TREES FOR STREETS. 



make, in our sweet realm of freedom, where refined taste and persevering industry are 

 allowed to exert their utmost influence. 



There is a great error existing in planting out trees, which may very properly be 

 mentioned in connection with the remarks already made. It is, planting them with- 

 out reference to their adaptation to soil. That every tree has its favorite soil, in which 

 it will flourish better than in any other, is very certain. Many trees will flourish only 

 in a warm, dry soil ; yet how often have we seen such trees, because public opinion 

 pronounced them beautiful, taken from their warm, dry homes, and thrust into cold, 

 wet, clammy earth, where their roots had but little more chance to throw themselves 

 than if they had been planted on a rock, and where all the aliment introduced into 

 their system was so opposite to what nature required, as the most conflicting circum- 

 stances could induce. Can it be any wonder that trees die, or at most maintain but 

 a sickly growth under such circumstances ? In vain we have remonstrated and 

 employed our eloquence in giving reasons of protest against such proceedings. Our 



only consolation was, " The is the most beautiful tree ; it grows well in such a 



place, and I am sure it is dry enough for it here." And how often a short time has 

 realized the truth of our assertion, and we have heard in apology, " It 's of no use to 

 set trees here ; they wont do well." 



Now it is a fact in nature, that forest trees will succeed better, especially after the 

 first year, (which they may live through under adverse circumstances,) when removed 

 from a moist or wet soil to a dry one, than the reverse. The maple, oak, birch, or 

 chestnut, will not grow well in lands containing over a given amount of moisture, and 

 this must arise from other than stagnant waters ; yet the larch, black ash, and other 

 trees, which may almost be said to spring out of stagnant pools, if removed to uplands, 

 will live and grow and flourish to a good old age; — considerations which are cer- 

 tainly worth the notice of those who plant trees. 



When will the provoking, unnecessary, unjust practice of street feeding have an 

 end ? This is a question that very often urges itself upon our consideration ; and the 

 more frequently it comes up, and the longer we suff'er our minds to dwell upon it, the 

 more fully we are convinced of its utter wrongfulness, as it respects the rights both 

 moral and civil with which we are endowed, as well as the sad deficiency of good 

 taste which leads to its practice. 



We have often lifted our voice, and sometimes wielded (too feebly, we admit) the 

 pen upon this subject, and as a prime argument in its favor, have been told that by 

 abolishing the practice we should oppress the poor, who had no other way of keeping 

 a cow or a pig through the summer season. Then we looked upon the herds of law- 

 less marauders which were continually promenading the streets in search of a green 

 to defile, a newly planted tree to rub against, or a weak spot in the fence through 

 which they could lay siege by night time on a neighbor's grain field, and lo ! the poor 

 man's cow was not there. These pilferers in the main belonged to men of substan- 

 tial real estate, who, to plow or mow more, must pasture less, and consequently in 

 trude upon their neighbors' rights. Then, we have met the poor man, who had not a 

 foot of ground to call his own, and asked of him the profit of feeding streets. He 



