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THE FARMER'S^MAGAZINE. 



pleasure under avenues of elms and oaks, the cluster- 

 ing- chestnut flowers, and the sweet-scented limes ? 

 We are not recommending, however, what are tlic best 

 trees for cities, we are merely enforcing the opinion 

 of the desirability of increasing our sylvan representa- 

 tives in the urban and suburban districts. 



" Dinna forget to plant young trees wherever you 

 can set them," was the last advice of a shrewd Scotch 

 landholder to his heir, " for they'll grow while ye're 

 slec])ing." Any rich up-start can build a fine house in 

 a very limited time, but he cannot build the old oaks. 

 Every year that we neglect to adorn our jient-up 

 squares, broad thoroughfares, and suburban drives 

 with trees, we are wasting tlie time that the vigorous 

 shoots might be rooting more and more firmly in the 

 ground. It is not desirable to have trees too thick, so 

 as (o keep the sun entirely from dwellings ; but houses, 

 streets, and walks may be partially shaded with very 

 great advantage. 



It is related of the great Oberlin, that he made every 

 child in his schools plant and rear at least two trees ; 

 and thus in a short time the Ban de la Roche, a district 

 naturally bare and rocky, was insensibly covered with 

 luxuriant plantation. In Bale, there is also an excel- 

 lent custom. Six trees are planted on the occasion of 

 every marriage, and two at the birth of every child. 

 An abundant supply of trees is thus systerr.atically ob- 

 tained. Here, on the contrary, individuals are more 

 prone to fell, root up, and destroy trees than to plant 

 them. Something on a small scale is doing in tree- 

 planting in the new parks ; but shrubs rather than 

 trees seem to have the preference. We are glad to 

 hear that the Crystal Palace Company are about to 

 form an arboretum in their grounds at Sydenham, for 

 this will be an additional attraction, and public benefit. 



It has been suggested that each district board in tlic 

 metropolis should have a landscape gardener attached 

 to it, who might be paid a small yearly fee for sug- 

 gesting and directing the planting of trees. The va- 

 cated churchyard sites in the city, old Smithfield, and 

 other localities might be adorned by a few trees and 

 shrubs, which could be kept in order for a few pounds 

 a year. There are several deserted squares and groves, 

 now devoted to dead cats and dogs and rubbish, which 

 might also be reclaimed by the surveyors of the Board 

 of Works, and a few trees planted. 



When we cross the channel, and observe how sys- 

 tematic is the planting of trtes in the principal towns and 

 cities of the Continent, and how much they add to the 

 beauty and leafy shade, we might take a useful lesson 

 for some parts, at least, of London and its suburbs. 

 What can be more stately and attractive than Berlin 

 and Potsdam for their Linden, Strasse and Unter- 

 linden, and Paris for its Boulevards and Champs 

 Elysees ? 



Paris, which is much better supplied with trees than 

 our own metropolis, suffered however in the destruc- 

 tion of those of the Boulevards some ten years ago, to 

 serve as barricades, or to make room for trees ol 

 liberty — trees which, however, never prospered. A 

 classified system of planting has recently been adopted 



by the civic administration, and each of the Boulevards 

 are to be characterised by the shade and ornament of a 

 special class of tree : whether this uniformity will not 

 have a monotonous effect remains to be seen. Thus 

 the Boulevard de la Madelaine and des Capucine are 

 to be planted with planes ; the Boulevard des Italiens 

 with Japan sumacs, the Boulevard Montmartre with 

 elms, the Boulevardes Poissonniere and Bonne Nouvelle 

 with chestnuts, the Rue Royale with South American 

 sycamore or maple, and the space in front of the 

 Gymnasie with catalpas. This autumn the plantations 

 will, it is said, be continued up to the Bastille. 



There is ample scope for the introduction of trees, 

 with great benefit and picturesque effect, in many 

 localities of the metropolis : such, for instance, as the 

 new roads formed near the Kensington Museum ; 

 the approaches to the new CheUea bridge; the 

 Grosvenor Road, on the Thames embankment, from 

 the Pimlico Pier to Chelsea Hospital; Portland 

 Place ; the proposed road from Limehouse and Bow 

 to Victoria Park; Victoria Street and Vincent Square, 

 Westminster; Camberwell Green, and such like open 

 spaces. 



There is no necessity for sticking trees round the 

 Royal Exchange, St. Paul's, Trafalgar Square, or 

 other similar circumscribed spaces ; but there is no rea- 

 son why they should not adorn the river banks, or some 

 of the railway lines and termini, the banks of canals, 

 the centres of squares, and open roads and streets. 



Not only do trees attract and condense the moisture 

 suspended in the air and borne by the winds over the 

 earth's surface, which, falling from their leaves, keeps 

 the ground below moist and cool ; but they can, by 

 means of their roots, pump it up from a very consi- 

 derable depth, and, raising it in the atmosphere, dif- 

 fuse it over the face of the country. Trees by the 

 transpiration of their leaves, surround themselves with 

 an atmosphere constantly cool and moist. They also 

 shelter the soil from the direct action of the sun, and 

 thus prevent evaporation of the water furnished by 

 rains. 



But, apart from the jerating functions of such a 

 large body of trees, the possession of some 20,000 

 timber trees would in the next generation be no insig- 

 nificant asset of the then Board of Works. There is 

 scarcely a municipality in Europe which lias not 

 valuable property of this kind in its streets, place 

 d'armes, ramparts, and esplanades. 



The Metropolitan Board has now the ownership of 

 many thousand acres of thoroughfares, and this area 

 will be increased by new parks, the embankments, 

 and by lapsed squares and commons, constituting a 

 large domain, and the available portion of it bearing, 

 or capable of bearing, many thousand trees. 



Judicious planting would go far to redeem the in- 

 significance of many long lines of mean buildings, 

 which now detract from the appearance of noble tho- 

 roughfares ; and we trust that amid the other public 

 improvements carrying out, or projected, the more 

 general planting of trees will not be overlooked. 



