Part 10

This work may be done by arithmetic or geography classes. The arithmetic class may also find suitable dimensions for the corn-contest plots.

Have the reading classes read about birds, gardening, trees, lawns, weeds, etc. Use the newer words in spelling exercises. Let boys and girls both make bird-houses at home. These may be ready to put up on Arbor Day.

The corn testing and seed study should begin at once.

Trees, shrubs and seeds that are to be planted on Arbor Day, or soon after, should be ready in advance. The roots of trees and shrubs must be temporarily covered with soil to prevent drying out.

Some exercises in root grafting of apples may be carried out as described in two of the bulletins, 113 and 408.

Tools to be used in the planting of school grounds may be brought by pupils from their homes; the list available for the purpose should be made in advance.

Divide the students into suitable groups for the work, so that each will know his part.

Invite parents and home folks to the work of Arbor Day, and make it a community exercise. The men may come in the morning to work, and the women may come with lunch baskets at noon, both staying until the exercises are over.

Plan to have some one take pictures of the children and patrons while the improvement work is going on.

Do not forget to have some manure and good soil hauled in advance.

SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMS

I

1. Remarks by the teacher or a member of the school board on the value of teaching the useful and beautiful as well as the classical and historical.

2. Have five pupils stand together. The first pupil will read from this pamphlet or tell in his own way why we should all know more about trees; the second about insects; the third about weeds; the fourth about birds; and the fifth about corn.

3. Have five girls stand and each tell a few things about some useful bird.

4. Have a boy who has made a bird box tell how bird boxes are a protection to young birds, and how he made his.

5. Have a boy tell of some ways of destroying English sparrows, learned from U. S. Farmers' Bulletin 383.

6. Another boy should tell how to distinguish English sparrows from other sparrows and common birds.

7. Have some of the best tree planters tell how to plant a tree--preparation of soil, roots, pruning and actual planting.

_Note._ In any or all of these exercises pupils may get the subject matter from this pamphlet and from bulletins referred to in it. They may make note on paper of what they wish to say and speak from these notes. If the time for preparation be very short the points may be copied and read directly. Let each exercise be very short.

II

1. Announcement of outlines of contests in school or home gardening, corn growing, or other work the school may be planning, and the premiums offered for the contests and exhibits next fall.

2. Some pupils may tell of several benefits of trees and forests, or five pupils may stand together and each tell of one important benefit.

3. Have a pupil describe how to test seed corn by the individual ear method.

4. Have two pupils tell of the two types of insect moths, each telling how to control such insects.

5. Have a boy tell of three or four things necessary to improve the home lawn. (See U. S. Bulletin 248)

6. Have three pupils stand and each take one part

(_a_) Use of vines to beautify the grounds at school or home, naming some vines to use in certain places

(_b_) Use of trees in same way

(_c_) Use of shrubs in same way

THE VALUE OF OUR FORESTS

Few people ever think of a forest as a place to store water. Who would think that "the woods" hold water as well as a mill pond or a reservoir! But they do, although we cannot see the water they hold, except, perhaps, as a pool here and there; and yet this is one of the most important functions that a forest can perform.

All of us have noticed in walking through the woods how soft and springy the ground is. A thick carpet of leaves, twigs, and decayed wood covers the earth, sometimes to a depth of several feet. It is very porous, and it absorbs water like a sponge. When storms come and rain falls in torrents, it does not beat directly upon the ground under the trees because the raindrops first strike the leaves and branches above. The water then trickles gently down and soaks into the leafy carpet. If the forest is extensive a very large quantity of water is absorbed--enough to prevent floods except in extraordinarily long periods of rain. Gradually through the weeks and months that follow the absorbed water oozes out of low places as "springs," and it dashes merrily away in little brooks that continue to form creeks and rivers which flow peacefully and steadily out to sea.

