ARBORICULTURE 



375 



Regulation Of The Building Line. 



In the earlier days of home building 

 in American villages, it vv^as customary 

 to locate the dwelling directly upon the 

 street, in order to allow greater privacy 

 for the family in the larger rear area, 

 and give a space for vegetable garden. 



This practice is largely continued in 

 the cities because of greater value of 

 real estate. The more modern custom 

 is to provide a large area for ornament- 

 al planting, betw^een the street and 

 building line, and the extent of this 

 space must govern the character of the 

 shade trees on the street. 



Often, this broad space is agreed up- 

 on by the property ow^ners, but usually 

 it is determined by Civic enactment. 



Handsome, well formed shade trees 

 cannot be secured w^ithout ample space 



to spread their branches and w^here 

 possible, the building line should be 

 not less than twenty feet from the street. 



Where houses are already built upon, 

 or very near the street, such trees should 

 be selected w^hich are tall and slender, 

 yet these do not supply very much 

 shade. The Lombardy Poplar and 

 Ball's Poplar are of this character. The 

 latter, Populus Bolleana, is an excellent 

 tree for ornament, although affording 

 little shade. It has the leaf of the 

 Abele or Silver Poplar, the silver lining 

 of this foliage glistening as the least 

 movement of the air sets the leaves 

 dancing. 



Unlike the Abele, this tree does not 

 sucker. Is quite free from insects an^ 

 grows rapidly. 



What To Do With The Falling Leaves. 



As Autumn leaves fall upon the lawn 

 or in the street careless persons rake 

 them into piles and burn them. This 

 seems to be the easiest method of dis- 

 posing of them. 



But there are few localities where 

 these leaves would not be of great bene- 

 fit as mulching and to fertilize the soil. 



The richest lands are the newly 

 cleared forests where the accumulation 

 of leaves has made it fertile, and the 

 poorest lands are those from which the 

 leaves and annual grasses are burned 

 over each year to dispose of them. 



Sandy soils especially are infertile, 

 because there is no humus present. 

 These leaves vs^ould soon enrich such 

 sands and make them productive. 



Grass lawns are frequently mown, the 

 grass tops removed and nothing is re- 

 placed to restore the wasted fertility. 



Leaves piled in some secluded corner 

 soon decay and may then be used as a 

 top dressing perhaps with the addition 

 of some concentrated manures. 



The kitchen garden will also be im- 

 proved by the leaves, while by burning 

 all the valuable chemicals are converted 

 into gases and pass away into the at- 

 mosphere. 



Farmers used to burn the corn stalk, 

 after raking them into winrows, thus de- 

 stroying thousands of tons of valuable 

 fertilizers. Some foolish farmers still 

 continue this practice, but they never get 

 rich by it. 



