injured. Children, or even grown persons without experience, could not plant trees properly, but it is important that they be interested in trees, so they will not destroy them by swinging round them or climbing on the tree guards or pulling them down. Many beautiful white birches have been marred by cutting strips of the white bark from the trunk of the tree. Most all beech trees are marred by cutting initials of names on the trunks of the trees. It is a man's work to plant trees well, and children can not be expected to do it. I think that a much better thing for children to do on Arbor Day is to visit some beautiful trees and learn to distinguish them and to admire them. A great deal of pleasure may be derived from the study of trees in winter as well as in summer, and from familiarity with the habit of trees, so that one may distinguish a species of trees from a distance. It is a great pleasure to me to look at trees when I am riding on the cars.

For the schools not so fortunate it is suggested that a tree nursery be started. The ground should be thoroughly prepared beforehand; the tree seeds should have been collected. Then, with sufficient ceremony, the garden lines may be stretched, the benches made, and the seeds dropped, every child having an opportunity to plant. The season of the year will regulate the kind of seed to be planted. Elm and silver maple may be planted at the first spring celebration. Nut seeds buried in sand in the fall will be ready for planting the second celebration. Write to the Secretary of Agriculture for Bulletin No. 29, Washington, D. C.

The organizing of a Junior Highway Improvement League under the trees by the roadside can be made an impressive feature of the program, and through such an organization sentiment of the community should be aroused to furnish better roads and paths for the school children, and then better schools. There is great opportunity opened to the school-teacher here. Have you breadth of mind sufficient, altruism sufficient to seize the opportunity? You know that what you are interested in your school responds to. If your school seems to jog over the same road daily, it is largely due to the fact that you set the pace. Talk about the roads, the birds, the trees, and flowers by their sides. Get the cooperation of all the teachers in the building. Let the children know how much they are able to do by interesting the older people. Let them know how children have been benefited by roads elsewhere. A preliminary meeting should be held to appoint committees to nominate officers and to draw up a constitution. Simple parliamentary practices are especially pleasing to the boys and a good training for future citizenship. Insist upon their use. The following constitution is suggestive. It should be modified to suit school conditions.

CONSTITUTION OF THE JUNIOR HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE.

ARTICLE I.--NAME.

The name of this organization shall be the Junior Highway Improvement League of

ARTICLE II.-OBJECTS.

The objects of this league are (1) to learn all that we can about good roads and tell all that we learn to older people to the end that we may have better schools; (2) to do whatever is practicable for children to do in keeping the roads in repair; (3) to know the birds and to attract them around our schools; (4) to know the trees and to plant them along the roads when the roads are ready for them.

ARTICLE III.-MEMBERS.

All pupils of this school are eligible for membership. All members who attend the meeting for organization are considered charter members. Thereafter members shall be proposed and elected. The teachers of the school are honorary members.

ARTICLE IV.-MEETINGS.

Meetings shall be held twice a month at such times as may be determined.

ARTICLE V.-OFFICERS.

SECTION 1. The officers of this league shall be a president, vice president, and secretary. (A treasurer if there are dues.)

SEC. 2. The president shall preside at all meetings. He shall name committees and assign such work that all members of a committee may be working members.

SEC. 3. The vice president shall preside during the absence of the president. SEC. 4. The secretary shall record the proceedings of all meetings.

ARTICLE VI.-COMMITTEES.

The committees of this league shall be: Committees on roads that need mending; committee on road pictures; committee on feeding birds in winter; committee on preventing weeds on the roadside; committee on school nursery; committee on school attendance due to roads. The league as a whole is a committee on the education of parents in regard to good roads and trees along the roadside.

ARTICLE VII.-DUTIES OF COMMITTEES.

Duties of these committees shall be to collect information on topics assigned them and to report at meetings.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICAL WORK FOR THE LEAGUE.

Learn the points of a good road; whether it is macadam, earth, gravel, or sand, and how to keep it in repair. Teach these points to some one older than yourself. A 10-year-old boy in the Van Vlissingen School, Chicago, taught 15 grown people in his neighborhood to identify the tussock moth. The combined efforts of these people rid the neighborhood of the pests. Your pest is bad roads.

Watch the culverts along the road. If they are clogged, remove the rubbish.

See that the springs along the road are clean.

Remove large stones from the road.

Keep watch for bad places in the school road. Report them to the teacher, who will in turn report them to higher authority.

Straighten young trees blown over by the wind.

Break the heads from the burdocks, cocklebur, and thistles along the road before they go to seed.

Feed the birds in winter around the school. Scraps of lunches, grain, fat meat will help them through the hard ice-bound days. Put a little grain in your pocket and scatter it along the road as you go to school.

Make bird houses for the trees around your home.

In consolidated high schools manual-training classes can make neat signboards for road crossings.

Keep a constant watch on the condition of all roads you travel and talk about them to older people.

ROADSIDE GLEANINGS FROM PROSE AND POETRY.

Set thee up way marks. Set thine heart toward the highway.-JEREMIAH I, 21.

America pays more for bad roads than good roads would cost.

Good roads are neighbor makers and trade builders.

Mud roads belong to the log-cabin days, and log-cabin days belong to the past. You can ship wheat at 3.3 cents a bushel from New York to Liverpool, but it costs you 5.4 cents to haul a bushel 9.4 miles from the farm to the railroad. Mud tax and the taxes levied by ignorance are the most burdensome of all taxes.

When we wish to use descriptive terms fit to characterize great empires and the men who made those empires great, invariably one of the terms used is to signify that that empire built good roads.-THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The first and last commandment in the maintenance of earth roads is to keep the surface well drained.-L. W. PAGE.

Although I'm no with Scripture crammed,

I ken the Bible says

That they most surely must be damned.
Who dinna mend their ways.

-ROBERT BURNS.

The two greatest enemies of roads are water and politics. Of these, politics is the worse, for water will only run down hill, while no one knows which way politics will run.-M. O. ELDRIDGE,

By furnishing better means of communication, good roads will add to the selling price of farm products and in every way will contribute to the comfort and happiness of the people. Then, furthermore, we can have a good system of consolidated schools only where we have good roads.-West Virginia Arbor and Bird Day Annual, 1908.

To man and beast alike the roadway that offers few obstacles to easy travel is a delight which shortens the journey by mitigating the pangs of fatigue.— BYKNE.

The foot that is familiar with grass usually belongs to a man of lighter heart than he whose soles seldom wander from the pavement.-LEO H. GRINDON.