September 2S, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



433 



SHADE TREE TROUBLES. 



Abstract of lecture given before th'? Wor- 

 cester County Horticultural Society, 

 by Dr. George E. Stone. 



In touching upon the subject of 

 sjiade trees a few words might first be 

 said in regard to their general value. 



There is nothing which adds so much 

 to the beauty of a town or city as 

 shade trees, and persons of good taste 

 appreciate this fact. One will notice 

 in traveling through any portion of 

 the country that the villages adorned 

 with a large number of beautiful shade 

 trees are those in which have e.xisted 

 for some time considerable public 

 spirit, refinement and culture. On the 

 other hand, mill towns whose inhabi- 

 tants have no permanent homes, are 

 usuallv not-able for their lack of trees 

 and embellishments in general. Many 

 people, however, appreciate fully the 

 value and beauty of shade trees and 

 no argument is necessary to conviitce 

 them that they are a great addition 

 to any community. 



Shade trees, however, possess an- 

 other value, that of utility, and we 

 wish to call attention to this feature 

 because it is not generally appreciated 

 and furthermore because it will ap- 

 peal to the practical man who is lit- 

 tle in sympathy with the beautiful in 

 any form. The decisions of coui'ts in 

 this country have in more than one 

 instance proved that trees possess a 

 property value, and in many cases from 

 $50 to $200 or more have been awarded 

 to the abutter for the destruction of a 

 single tree. It makes little difference 

 v.hether a tree is located on the street 

 or on private land or whether it is 

 set out by the town or city or by the 

 abutter, tince a tree in front of a 

 piece of property adds value to it and 

 the abutter can claim damages for the 

 destruction o£ such a tree. An elm 

 tree IS to 20 inches in diameter for ex- 

 ample, may be worth $100 to $300, and 

 one would experience little difficulty in 

 obtaining recompense for the destruc- 

 iion of such a tree. If a gas leak oc- 

 curs in front of a certain property 

 and a tree is lulled by gas, the owner 

 can take the case before a court and 

 obtain damages, tha amount to be 

 based upon the deterioration of the 

 property owing to the destruction of 

 &aid tree. 



There appears to be no legitimate 

 reason why a city or town should not 

 nppropriate money for the setting out 

 of trees along streets and highways, 

 although, of course, the tax payer 

 bears the burden of expense. It is 

 recognized that a sidewalk or curb 

 put in front of an estate is an im- 

 provenicnt to it, the abutter being taxed 

 for such improveir.cL'ts, and since a 

 tree is an improvement to an estate 

 and has a property value there is no 

 reason why the comnitmity as a whole 

 cannot be taxed for such improve- 

 ments. Moreover, the value of a tree 

 is contiuuall> increasing, since a tree 

 which costs" $2.00 or $3.00 to plant 

 should be worth $100 to $200 or more in 

 the course of 50 years. This aspect ot 

 the problem should undoubtedly be 

 emphasized at the present time, as 

 many individi:als regard trees as mere- 

 ly ornamental and of no utilitarian 

 value. 



The matter of selecting trees is im- 

 portant from the point of view of 

 susceptibility to disease as well as from 

 the aesthetic and utilitarian aspect, 

 and the following list, pi-epared by 



Col. W. F. Cox, Superintendent of the 

 State Forest, N. Y., is quite complete. 



Wide Streets 



American or White 

 Elm, 



Hard or Sugar 

 Maple, 



Tulip Tree, 



Basswood, (Linden,) 



Horse-chestnut, 



Sweet Gum 



Svcaraore. (Button- 

 ball,) 



White Ash, 



Scarlet O.Tk 



White Oak 



Red Oak 



Honey-Locust, 



American Chestnut, 



Sycamore Maple, 



Italian Poplar. 



Narrow Streets. 

 Xorwa.v Maple, 

 White or Silver 



Maple, 

 IJed Maple, 

 Ailanthus, 

 Cucumber Tree, 

 Ginkgo, 

 Bay Willow 

 Pin Oak 

 Red Flowering 



Horsechestnut, 

 Black or Yellow 



Locust, 

 Hackberry, 

 Hardy Catalpa, 

 Lombardy Poplar, 

 Carolina poplar, 

 Cottonwood. 



Of this list we are all familiar with 

 the sugar maple and elm, as they have 

 been extensively planted in this re- 

 gion for years and they are ucdoubted- 

 ly the best trees for this region. There 

 are many other trees which might be 

 employed to good advantage in street 

 planting, althf)Ugh some of those in 

 the list are not best suited to our con- 

 ditions. We occasionally find the 

 S5 camore maple, horse-chestnut, tulip 

 tree and white ash planted on streets. 