If there are no trees, no leaves to break the beating rain, no spongy mold to hold the water when it falls, no matted roots to prevent washing, the big raindrops spatter upon the earth and quickly form rushing streams that wash the ground into gulleys. The bare earth absorbs some water, to be sure, but far less than the humus of the forest. If the rains are continued the rivers are soon filled beyond the capacity of their banks and they spread over the neighboring valleys, carrying devastation with them. After the heavy rains cease, the flood waters subside as suddenly as they had arisen and the streams dwindle to insignificance, sometimes completely drying up in a long, hot summer.

Thus it is that forests act as great reservoirs and aid in preventing disastrous floods and in maintaining the flow of streams at a rate that is nearly uniform all the year round.

Now let us see what use is made of the trees. The greatest of all is for firewood; but this is largely the decaying or faulty trees from the farmer's woodlot, the waste product of a lumber region, or from land that is cleared for cultivation. It is said that about 100,000,000 cords are used annually.

The greater part of the salable timber, however, is sawed into lumber, which is used in a variety of ways. The first and greatest use of lumber is for building houses, barns, sheds, outbuildings and fences.

Next comes furniture of all kinds--chairs, tables, beds, and all other house, office, and school furniture; musical instruments; vehicles of all kinds--wagons, carriages, buggies, and parts of automobiles; agricultural implements--plows, harrows, harvesters, thrashing machines, and other farm implements.

Car building is another great use for lumber--freight cars, passenger cars, and trolley cars. Other important uses for timber are as cross-ties, poles for telegraph and telephone lines, and "shoring" or supports in mines. Even more trees are used in the manufacture of paper than for these purposes. Then there are various small articles used in the home, such as spools, butter dishes, fruit crates, baskets, boxes, all kinds of tools, toys, picture frames, matches, pencils, clothes pins, toothpicks, etc. These are little things, but so many of them are used that they consume a great deal of wood. Next we derive tannic acid for tanning leather, turpentine and rosin, maple sugar, and many extracts used in making medicines.

So valuable are the forests that the whole nation is interested in preserving them. No one is benefited more by them than the farmer, and no one should be more interested in them.--_U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, "Agriculture and Rural Life Day"_

BIRDS

"The Study of Birds and Bird Life in the Schools of New Jersey," by Dr. Robert G. Leavitt, of the Trenton State Normal School, published by this Department, should be consulted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Bibliography at end of monograph.

MEMORIAL DAY

May 30

THE SLEEP OF THE BRAVE

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blessed! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mold, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung; There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there!

_William Collins_

MEMORIAL DAY

GEORGE C. BAKER, SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL, MOORESTOWN

SUGGESTIVE PROGRAM

Flag Salute

Song--"Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Story of Memorial Day

Stories from the battle-fields of 1861 and 1918, told by larger pupils, adult members of the community, or soldiers

"The Blue and the Gray"

Song--"Keep the Home Fires Burning"

"The Gettysburg Address"

"In Flanders Fields"

Song--"America" or "The Star Spangled Banner"

Preparatory to the making and carrying out of a Memorial Day program, the teacher, a group of pupils or some wide-awake member of the community should talk about the sacrifices made by the soldiers of our country during the different wars in which we have been engaged; what great principles they have fought for, and why we should honor their memory in the public schools of our land. Throughout the preparation and the execution of the program there should be a consciousness of the debt we owe to those who have fought and died for freedom's cause. The simplest program prepared in this spirit will be of lasting value to the children of the school and to the members of the community in which the exercises are held.

Pupils and teachers should talk over fully the kind of program to be given. Much responsibility should be placed upon the pupils for the making of the program. They should make all "projects" necessary for the carrying out of the program, and should invite all patrons and friends in the community.

The exercises should be a service truly commemorating the honored dead of our land.

ORIGIN OF MEMORIAL DAY

The observance of May 30 as Memorial Day had its official origin in an order issued in 1868 by General John A. Logan, then commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. General Logan often said afterward that the issuing of that order was the proudest act of his life.

The strewing of flowers upon graves is old in some countries. It is said that the first decoration of graves of soldiers of the Civil War was done on April 13, 1862, by two little girls, daughters of a Michigan chaplain. They had been out gathering wild flowers, and, returning, came across a rough, unmarked mound which covered some northern boy.

