362 



ARBORICULTURE 



The Carolina Poplar as a City Tree. 



(Austin C. Apgar, Trenton New Jersey.) 



This poplar has been sold in greater 

 numbers by the nurseries in the last 

 fifteen years than any other tree. 

 There are features of good and evil in 

 all trees and the balance between these 

 should decide the question of any tree 

 for any purpose. 



I will first give w^hat I consider the 

 best that can be said in its favor. It is 

 easily raised from slips and so nurseries 

 can have a large supply -with but little 

 cost. By this plan there need be only 

 the seedless form produced, thus elim- 

 inating the disagreeable cotton that is 

 attached to the seeds and that litters 

 up the law^ns and catches on the 

 window^ screens. This cotton gives the 

 name of cottonwood to the tree. If of- 

 fered under this name none would be 

 purchased by those who know^ of this 

 objectionable material. It is the most 

 rapid growing of trees, adding three to 

 five feet in height each year during the 

 early years of its life. It has beautiful 

 dark glossy green foliage, and the 

 smoke from soft coal has but little effect 

 in stopping its breathing and thus its 

 health. The quivering of its leaves 

 adds to its beauty and probably also to 

 its freedom from the settlings of smoke 

 and soot. It thus lives in health in con- 

 ditions w^hich kill almost every other 

 kind of tree. Its roots lie mainly near 

 the surface enabling it to be transplant- 

 ed even w^hen a large tree. It w^ill grow 

 w^ell in almost any soil. 



Thus in its favor are: 1 . Rapid 

 growth. 2. Bright, glossy, green foli- 

 age kept in motion by the slightest air 

 movements. 3. Grow^s w^ell in a great 

 variety of soils. 4. Low^ price because 

 of ready propagation from tw^igs. 5. 



The unpleasant cotton of the pistillate 

 trees entirely eradicated. 6. Easily 

 transplanted at almost any size. 



On the other side of the question: 

 Like practically all trees of rapid growth 

 it has soft w^ood and if not cut back 

 each year w^ill be torn by every severe 

 wind storm. This trimming is very ex 

 pensive and for this reason the low^, 

 first cost does not make it a cheap tree. 

 It is found in nature in low lands along 

 water courses. So in cities w^ith a 

 sewerage system, the roots v^ill find any 

 opening in water pipes and w^ill in a 

 short time fill them wiih a mass of roots 

 w^hich will entirely close them. The 

 repairs for this evil are very costly. 

 The roots lying mainly so near the sur- 

 face gives the w^hole tree but little 

 anchorage, and after they are ten years 

 old, a violent storm will readily over- 

 turn the whole tree. The abundant 

 surface roots render any good law^n 

 rough and unsightly. These same sur- 

 face roots will lift any sidewalk. The 

 granolithic pavements now^ so common, 

 are broken and utterly ruined by this 

 lifting. It is a short lived tree, reaching 

 its best conditions in ten or twelve years 

 from planting. A few years later, it be- 

 comes ragged and unsightly. Its large 

 red catkins litter the ground around 

 them in the early Spring. Most trees 

 lose their leaves in eariy Autumn only, 

 but this poplar has some of its leaves 

 dropping throughout the whole 

 Summer. The two worst insect pests 

 we have to contend with in towns and 

 cities are the white-marked tussock 

 moth, and the oyster shell bark louse. 

 Both of these readily propagate on this 

 poplar but are not able to kill such a 