 The horse-chestnut has the reputation 

 of being a rather dirty tree and is not 

 very long-lived. The sycamore is not 

 planted to any extent with us, al- 

 though it is a native tree and more or 

 less abundant in our river valleys. In 

 Europe it is used quite largely in a 

 conventional form and in this way may 

 be made adaptable even to business 

 streets, provided there is a space two 

 or three feet wide between the curbing 

 and the sidewalk filled with good 

 loam. This would afford sufficient soil 

 for the growth of coi'ventional trees, 

 as the crown may be modified to any 

 desired size by pruning. 



The native basswood when young is 

 a well shaped tree, but those we have 

 seen growing on streets are inclined 

 to be tall and slender and are not al- 

 together satisfactory, although their 

 shape might be modified by pollarding. 



The various species of oaks are har- 

 dy, well-proportioned trees, although 

 they grow rather slowly, but if plnnled 

 a good distance apart and filled in with 

 some quickly growing tree, like the 

 Carolina poplar, they make excellent 

 trees for roadsides and when the oaks 

 have attained a fairly good size the 

 poplars may be sacrificed. Various 

 combinations of trees may be em- 

 ployea, an especially effective one be- 

 ing maples and Norway spruces, 

 jilanted alternately. 



To obtain the desired efi'ect quickly 

 the various kinds of poplars are fre- 

 quently plaited, the most highly prized 

 at the present time being the Caro- 

 lina poplar, which in our state gi-ows 

 wild in the Connecticut valley. The 

 Italian poplai grows the most rapidly, 

 attaining a diameter in some instances 

 of 26 inches in 20 years. 



The silver maple is a symmetrical 

 tree of rapid growth but is easily in- 

 jured by ice. 



The red maple is not a desirable tree 

 for planting, and about eighty per 

 cent, of them in the state today are in 

 a diseased condition. One of the mis- 

 takes often made in jilanting the red, 

 Norway and sycamore maples on 

 streets, is neglecting to prune them 

 high enough. These species form large 

 branches very low. the large limbs fre- 

 quently obstructing traffic, and when 



mature it is not desirable to prune 

 them. 



The Ginkgo, a native of Japan, has 

 been recommended very highly in re- 

 cent years as a shade tree, and ex- 

 cellent specimens of this tree may be 

 found growing further south. It does 

 particularly well in Washington, where 

 there is a fine avenue of them on the 

 Agricultural grounds. It grows very 

 slovrly here, however, as we seem to be 

 out of range for its best development. 



Most of our street trees have their 

 enemies, both insect and fungous. The 

 elm sutlers chiefly from the beetle 

 ar.d the sugar mai'le from borers, 

 which may usualh ho found on trees 

 injured from some rthcr cause, how- 

 ever. The tulip tree is almost always 

 disfigured by some insect, and the 

 horse-chestnut and sycamore are stib- 

 ject to a leaf fungus. The Italian 

 poplar Is often affected by rust, the 

 Carolina poplar is subject to borers 

 and many other trees, especially the 

 maples, suffer each year from sun- 

 scorch to some extent. 



Most of the injury caused by fungi, 

 however, is the result of poor pruning 

 or mechanical injuries, particularly 

 when antiseptic methods have not been 

 employed in caring for the wounds. 

 There are various wound fungi which 

 testify to the results of poor pruning 

 and lack of proper antiseptic treat- 

 ment. Some fungi — for example, Nec- 

 tria — are the result of winter killing, 

 and occasional injury is caused by 

 sli.ght discharges of lightning and 

 frost cracks which cause wounds fa- 

 voring the development of fungi. 



Various root injuries occur from 

 changing the grades of the streets, 

 patting in curbstones, digging man- 

 holes, etc., and a too common source of 

 injury may be traced directly to 

 horses' teeth, the Injudicious use of 

 lawn niov.ers, etc. To prevent injury 

 from lawn mowers the sod should be 

 removed from around the tree for a 

 distance of a foot or more, and with 

 the large numlier of tree guards now 

 on the market at reasonable prices 

 mtich of the injury from horses' teeth 

 may be obviated. Of the various types 

 of tree guards in use, one ot the most 

 practical and cheapest is that cut in 

 strips about seven feet long and 

 wound about the tree. 



The practice of i)lacing signs on 

 trees should be condemned, since ugly 

 scars are often caused by the trees 

 over-grov, ing the sign. 



One of the greatest difficulties with 

 which trees have to contend is the 

 wire problem. The rights of 

 trees in the sti'eet are at least 

 equal to those of wires, but 

 it often becomes a difficult matter 

 to string wires through a street with- 

 out interfering with trees. Among the 

 different ways of dealing with wires 

 may be mentioned burying them, 

 which is too costly in some cases; us- 

 ing the ring or cable construction in 

 the case of telephone wires, or placing 

 wires on private oroperty :n the rear 

 of buildings. In the case of trolley 

 and electric wires, the ring construc- 

 tioh method is out of the question, and 

 in some cases placing them on private 

 property is not practicable. Many 

 poles are attached to trees by means 

 of guy wires, and in our estimation 

 there is very little harm in this prac- 

 tice providing it be properly done. We 

 do not belie', e the lagbolt system is a 



