Use of Trees

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

To show the use of trees it may be well to take the one that enters into most common use. Perhaps the pine is as good as any, although the oak and the maple have certain advantages. It is hoped that the teacher will not begin the work by studying foreign trees, simply because they may be remarkable for size or products. To begin with the banyan-tree of Hindustan, the talipot palm of Ceylon, or the “big trees” of California would be unwise, as the children would have to depend entirely on mediated knowledge, a condition to be avoided whenever possible.

It may be that no pine forests are accessible to the children, yet it is likely that they see pine-trees every day, since they are found in nearly every school district. If the teacher is acquainted with the felling of trees and the hauling of logs, let him take the children on an imaginary excursion to a logging-camp. It will be helpful for them to see, even through his eyes, how the men live in those camps, fell the tall trees, saw them into proper lengths, and haul them to the railroad or the river, to be taken to the sawmill. He can interest and instruct them by telling them how the logs float down the small river in the spring,—sometimes forming jams that are broken up by the “drivers” at great risk,— how they are stopped by the boom across the river and taken to the sawmill which is near by, or formed into rafts and floated to others at distant places. If the children can visit a sawmill and see the logs being sawed into boards, timbers, laths, shingles, etc., the sight will be of great value to them. A sawmill, however, is a dangerous place for children, but they can with safety visit a lumberyard and see the various forms into which the logs have been sawed. It will also be helpful to take them where a house is being built, and let them see in what part of the structure the different timbers enter, being careful to give the names, such as sills, studding, joists, rafters, flooring, etc.—Selected.