migrations north in the spring, south in the fall, in untold millions which "darkened the sun." They were unmercifully harassed at their breeding grounds in the northern counties, the old birds were netted, and the trees cut down for the squabs. No wonder they decreased, yet their total disappearance is the greatest of avian mysteries. In 1878 a feeble law was passed to protect them, but it came too late. They remained in the Commonwealth only a few years longer. Their last nesting was along what is now the wonderful Cherry Springs Drive, in Potter County. Where did the wild pigeons go when they migrated southward in the fall? They did not winter in the southern states. In very mild winters, however, a few remained and oc- casionally wild pigeon,=; were found about Philadelphia and Chester. The great flocks of miUions of birds crossed the Gulf of Mexico, spring and fall. Where did they go? Are they waiting for some more propitious time to revisit Pennsylvania from some hidden jungles in South America or Africa? The heathcock, the eastern form of the prairie hen, was exterminated in Pennsylvania before it was ever mentioned in our game laws, as was the beautiful Carolina parrakeet. The ruffed grouse or "pheasant" and the quail are still residents of our State. The golden eagle is occasionally seen in Pennsylvania, but was always rarer than the bald eagle, the American eagle, or "Bird of Freedom," which regularly bred here, especially along the Susquehanna River. It was said to have been an in-^piring and thrilling sight to see these noble birds soaring over the waters as they foamed and frothed over the sagged rocks of the "Big River" about Marietta, Bainbridge, and AVrightsville. Thoughtless hunters laid them low, and the bald eagle on the North and AVest branches of the Susquehanna River is today but a memory. All of the smaller so-called birds of prey, hawks, and owls, so useful to the farmer are becoming scarce in Pennsjdvania. They are easily shot and become ready targets for un- scrupulous gunners. The raven is almost a thing of the past, due to the commercial value of the eggs for collectors. The nests have been cruelh^ and persistently rifled so long that the old birds have become discouraged and have left for less unfriendh^ climates. In 3'ears gone by hunters when thej^ shot a deer and lost it, located its carcass by the circling of ravens. The turkey vulture, miscalled "buzzard", still soars above some of our mountains, and is a picturesque feature of our scenery, replacing to some extent the majestic but vanished eagles. Cranes and herons, bitterns and kingfishers, which once added so much to the harmony 12 of nature along our dead waters and ponds, have been killed by gunners who imagined they destroyed fish, whereas they were mostly busied hunting enemies of the fish and their spawn, such as frogs, lizzards, crayfish and water snakes which they devour voraciously. One of the last heronries in the State near Falmouth, Lancaster County, was recently visited by members of the Natural History Society of Harrisburg. These water birds have been described as the "poJice force" of our streams. There is still a fair number of smaller woodpeckers and sapsuckers, but the musical hammering of the pileated woodpecker or log cock is now rarely heard. Wild ducks, wild geese and swans still appear on our rivers, and according to some are increasing in numbers. Thanks to the continued efforts of Bird Clubs. Audubon Societies, Conservation Leagues and similar organizations, our song birds are fairlj^ well protected by law and public sentiment in Pennsylvania. What would our woods, gardens and orchards be without our cheerful songsters, robins, wrens, flickers, peewees, redbirds, wood thrushes, thra.shcrs and orioles? We cannot be too watchful that they are carefully gaiarded against cats, snares, poisons, and other enemies. William Penn wr.s filled with enthusiasm o^•er the \'ahie of the Pennsylvania fisheries. In those days the seals followed the shad into the estuaries of the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, and shad fisheries were profitable investments almost to the headwaters of the Dela- ware, the Susquehanna, the Juniata and the Karoondinha, now called Penn's Creek. It is stated that shad even penetrated into the beautiful Penn's Cave, which is the headwaters of the Karoondinha. The building of dams, and pollution by industrial plants have made the shad but a memory in the inland waters of Penns3dvania. As late as 1903, however, a retired Pennsyl- vania Railroad employee sold shad at Clark's Ferry Station, only ten miles above Harrisburg. The old-fashioned, highly colored, gamey, native brook trout is only found in some of the wilder mountain streams of the State. Once they were so plentiful that the early fishermen caught baskets full with their hands. There was no "limit" in those days. Potter County newspapers tell how Martin