1902 Co rrespondence 325 



Correspondence. 



Arbor Day. — " I have read with great interest the article on the 

 estabhshment of an annual Arbor Day in England in your last issue, 

 and, with all deference to Mr Haines, should like to express my opinion 

 regarding some of his statements. It is quite true, as he says, that in 

 some ' rural districts the councils have a perfect mania for lopping trees, 

 and cutting severely back all the beautiful old hedges.' The reason is, 

 of course, as the writer goes on to say, ' that tall hedges injure the 

 crops, and roads are supposed to deteriorate because the hedges prevent 

 moisture from drying off them.' I venture to hold that both these 

 reasons are good ones, though Mr Haines would imply otherwise. 

 Rural beauty is no doubt an excellent thing to encourage, but in these 

 days those who have to make their living on the land must be strictly 

 utilitarian. Has it ever occurred to Mr Haines to make a mental guess 

 at the amount of nutriment in the ground used up by these same old trees 

 and hedges ? Taken over the whole country there must be thousands of 

 acres of land which are used up in growing hedges alone. True, they 

 provide shade, but we in this country suffer more from lack of warmth 

 than from lack of moisture. The roads, too, suffer severely in out-of- 

 the-way places where the high hedges are left to shade them, retaining 

 the moisture after wet weather for a long time, and thus readily cutting 

 up from traffic which would not affect them if dry. Personally, I am a 

 lover of birds, and would gladly encourage the more uncommon ones, 

 but one cannot have them without a host of destructive species, making 

 it an impossibility to save a crop of strawberries, gooseberries, &c., 

 without the expense of netting the fruit. By all means plant the 

 churchyards, village greens, railway embankments, and any waste land, 

 but the days of high road hedges and high hedges round crops have 

 gone for good." — Parish Councillor. 



" As you ask for expressions of opinion on the question of the 

 establishment of an Arbor Day, I should like to add a few comments on 

 Mr Haines' article in your last issue. The establishment of such an 

 institution, somewhat after the manner of the American observance, 

 seems, in idea, good ; but, as the writer of the article says, the way is 

 as yet by no means clear. To my mind it is beset with difficulties. 

 Both as a member of public bodies and as a property owner, I fail to 

 see that much can be done. Putting aside the no doubt unintentional 

 impertinence of suggesting that a society shall dictate to either public 

 bodies or private individuals, there is no doubt that there are many 

 parts of many counties which might be planted with advantage to both 

 the birds and the scenery ; but the local conditions differ so widely 

 in even adjacent areas that the utmost care will have to be exercised to 

 avoid the influence of the sentimentalist and the faddist. A dweller in 

 the outskirts of Lakeland is in a very different position, and possibly 

 holds very different opinions, to a resident of the outskirts, say of 



VOL. I. — NO. 4. Y 



