coming years."

=New York.=--Hon. A.S. Draper, ex-Superintendent of Public
Instruction: "The primary purpose of the Legislature in establishing
Arbor Day was to develop and stimulate in the children of the
commonwealth a love and reverence for Nature, as revealed in trees and
shrubs and flowers."


THE BEST USE OF ARBOR DAY.

Arbor Day, to be most useful as well as most pleasant, should not
stand by itself, alone, but be connected with much study and talk of
trees and kindred subjects beforehand and afterward. It should rather
be the focal or culminating point of the year's observation of trees
and other natural objects with which they are closely connected. The
wise teacher will seek to cultivate the observing faculties of the
pupils by calling their attention to the interesting things with which
the natural world abounds. It is not necessary to this that there
should be formal classes in botany or any natural science, though we
think no school should be without its botanical class or classes, nor
should anyone be eligible to the place of a teacher in our public
schools who is not competent to give efficient instruction in botany
at least.

But much may be done in this direction informally, by brief, familiar
talks in the intervals between the regular recitations of the
school-room, or during the walks to and from school. A tree by the
road-side will furnish an object lesson for pleasant and profitable
discourse for many days and at all seasons. A few flowers, which