ARBORICULTURE 



249 



THE CEMENT PAVEMENT CRAZE. 



Trees which have required twenty, 

 forty or even sixty years to attain their 

 present beauty and usefulness along the 

 streets of American towns and would-be 

 cities are being sacrificed in the craze 

 for geometric precision in laying side- 

 walks. The root system of every tree is 

 destroyed on one side of the tree in deep 

 excavations for these cement pavements, 

 and it can only be a very few years when 

 disease and decrepitude will remove these 

 shade trees, which have been so muti- 

 lated by a set of ward politicians, who, 

 being elected to office and feeling their 

 importance, order destruction of all 

 trees. 



One correspondent tells how a Cincin- 

 nati suburb was saved the loss of a most 

 beautiful avenue by a vigorous protest 

 through the daily press. 



A MADISONVILLE, OHIO AVENUE. 



It may interest some of our readers 

 to learn how a few pen strokes proved 

 mightier than a sword and saved a whole 

 half mile of beautiful shade trees from 

 wanton destruction. 



Among the many fine suburbs of Cin- 

 cinnati there is one which has always 

 taken particular pride in its beautiful 

 shrubbery and majestic trees, but which 

 came very near sustaining an almost irre- 

 parable loss through certain proposed 

 improvements. 



When the decree went forth that ce- 

 ment sidewalks were to be laid along one 

 of its finest avenues, which skirted the 

 railroad u luilf mile, property owners, 

 sooner than have the handsome shade 

 trees bordering the entire length of the 

 avenue disturbed, willingly consented to 

 take down their fences and sacrifice the 

 required number of feet off their lawns 

 to give the pavements the required 

 width. Four years later, when a new set 

 of councilmen were holding sway, atten- 

 tion was turned to the grading and curb- 

 ing of this same avenue, and those in au- 

 thoritv thoiiiibt it would be a ffood 



scheme to widen it slightly, and, to this 

 end, condemned the trues. Property 

 owners became not only highly, but 

 righteously, indignant over the proposed 

 sacrilege, and did all in their power to 

 avert it. Prominent railway officials, 

 whose property fronted the avenue, and 

 who gloried in the trees with commend- 

 able pride, became furious when they 

 found that all their pleading with Coun- 

 cil were set at naught, and that the wise- 

 acres (?) were determined to push the 

 matter through at its very next meeting. 



Indignation and ravings failed to mas- 

 ter proceedings, but it fell to a woman 

 to conquer the situation. She seized her 

 pen and sent a statement of facts to the 

 city press, saying: "It was to be hoped 

 that those in authority could be brought 

 to see, to let well enough alone. Should 

 the trees be disturbed in spite of all pro- 

 test, the property owners would demand 

 the village to take up the cement walk, 

 refund the feet appropriated, set up their 

 fences and relay the cement where the 

 trees vacated. 



"Now that the trees are of age, having 

 been planted just twenty-one years ago, 

 they are able and entitled to speak for 

 themselves, and the very prospect com- 

 pels them to cry out: 'We don't want any 

 jackass to butt against us.' " 



The article appeared in print on the 

 morning of the very day in which Coun- 

 cil was to meet. The last clause had shot 

 home with telling effect, and as not one 

 of the inen cared to assume the implied 

 identity, the proposition was indefinitely 

 tabled, and lias so remained for ten years. 



Farmers often think they are wasting 

 too much land when they devote an acre 

 to trees which do not produce fruit, and 

 at most only one row of trees can be per- 

 mitted on the outer border of the farm, 

 "They shade too much ground;" "The 

 roots sap the soil and rob the crops." 

 These are some of the objections urged 

 to bodies of trees. Tlic arguments are 

 delusive. Tlie vast influences of heavy 

 belts of trees far overweigh the injury 

 done to a few rows of corn. 



