Miscellaneous. 383 



CITY TREE LIFE. 



To the Journal : 



While trying to beautify our streets antl lawns, it would be well 

 if we first understand what beauty of tree life means. Trees, to be beau- 

 tiful and remain beautiful, must, of course, need (not only need but abso- 

 lutely demand) roots, body, branches, twigs and leaves, and no tree can be 

 beautiful nor can it be itself, show its own individuality, \i the tree-pruner 

 cuts ofif any of these vital parts. 



We have to contend for the life of our trees with three sets of vandal 

 tree butchers. The first is the sidewalk builder, who cuts off the roots 

 of a tree, so that many trees give up life in the course of a few years, or 

 eke out only a precarious existence, 'or if they do recover, start a new 

 growth and try their best to repair the damage done, and finally do suc- 

 ceed in making a good tree once more, then along comes the second of 

 these beauty destroyers, the tree-pruner, and he at once cuts off the tops 

 of the trees worse than the root-pruner has done, and leaves only a lot 

 of bare branches ; while the first may be a necessity, the second is noth- 

 ing but abuse. The trees doing their best to recover from this terrible 

 butchering will, of course, send out hundreds of young shoots and 

 branches and in the course of years may recover their original beauty 

 and individuality, but in all probability they will always be monstrosities. 



Now, we find that the third set of men come along to still fur- 

 ther desecrate the beauty of the trees and he or they or it (a pros- 

 perous power) takes these trees in hand and prunes off all the small 

 twags and small branches from the larger, main branches of the trees to 

 a height of at least tw^elve feet or more. What this means to the tree is 

 still further to destroy the life, vitality and beauty of trees, and I do not 

 hesitate to say that these last are by far the worst desecrators of tree life, 

 beauty and individuality, of any of the so-called tree-pruners who have 

 ever had anything to do with our trees. 



I do not understand by what authority or by what plan or scheme 

 any set of men have the right to destroy the beauty of our trees in this 

 outrageous manner. It is certainly bad enough for men to hire such 

 pruners and let them so butcher the trees, because they know not better, but 

 when these men, without authority, come to mutilate, desecrate or de- 

 stroy your own beautiful trees, even after you have notified them to let 

 them alone and not touch them at all, it is beyond expression. 



It is well known that trees cannot grow well if a large part of the 

 leaves are taken off, as is done when all the young twigs and buds are 

 cut off of the main branches of the trees. These small twigs because of 



