Arbor Day

Portrait if Birdsey Northop.

        Arbor Day was a day designed by legislative enactment in many states for the voluntary planting of trees by the people. It was inaugurated in 1874 by the Nebraska state board of agriculture, at the suggestion of J. Morton, afterwards Secretary of Agriculture in President Cleveland's second administration. 

       Arbor Day is observed late in April or early in May in many countries other than the United States, around the world during the warm planting months. 

• National Arbor Day Foundation
• Friends Of Trees

"A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as hopeless; forests which are so used that they cannot renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits. A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory  of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water. When you help to preserve our forests or plant new ones you are acting the part of good citizens. The value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught in the schools, which aim to make good citizens of you. If your Arbor Day exercises help you to realize what benefits each one of you receives from the forests, and how by your assistance these benefits may continue, they will serve a good end."

Theodore Roosevelt.
The White House, April 15, 1907. 

Arbor Day Artifacts:

• Leaf stencils for craft projects

Tree Themed Art Projects for Arbor Day:

• Weave Some Yarn Trees
• A Treehouse Collage 
• A Family Tree Craft for Grandparent's Day
• Tear and Paste Falling Leaves
• "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" in My Classroom
• Paint Fall Foliage With Hugs and Kisses

History, Observance & Poems: 

• Arbor Day Letter of President Theodore Roosevelt
• A New Holiday by George William Curtis 
• Arbor Day by Nicholas Jarchow 
• A Summer Snowstorm!
• Arbor Day in Schools by B. G. Northrup 
• Arbor Day's Observance by A. S. Draper 
• The Snow-Bird
• A Hymn for Arbor Day by Henry Hanby Hay
• Arbor Day by anonymous
• The Popular Poplar Tree
• He Who Plants an Oak by Washington Irving 
• The Planting of the Apple-Tree by William Cullen Bryant
• The Popular Poplar Tree
• The Love of Nature by Wordsworth
  
• A Forest Hymn by Bryant
  
• The Forest Trees by Eliza Cook
  
• Plant a Tree by Lucy Larcom
  
• The Oak by George Hill
  
• Woodman, Spare That Tree! by George P. Morris
  
• Forest Song by W. H. Venable
  
• Invitation by Charles Sangster
  
• Planting for The Future by Harriet B. Wright
  
• The heart of the tree...
• The Ivy Green by Charles Dickens