One of the girls said: "Oh, let's put our flowers on this grave! He was a soldier boy." They knelt down and made garlands of flowers on that grave. This grave was in Virginia, not far from Mount Vernon. The next day they interested their family and friends in a plan to decorate all the graves, and the plan was carried out. Each year afterward, in May, they did the same wherever they happened to be. Others saw them and followed their example.

The later date of May 30 was chosen by General Logan so that flowers could be had in all the northern states.

From decorating the graves of soldiers the custom has extended to the graves of all who have relatives or friends to remember them. In time the soldiers will be forgotten, but the custom of decorating graves with flowers will doubtless continue for many generations to come. The spirit which prompts it is a noble one, which should ever be cherished.

Two years after the close of the Civil War the _New York Tribune_ printed a paragraph simply stating that "the women of Columbus, Mississippi, have shown themselves impartial in their offerings made to the memory of the dead. They strewed flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and of the National soldiers."

Whereupon the North thrilled with tenderness and Francis Miles Finch was inspired to write his moving lyric "The Blue and the Gray," which has become the credo of the Festival.

In a famous address, Chauncey M. Depew related the occurrence with felicity: "When the war was over in the South, where under warmer skies and with more poetic temperaments symbols and emblems are better understood than in the practical North, the widows, mothers, and the children of the Confederate dead went out and strewed their graves with flowers; at many places the women scattered them impartially also over the unknown and unmarked resting-places of the Union soldiers. As the news of this touching tribute flashed over the North it roused, as nothing else could have done, national amity and love and allayed sectional animosity and passion. Thus out of sorrows common alike to North and South comes this beautiful custom."

The incident, however, produced no practical results until in May, 1868, Adjutant-General N. P. Chipman suggested to National Commander John A. Logan, of the Grand Army of the Republic, that their organization inaugurate the custom of spreading flowers on the graves of the Union soldiers at some uniform time. General Logan immediately issued an order naming the 30th day of May, 1868, "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, or hamlet churchyard in the land.... It is the purpose of the commander-in-chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of the departed."

The idea spread rapidly. Legislature after legislature enacted it into law until the holiday has become a legal one in all states. In some of the southern states an earlier date is usually chosen.

THE REVEILLE[F]

[F] Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers.

Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands And of armed men the hum; Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum-- Saying "Come, Freeman, come! Ere your heritage be wasted," said the quick alarming drum.

"Let me of my heart take counsel: War is not of life the sum; Who shall stay and reap the harvest When the autumn days shall come?" But the drum Echoed "Come! Death shall reap the braver harvest," said the solemn-sounding drum.

"But when won the coming battle, What of profit springs therefrom? What if conquest, subjugation, Even greater ills become?" But the drum Answered, "Come! You must do the sum to prove it," said the Yankee answering drum.

"What if, 'mid the cannon's thunder, Whistling shot and bursting bomb, When my brothers fall around me, Should my heart grow cold and numb?" But the drum Answered "Come! Better there in death united than in life a recreant--Come!"

Thus they answered--hoping, fearing, Some in faith and doubting some, Till a trumpet-voice, proclaiming, Said, "My chosen people, come!" Then the drum, Lo! was dumb, For the great heart of the nation, throbbing, answered, "Lord, we come!"

_Bret Harte_

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

By the flow of the inland river, Whence the fleets of iron have fled, Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, Asleep are the ranks of the dead: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Under the one, the Blue, Under the other, the Gray.

These in the robings of glory, Those in the gloom of defeat, All with the battle-blood gory, In the dusk of eternity meet: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Under the laurel, the Blue, Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours The desolate mourners go, Lovingly laden with flowers Alike for the friend and the foe: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Under the roses, the Blue, Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor, The morning sun-rays fall, With a touch impartially tender, On the blossoms blooming for all: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Broidered with gold, the Blue, Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth, On forest and field of grain, With an equal murmur falleth The cooling drip of the rain: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Wet with the rain, the Blue, Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding, The generous deed was done; In the storm of the years that are fading No braver battle was won: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Under the blossoms, the Blue, Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever, Or the winding rivers be red; They banish our anger forever When they laurel the graves of our dead! Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Love and tears for the Blue, Tears and love for the Gray.

