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The Two Magicians and the April Rains: April: Arbor

It won't do simply to sing songs and recite pieces about trees on Arbor Day. Uncle Sam has been looking into that, too, and this is what he says: "Much more attention is given to these matters than to having the trees in the best condition and to planting them just right. Trees planted with ceremonious dignity in April die of neglect before September, and those that survive are left to fight unaided their battle for existence. So little attention has been paid to the choice of trees that those entirely unfit for the situation are often used and planted in places where they could not receive protection while young or serve any useful purpose when grown. Arbor Day often comes on dry, windy days or clear out of season for planting. Trees should be planted at the right time and the public exercises held on some other day, if necessary." To begin with, as in the case of introducing the idea of co-operative marketing with its tremendous advantages, it is often necessary to wake up public sentiment, and then you live boys and girls and the most progressive grown folks, including, of course, the school-board members, the teachers, the preachers, and the newspaper editors, will be the first to set things going. "Starting something", in this sense, isn't nearly so difficult as you might think; its really a good deal like the planting of a seed; you do your part and you'll be surprised to see how the thing will grow. You'll find, in talking the project over with the people of the neighborhood, including the best farmers and the mothers who have nice flower-beds and shrubs and trees around home, a lot of good, practical ideas will be collected. Then, with the help of such ideas, you and the teacher can work out a plan, to be shown on a map of the school grounds, with the schoolhouse, outbuildings, and places for planting the trees accurately located. (If you can't make such a map, among you, I'd like to know what your geography is for!) Put this plan on the blackboard and, at a community meeting in the schoolhouse, have it discussed, and by vote, just as if you were the Congress of the United States, decide what all is to be done.

The ploughing and preparation of the ground and the planting should be done under the direction of some experienced person. This will cost a little something, to be sure--you could hardly expect a man to do it for nothing--but it will be well worth the cost, and with small contributions from parents and, perhaps, the scholars themselves, and the help of the school board, funds raised by entertainments, etc., this cost can be easily met. There will be plenty left for the Wood Scouts to do, never fear! And, as in case of other work under a scout-master, it will be all the more fun because you will accomplish so much more than is usually done when the work is carried on--if it is carried on at all after the Arbor Day proceedings--by mere rule of thumb. And the more you learn about trees and tree culture from books and elsewhere the more useful you will be. In the early days of medicine men learned a great deal from experience, without the use of books, but they killed a great many people while learning; and it is the same way in raising trees.

Among other things both the soil and the subsoil of the school grounds should be carefully examined and a list made of the trees that are found thriving on soils of the same character. This will afford opportunity for most interesting field excursions, and numerous species will be found adapted to each kind of soil. In selecting, the aim should be to give the plantation as much variety as possible, since one of its purposes is to serve as a little school of forestry.

In many places trees can be obtained from the neighboring forest, from the banks of streams, or even from open fields. They may be gathered either in the fall or spring, but unless they are carefully heeled in and protected over winter the better time is early spring. In collecting forest seedlings only those that have grown in the light should be taken, as these are more vigorous than those grown in the shade. Dig them up carefully, preserving as much of the root as possible. As each tree is dug it should be placed in a barrel containing water until all are collected, when they should be heeled in until the time comes to plant them.