LA.WS PERTAINING TO HORTICDLTURE. 189 



more than sixty feet apart, shall be preserved, and shall not be injured or removed, im- 

 less by direction of the commissioner of highways, and vpith the consent of the owner 

 of the adjoining land, unless such trees shall interfere with or obstruct the travel on 

 the liighvvay ; Provided, Tliat the provisions of this cliapter, in whole or in part, shall 

 not be deemed mandatory in townships in which the electors may by vote at a township 

 meeting, thus determine. e. 



Sec. 2. Any person planting shade trees along the highway adjacent to property 

 owned or occupied by such person shall be entitled to be credited twenty-five cents iipon 

 his highway tax for eveiy tree so planted, but not to exceed in the aggregate twenty- 

 five per cent of such person's highway tax in any one year. 



Sec. 3. In road districts where there are not trees ))]anted and growing along the 

 highways to the extent required by the first section of this chapter, the commissioner 

 shall require that at least fifty trees per year be so planted in each district, and shall 

 continue to require the same from year to year, until every highway in his township, 

 where the adjoining lands are cleared, is supplied with shade trees, as contemplated by 

 said first section, but not more tlian twenty-five per cent of the highway tax shall be 

 appropriated for such purpose in any one district in any one year. The overseer, acting 

 under the direction of the commissioner, may require twenty-five per cent of the high- 

 way tax of any person of any year to be paid in money, the same to be applied in plant- 

 ing shade trees along the highway adjoining the property of such person. The over- 

 seer shall particularly attend to the planting of such trees, and shall allow no unsuita- 

 ble tree, nor any tree wanting suflScient roots or vitality, to be planted, and he shall 

 have the charge of and care for the same in the best manner for their growth. 



Sec. 7. Any person who shall willfully injure, deface, tear or destroy any shrub 

 planted along the margin of the highway, or purposely left there for shade or orna- 

 ment, or who shall hitch any horse to any such tree, by means of which the same shall 

 suffer injury, or who shall negligently or carelessly, by any other means, suffer any 

 horse or other beast driven by or for him, or any beast belonging to him and lawfully 

 in the highway, to break down, destroy or injure any tree or shrub not his own, stand- 

 ing for use or ornament in any highway, shall be liable to an action for damages in a 

 sum not less than one nor more than twenty-five dollars for each offense, to be recov- 

 ered at the suit and for the benefit of the owner or tenant of the land in front of which 

 such tree or shrub stands, or at the suit of the overseer in whose road district such tree 

 or shrub may be situated, for the benefit of the road fund of such district, according as 

 complaint may first be made by one or the other. 



The only enactment we have in Michigan akin to the very stringent laws of 

 California concerning insects and diseases which prey upon horticultural 

 products is our 



YELLOWS LAW, 



which has been modified from time to time, and now reads as follows: 



Section 1. It shall be imlawful for any person to keep any peach, almond, apricot 

 or nectarine tree infected with the contagious disease known as the yellows, or to offer 

 for sale or shipment, or to sell or shij) to others any of the fruit thereof ; that both tree 

 and fruit so infected shall be subject to destruction as public nuisances, as hereinafter 

 provided, and no damages shall be awarded in any court in this State for entering upon 

 premises and destroying such diseased trees and fruit, if done in accordance with the 