_Francis Miles Finch_

RECESSIONAL

God of our fathers, known of old-- Lord of our far-flung battle line-- Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine-- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart; Still stands thine ancient sacrifice-- An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire. Lo! all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, Such boasting as the Gentiles use Or lesser breeds without the law-- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard, All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding calls not Thee to guard, For frantic boasts and foolish word, Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord! Amen.

_Rudyard Kipling_

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on.

Glory! glory! Hallelujah! Glory! glory! Hallelujah! Glory! glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.

_Julia Ward Howe_

We have scattered our floral tributes today over the graves of the patriotic dead. These frail mementos of affection will soon wither, but let not the memory of these martyrs fail to inspire in us a purer, holier life! The roll-call brings to mind their faces and their deeds. They were faithful to the end. The weary march, the bivouac, the battle are still remembered by the survivors. But your line, comrades, is growing slenderer every year. One by one you will drop out of the ranks, and other hands may ere long strew your grave with flowers as you have done today in yonder cemetery. When mustered in the last grand review, with all the veterans and heroes of earth, may each receive with jubilant heart the Great Commander's admiring tribute "Well done!" and become with Him partaker of a felicity that is enduring and triumphant!

_E. P. Thwing_

Of all the martial virtues, the one which is perhaps most characteristic of the truly brave is the virtue of magnanimity. That sentiment, immortalized by Scott in his musical and martial verse, will associate for all time the name of Scotland's king with those of the great spirits of the past. How grand the exhibitions of the same generous impulses that characterize this memorable battle-field! My fellow-countrymen of the North, if I may be permitted to speak for those whom I represent, let me assure you that in the profoundest depths of their nature, they reciprocate that generosity with all the manliness and sincerity of which they are capable. In token of that sincerity they join in consecrating, for annual patriotic pilgrimage, these historic heights, which drank such copious draughts of American blood, poured so freely in discharge of duty, as each conceived it--a Mecca for the North, which so grandly defended, a Mecca for the South, which so bravely and persistently stormed it. We join you in setting apart this land as an enduring monument of peace, brotherhood, and perpetual union. I repeat the thought with emphasis, with singleness of heart and of purpose, in the name of a common country, and of universal liberty; and by the blood of our fallen brothers, we unite in the solemn consecration of these hallowed hills, as a holy, eternal pledge of fidelity to the life, freedom, and unity of this cherished Republic.

_John B. Gordon_

From "Gettysburg: A Mecca for the Blue and the Gray"

Our fathers ordained that in this Republic there should be no distinctions; but human nature is stronger than laws and nothing can prevent this people from showing honor to all who have deserved well of the country. Every man who has borne arms with credit has earned and is sure to receive a special measure of regard. And it is our peculiar privilege to remember that our armies and navies, regular and volunteer, have always been worthy of esteem ... the Grand Army of the Republic--soldiers and citizens whom the Republic delights to honor.

_John Hay_

Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic.

_John A. Logan_

We honor our heroic and patriotic dead by being true men, as true men by faithfully fighting the battles of our day as they fought the battles of their day.

_David Gregg_

AFTER THE GREAT COMPANIONS!

The race has not run out.

We are still men, and worthy of our fathers.

That is what Memorial Day 1919 says to us.

Not in pride nor vain boasting but in fearful and solemn humility we speak, for it is our dead that prompt us. They, our kin and blood, were not afraid to die.

When the Destroyer came, the obscene Dragon, with breath of poison gas, eyes of hell fire, and teeth of steel, they did not shrink, our brothers, but played the man, and struck, and dying struck again, and flung their shredded bodies into the breach, and "filled the gap up with our English dead."

We are of such.

We put our arms around our dead, and hold them proudly up to God, and glory before all men that this is our breed.

The lies of the Accuser are disproved. His slanders fall from us. We are not slaves of greed, money grubbers, soft and lily-livered. We know how to suffer and to die. We, too, can follow the gleam.