E. Olmstead, then a young man, caught five hundred trout in a single day with hook and line. The introduction of western trout has pretty well destroyed the old native variety, but trout fishing today is a popular and delightful recreation. Catfish, suckers, sunfish and eels also abound, and afford sport for old and young alike. The fishing industry on Lake Erie is of considerable importance, and "White fish" are popular all over the State. Land and snapping turtles are also found in Pennsylvania. The search for bee trees is still a fascinating pursuit in the forests of northern Penn- sylvania. John H. Chatham, aged CUnton County naturalist, says that the finst bees brought in by the colonists were black, with a single white spot on their backs, and known as "Dutch bees." Their presence in the woods was a warning to the Indians that white settlements were near at hand. In the Black Forest in Clinton County, in 1876, Mr. Chatham says he saw where some one to "line" a bee had cut down a wide swath of original white pine trees for half a mile over a ridge — trees that today would be worth thousands of dollars. Those were reckless days when timber and wild life seemed inexhaustible, and no one cared. Our younger generations have lost much of the joy of 'ife by the absence of these old forests, birds, animals, and fish. Much game was exterminated by the early hunters and professional game butchers, but the forest fires by destroying the "cover" wiped out more wild life than all the hunters. A more sensible day is at hand. The forest fires are being fought with all the stubborn energy 14 of the State Forestry Department, the Llo}' Scouts and ci\ic uri^anizatinns. The State Game Commission and sportsmen's organizations are using ever\- elTdrt td con-erxe nur game supply and certainly the deer and bears are increasing. The fishermen's licence law means increased fish propagation, but it is the responsibility of the citizens as a whole to legislate the pollution of streams out of existence. It would not be tolerated in any European country. "Ce n'est pas egalite" (it is not equality) the French would say and banish it oxernight. The refuse from mines and tanneries can be turned into valuable by-products, so that no one will be the loser. (Courtesy Pennsylvania State Game Contm-isi^ion A twenty-six pound wild cat caught in the Sproul State Forest, Clinton County, Pennsylvania. We need forests and game and fish to keep alive the spirit of our pioneer forefathers, the heroic men and women who were the bone and sinew of Pennsylvania. It is in the hands of the younger generations, the school boys and school girls, by Arbor DayvS and Bird Days and by sincere individual effort, to save Pennsylvania Beautiful. We can again have the hunter's paradise as described by William Penn, if every boy and girl who reads these lines will become a devotee of conservation, and save for the boy^s and girls to come some aspect of the wilderness — the Penn's Woods which we see in our dreams, and which all that is best in us instinctively loves! Let us help to re-create the tall forests, the teeming animal and bird life, the pure waters! But above all, let us exert ourselves. to the utmost to check the most destructive enemy of the wild life of Pennsylvania — the Forest Fire! 15 The jack-in-the-pulpit is one of Pennsylvania's flower treasures. 16 : PENNSYLVANIA'S WILD FLOWERS AND SHRUBS By J. Horace MacFarland President of the American Civic Association and Editor of the American Rose Annual Not only is Pennsylvania remarkable for her yet unappreciated scenery of river and valley, of mountain pass or "gap," plain and forest scenery, which ought to make every citizen proud of residence in the Keystone State, but as vi'ell for the richness and extent of her natural flower and shrub adornments, her "flora," as the scientist states. Within the borders of the state more than two thousand plants are native, or "wild," though for more than one thoughtless generation we have been doing all we know how to exterminate the finer and more beautiful, leaving only the less conspicuous, the more rugged and enduring things, not infrequently classed as "weeds" or "briars.'' Curiously enough, when we think of planting flowers and shrubs about our homes or our schools, we try almost always to get something foreign to the state, rather than to use our own treasures, valued elsewhere. About the home we set the Norway maple and the Norway spruce, both from Europe, and the horsechcstnut from Greece. On the lawn=; we plant lilacs from Bulgaria, spireas and hydrangeas from Japan and China. In the garden are geraniums and coleus, .salvia and heliotrope, and a score of other European and Asiatic immigrants. Even our usual roses are of the blood of India and Japan, hybridized in England and France! In Pennsylvania we should have, of course, the best from all lands, of plants as well as of people, but we need