Decayed Tree Overthrown by the Wind in the Borough of Queens, New York 



There are improvement thinnings to be 

 made in the wooded areas of the parks, 

 and dangerous and diseased trees must 

 be taken out. In many cases special 

 care and skill are needed to prevent in- 

 jury to shrubbery or property. There 

 are still some 3,000 dead trees standing 

 on the streets of Brooklyn. Dangerous 

 trees are removed within twenty-four 

 hours after notification. What an 

 emergency may call for is shown by the 

 fact that during the severe storm of 

 June 18, 1910, 300 trees were uprooted 

 and made dangerous to life and prop- 

 erty, and the task of clearing them from 

 the streets in forty-eight hours devolved 

 upon the city forester. 



Trees in the forest do not have to be 

 fertilized, because by the accumulation 

 of humus they themselves keep stor- 

 ing up nitrogen in the soil. The nitro- 

 gen supply in the soil of an old forest 

 may compare favorably with that in ar- 

 tificially fertilized agricultural soils, as 

 Prof. Henry, of the French Forest 

 .School at Nancy, has shown. But city 

 trees must sooner or later be fertilized ; 



522 



the soil around them becomes impov- 

 erished in course of time, and nourish- 

 ment must be supplied artificially. 



The protection of trees from physical 

 injury includes all sorts of mechanical 

 devices, such as bars to prevent split- 

 ting, guards around the trunks, drain- 

 age and irrigation pipes, guards against 

 electric wires, anfl other safety meas- 

 ures. 



Supervising the work done by six or 

 eight hundred men in the various parts 

 of the city is a task that calls for good 

 organization. Other supervisory work 

 embraces a system of permits and in- 

 spection for regulating the planting and 

 care of trees by private persons ; the 

 establishment and enforcement of rules 

 for house moving and street grading 

 where trees are apt to be interfered 

 with; preventing injury by telephone 

 and other electric wire companies, by 

 steam engines placed under trees, by 

 advertising signs, by guy-ropes attached 

 to trees, etc. Not only must the men 

 be well organized for this work, with 

 the proper man in the proper place, but 



