400 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



graph and telephone comnninication. He said that the chief transgressors upon 

 our pet shade and ornamental roadside trees are tiie telegraphic companies of 

 the land, who hack and mutilate the trees along their lines with profound dis- 

 rcg.ird of their habits or requirements. 



You may possess a row of trees which you regard with pride and affection, 

 which have taken many years to arrive at perfection, and which charm every 

 eye that sees them, but the inevitable telegraph arrives, and some fine morning 

 you wake up to find them mutilated beyond recognition and the road strewed 

 with their debris. 



In the excitement of the moment you rush for your gun, a club, scythe, any- 

 thing calculated to inflict punishment commensurate with the enormity of the 

 offense, but they have gone, fled like a plngue of locusts to continue their work 

 of destruction on some neighboring victim. 



But, though they have escaped summary vengeance, you feel that the measure 

 of their iniquity is full and you resolve to follow them with the bloodhounds of 

 law. But, standing at the threshold of telegraphic legislation you find privileges 

 granted, under which they might commit almost any depredation. 



No doubt it is necessary that power should be given to carry out their char- 

 ters, but all privileges granted to an individual or class are limited by the rights 

 of all other individuals. Yet here is a power given which inflicts enormous 

 injury ou every one subjected to its operation. 



Neither the Legislature when it granted, nor the companies when they asked 

 for such privileges, could have anticipated for one moment the injury they 

 would inflict ou others, but now that the result is appparent it ought to be 

 remedied. 



Single trees, which money would not tempt the owners to part with, have 

 been ruined by them; what then must be the aggregate of damage inflicted upon 

 the whole country. The very least they could do would be to employ only such 

 men as were familiar with arboriculture and permit no cutting to be done 

 which was inconsistent with its principles. 



ROADSIDE PLANTING. 



From an exhaustive article on highway planting in Vick's Magazine we cull 

 the following: 



The best results in planting street trees are attainable when there is concert 

 of action by the entire community in relation to the subject. Such concerted 

 action indicates considerable advancement, or a general spread of horticultural 

 taste, and, naturally, the best examples of it, might be expected to be found iu 

 tlie oldest jiarts ot the country. But the migratory character of our people 

 greatly modifies the formative conditions of society. The most enterprising and 

 well informed persons are often leaders in new communities, and exercise great 

 influence in shaping their features; so, in some of the new towns and villages 

 of the west, there are found handsome, broad streets and avenues lined with 

 trees, and public squares and parks, while many of the older villages are yet as 

 deplorably destitute in these respects as at their beginning. 



During the summer season, with heat almost tropical, the shade of trees iu 

 passing along the street is gratefully appreciated. What are the best trees for 

 street planting, and what the best modes of plantiug, are questions of general 

 interest. 