surely also to know and to have about us at home, in the park*;, and espicially near the schools, our own treasures of tree and shrub and plant — treasures that have excited the admiration and the envy of plant lovers evcrxwhcre. With a wealth of great oaks, why not surround the school buildings with them — the white, pin, scarlet, rock and other splendid and enduring trees that made "Penn's Woods" famous? Our hard or "sugar" maple is the most beautiful of all that family. We can have the superb tulip tree or liriodendron, not a tulip-poplar, if you please ! Our lindens and ashes, our birches and our beeches, are notable, and no evergreens excel in beautiful quality our white pines, our spruces and our hemlocks. Let w^ stay at home for the fine hydrangeas that are of Penns\'lvania, the "Hills of Snow," and the rarer oak-leaved sort. We have the lovely marsh mallows and their descendants. In England the American laurel or kalmia is as highly est-eemed as it is here stupidly dis- regarded, and our great rhododendrons have long been valued by those who have ravished them from our woods and hills to adorn their private estates. So a first essential to the plant surroundings of a Pennsylvania school ought to be an investigation of local and native plant resources. P)y reason of the variation in elevation from tide-water to 3,600 feet, and through the po'^session in its make-up of varied soils, the plant wealth of the Keystone State is so distributed that the natural roadside beauty in one section dififers completely from that in another. It is thus easily possible that a most beautiful and infh\'idiiril planting of tree'; and shrubs, all hardy and relatively permanent, misjht distinsruish every city, suburban and rural school building in Pennsylvania, using only plant material native to the state. Such planting would 17 1— J J_> IP also, if properly undertaken, acquaint the pupils of the schools with the plant resources of their own commonwealth, and upbuild their knowledge and love in that fashion which most promotes true patriotism. Nature herself, as she has worked in beautiful Pennsylvania, provides us with the best planting plans for the patriotic and educational work I have .suggested. If the school planting is to be truly satisfactory, it must look as if it had naturally come about, and not as if a French barber had exercised all his arts on a xirile woodsman fresh from the forest. As I write, I am looking at a gardener's outrage that has been committed in a lovely open forest near a summer hotel. The beeches, birches, maples and hemlocks that rise from a lawn that is like a wooded meadow frame a charming picture of a nearby lake. Thrust into the middle distance is a "bed" of salvia and white-leaved centaurea that has been irrever- ently called a "cranberry pie" by one annoyed guest, and likened by another to a blot of red ink purposely spilled on the front of a dress shirt. The outrage is extended by certain painted tubs of geraniums set on beautiful weathered rocks along the path! Thi.s, too, in a climate and location that causes to flourish remarkably the laurel and the rhododendron, and is right now providing a marvelous show of color in the leaf-surrounded scarlet berries of the moun- tain ash and the winter-berry, while nearby the pink cluster of the withe-rod are a delip-ht. When the planting for the school is being thought out, the idea i.s to consider the most pleasing unspoiled roadside or forest edging in the vicinity. This will be varied in its items, and bv no means in geometrical order. The first error to avoid, then, is that committed too often in the restricted home lawn, chief!}' desecrated by a Colorado blue spruce in the exact center, or two of them symmetrically placed if the tree-agent is a good salesman, — bounded b}'' other exotic shrubs set at regular distances and punctuated by "beds" of whatever is deemed expensiveh^ ornamental. It has bee:, found possible to accentuate this planting crime by surrounding the beds or the walks with bricks on edge, or with oyster shells, or with carefully white washed stones. The ex- treme of this kind of ugliness can be attained by either whitewashing all nearby tree trunks, or by forming a "bed" like a flag, or an anchor, or something else that "never was on land or sea!" Going a half mile along a mountain road, I find in sight a planting so lovely and so tasteful that it at first seems like the open edge of the forest. The building is brown in tone, and it is tied to the earth by the huckleberries, laurels, rhododendrons, hemlocks and other varied shrubs of the neighborhood. This "foundation planting,'' as it is called, is sufficiently out from the walls to provide passage and air. There are some flowering shrubs, but the decorative dependence is the native evers'reen hemlock, laurel and rhododendron. The lawn is unspotted and unspoiled by anything but grass, and consequently gives an air