Street Trees. 337 



tively small. Elms in an advanced stage of maturity, if subjected to 

 severe climatic conditions, often show this tendency to split. These 

 trees, especially, should be carefully inspected and means taken to pre- 

 serve them, by bolting if necessary. 



Ill MuNTciPAL Control of Street Trees. (Pages 337-343) 



In the greater number of our larger cities and in a few of the smaller 

 ones, the care and preservation of the shade trees is, to a greater or less 

 degree, under the direct supervision of a commission specially appointed 

 for this purpose, or under the general supervision of the city park com- 

 mission. On the other hand, in towns and cities where no such methods 

 can be adopted, the control of the trees is vested in an official v/ho carries 

 the title of tree warden. The laws of New York provide for the 

 appointment of tree wardens in every community, and in many states 

 the laws now make provision for the appointment of shade tree com- 

 missions. The number of cities in which such commissions are appointed 

 is increasing each year. Theoretically, organizations similar in charac- 

 ter to park commissions and tree wardens, having the laws of the state 

 behind them, should prove efficient in controlling shade tree interests. 

 In practice the results have often been unsatisfactory. In the smaller 

 towns, the office of tree warden is unremunerative, and no incentive 

 is offered for a capable person to accept the responsibilities of the 

 positicn. 



We must realize that the planting, subsequent care, and protection 

 of street trees should be under the direct control of the municipal govern- 

 ment to just as great a degree as the paving of a street or the re- 

 moval of garbage. One of the gravest mistakes is that of permitting 

 adjacent property owners to exercise their individual judgments in 

 the selection of stock with which it is proposed to plant the highway. 

 In many cases, property owners who may have become enthusiastic 

 through the inspiration of a local improvement society are often quite 

 ignorant of the relative merits of the species of trees and their adapta- 

 tion to any particular location. Therefore they admire the fine cuts to 

 be seen in the catalogues of nurserymen, and read the glowing descrip- 

 tions. Their neighbor does the same. The result is that the plantings 

 may be irregular, unattractive, and repulsive. In other cases, where a 

 number of individual property owners have worked in unison, they 

 have succeeded in establishing fine plantings of young trees full of 

 promise for future development. But under such a voluntary system, 

 trees are likely to be neglected, and replaced sooner or later. Further- 



