ARBOR DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9251, 30 June 1910, Page 6

ARBOR DAY.

The following memorandum for chairmen of committees and head teachers in connection with Arbor Day has been issued by the Wanganui Education Board: — In view of the important lessons which the occasion may be made the means of the Board has resolved that Arbor Day, Wednesday, July ,20, shall be fitly celebrated at the schools. ""Committees will doubtless make such arrangements Ss will suit local . circumstances, but the Board believes that some such programme as the following will ■ prove generally acceptable: — (1) Assembly, National Anthem, Saluting the Flajf.. (2) Addresses by the Chairmen of Committee and other gentlemen, . (3) Lessons by the teachers on the value of trees as private and national assets, as modifying climate, regulating the supply of water to rivers, and x as. objects of beauty. ' (4)" Songs and recitations by pupils. (5) Pupils present to the school, pictures, books, curios, specimens, seedlings or other suitable gifts. (6) Lesson by teachers or friends on the methods of tree-planting. _ (7) Thei junior children under the lady teachers Will, ornament the walls of the classrooms with the pictures, and the senior pupils will proceed to the playground to plant trees (all the tools necessary. for doing the work would need to be at hand). ' (8) The Chairman to declare the rest of the day a holiday. (9) The parents and the general public should be invited to attend, and the occasion might perhaps be signalised by. a little social function .at the school. The following is the method of treeplanting recommended by Mr Grant, the Board's supervisor of agricultural training:— Dig the holes somewhat larger man the natural spread of the roots. If the soil is poor some well-rotted farmyard manure"skould be mixed with it, but on no account should fresh farmyard manures or fertilisers containing potash or soda be used. In planting, the roots of all trees should, have a fine mellow bed of good soil, which should be firmly pressed into contact with each rootlet. No air. spaces should be left, and no two roote should be in contact. After the fine soil, to a depth of three or four inches, is pressed into place, the remainder may be thrown loosel.y on top. If the early summer is dry it is a good plan to apply a mulch of straw, hay, weeds, or ti-tree around the trees. This mulch" should be about three inches deep, and should cover an area a little larger than the size of the hole in which the tree was planted. Before planting trees in the schoolground it will be necessary to have a plan carefully drawn out. The completion of the plan may bo the work of years, but without a plan no work of any value can be done. The first thing to plan for is shelter, and from, the data accumulated in most schools this will not be a difficult task. It is not a good plan to plant tall-growing trees in front of the school, or to plant trees in a position that they will block out any good views that may be had • from the schoolgrounds. All contributions by way of _ plants, fencing, and manure are subsidised if there is a garden recognised by the Department attached to the schoolgrounds. Fred Pirani, chaiitnan.