of extent and repose. At each side of the property is a long border of rich ground, in which flourish the hardy perennials and the summer-blooming bulbs that provide a continuous show of flowers, varied from day to day. At the front, which is above the roadway, the bank has wild roses trailing upon it, with some American-bred hardy climbers, particularly the lovely and robust "American Pillar," to add a body of bloom and foliage. Have I made plain an ideal for the use of Pennsylvania's wealth of plant life about Penn- sylvania's now mostly unplanted schoolhouses? Can we not use mostly our own flower treasures? Think of a mountain schoolhouse surrounded by our oaks, beeches, ashes, maples, with a touch of pine and hemlock; think of irregular borders showing our wild phloxes and 19 Indian pipe, pine-sap, and ferns 20 hepaticas and bloodroots and trilliums in earliest spring, and continuing through with brilliant bergamot, snowy white hydrangea, dainty wood lilies, blue closed gentian, white snakeroot and scores of other lovely things; consider that there will be not only laurels and rhododen- drons to bloom gloriously, but that their evergreen foliage will be beautiful when snow comes; note that the making of this planting will be full of lessons in biology, in living botany, in plant relations, in soil economics, and in true love of a country whose rocks and rills, whose templed hills, are thus reverently memorialized! Isn't the picture worth painting in plants and trees, and won't it be more pleasing even to the dullest school director than the usual barren desolation we now possess? A lowland school, a suburban school, and certainly a city school — for cities are yet in the country — could be pictured, each surrounded with the plants and vines, the trees and shrubs of the neighborhood. With a devoted leader to so organize, this "local color" planting could be done largely by the pupils, and at far less expense than is usually incurred to produce a chromo garden effect, purely imitative and exotic. Can we have the plants of Pennsylvania about the schools of Pennsylvania? Why not? ENTRANCE TO CHILDS' FOREST PARK, DELAWARE STATE FOREST, PIKE COUNTY, PA. Play and rest places are being prepared on the State forests for you and those who come after you. 21 22 Every child should learn how to gather wild flowers without destro5nng them. 23 CONSERVATION OF PENNSYLVANIA'S FORESTS R. Y. Stuart Commissioner of Forestry The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania A continuous supply of good forest products is necessary for our safety and prosperity in peace and in war. That such a supply will not be available in the future is now certain unless corrective measures are applied to the handling of forest land. Even a casual survey of the present timber situation will convince anyone that forest depletion has reached a critical stage. The conservation movement is an efifort to use the natural sources of the earth, whether they be forest, coal, or ore, for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. There has been a fundamental misconception that conservation means nothing but the hoarding of resources for the future. There could be no more serious mistake, for the first principle of conservation is use; but it refuses to recognize needless wa. plays, and music. 2. In honoring the memory of Theodore Roosevelt refer again to the Arbor Day Manual of October 27, 1920, using it as source of information for talks and readings. 3. Use the various articles in the present manual as the basis of talks and readings by the pupils. Let them discuss and become acquainted with these articles before presentation in the formal program. 4. In honoring the memory of Charles A. Babcock, refer again to the Arbor Day manual of April 14, 1922, page eleven, for a story of "The Origin of National Bird Day." 5. As a means of giving permanent effect to the lessons of Bird Day, form a Junior Audubon Club in your school. The following by-laws are suggested by the Audubon Society : Article I. This organization shall be known as the " _ - _ Junior Audubon Club". Article II. The object of its members shall be to learn all they can about wiM birds, and to try to save any from being wantonly killed. Article III. The officers shall consist of a President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. Article IV. The annual fees of the club shall be ten cents for each member; and the money shall be sent to the National Association of Audubon Societies in exchange for educational leaflets and Audubon buttons. Article V. The Junior Audubon Club shall have at least one meeting every month Write to Mr. T. Gilbert Pierson, President of the National Association of Audubun Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City, for information as to club activities. 6. Save this manual. It should be retained as the permanent property of the school for use in future years. 42