The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Arbor Day

ARBOR DAY, an annual tree-planting day appointed by nearly every State and Territory of the Union, sometimes as a legal holiday and sometimes merely advisory, to assist in foresting or reforesting scantily-wooded tracts or shading or beautifying towns. It is generally in special connection with the public schools, to impress children with the importance of forestry and natural beauty in our civilization. The date depends on the climate of different sections and is absolutely fixed in but few; most northern States hold it in April or early in May; Arizona, Texas and Alabama in February, the two latter on Washington's birthday; Florida in January, Georgia in December and New Mexico in March; many make it optional either with the State or with localities, and West Virginia holds it twice a year, in spring and fall. It arose from the alarm felt by the most far-sighted public men over the rapid and reckless deforestation of many parts of the Union, and the prospects of its extending to all the States, and a realization of what that deforestation meant to the future welfare and development of the United States (see Forestry). Most civilized governments at different times have looked after their forests to assure a supply of timber for naval construction; New Hampshire and New York, even in the colonial period, felt it needful to check the inroads on them; the United States government at the beginning of the 19th century bought timber lands and a quarter of a century later authorized the President to take measures for their preservation; and about the same time the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture offered prizes for forest planting. But the first widespread realization of its importance was caused in 1864 by the notable book of George P. Marsh (q.v.), the eminent American scholar and diplomat, entitled ‘Man and Nature’; the chapter on “The Woods” aroused especial attention and in 1865 Birdsey G. Northrop, then secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education, suggested that States might profitably plant trees every year at the proper time, or supervise their planting. The subject brought out several books and many articles; the late Dr. Franklin B. Hough, the first Forest Commissioner, publishing a work upon it as early as 1873. But the first to propose a regular Arbor Day for the purpose was J. Sterling Morton, late Commissioner of Agriculture, then of Nebraska, who in 1872 succeeded in inducing his almost treeless State to set apart a day for the purpose. Great enthusiasm was aroused and over a million trees were planted that year. In 1885 it was made a legal State holiday on 22 April, Mr. Morton's birthday. The movement did not at first spread very rapidly, though some localities took it up; the first States to copy the legal enactment were Kansas and Tennessee in 1875, and the next year Minnesota. It was six years before another joined, Ohio in 1882, followed by West Virginia in 1883; then the tide began to rush in and within five years 26 more States and Territories had adopted the observance. See Forestry; Forest Service and consult Schauffler, R. H., (ed.) ‘Arbor Day’ (1909).