1900] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 11 



among the trees it is the only necessary for which they enter a great competitive struggle, 

 upon which their very lives depend. When once started a tree cannot help getting a 

 certain quantity of food and moisture, but unless it receives light also, it dies. 



In the forest, trees grow as closely together as they can live, and there is a constant 

 struggle to reach the top ; those that succeed in doing so will spread out, and by shading 

 the lower ones, kill them just as surely as though one cut them off with an axe. This 

 method of growth shades the ground closely, keeping it damp and cool, and each year's 

 crop of leaves buries beneath it as it falls the dead limbs and bark chips which fell dur- 

 ing the summer and preceding winter, and these, kept always damp by this mulch of 

 leaves, soon decay, and with the leaves themselves form what we know as leaf-mould, 

 the whole process being nature's method of making fertile soil. This is the normal forest 

 condition, and the product of its development is timber, straight-grained, strong and 

 nearly knot-free wood, the joy of the carpenter's heart and one of the best gifts of the 

 Creator to man. 



But once in a while, in natural conditions, and more often when the agency of man 

 is involved, a tree gets a chance to grow in a place where there is an abundance of light 

 on all sides, and what result do we find f This tree, instead of growing tall as rapidly as 

 possible, for fear that some competitor will cut off its supply of light, grows broad nearly 

 as fast as it grows tall, and sometimes faster ; all sides are covered with leaves, and all 

 the branches beneath are draped with leaves in nature's own unequaled manner. Be- 

 tween these two styles of trees there is little resemblance ; the shape is different, the 

 leaves are all over, instead of merely at the top, while the wood, though equally good for 

 burning, is so full of knots from the well developed limbs that it is nearly useless for 

 lumber, but for beauty there is no comparison. The one shows nature in a creative mood 

 making soil and timber for the use of generations yet unborn ; and the other shows her 

 in an artistic mood, and the product is something whose beauty is rarely, if ever, equaled 

 by the artifice of man. 



Scarcely can the dullest-minded person pass a beautiful tree without rendering his 

 meed of admiration, and many of these growths are of such surpassing beauty that one is 

 tempted to wonder if the Creator could possibly make anything finer, and yet so inscrut- 

 able are the ways of some men that they cut, maul, disfigure and distort these gifts of 

 God, and they appear to think that He does not know how a tree should grow and that 

 it is their duty to teach Him. 



In our parks and city streets trees are grown mainly for purposes of shade and 

 beauty, and as the coolest and most dense shade is given by the most beautiful trees, 

 namely, those that are covered with leaves above, below and on all sides, it naturally 

 follows that our city trees should be grown in this form. And there is but one way to 

 grow them after this manner, and that is by giving them plenty of light, and keeping the 

 trimming fiend at a distance. 



In Victoria Park, young as it is, many trees are at this moment ugly and deformed 

 by a want of observance of these conditions, light and trimming, and, in fact, one can see 

 there some of the most striking examples of how not to grow a tree that can be found in 

 a long journey. But it seems invidious to single out Victoria Park, when one can see in 

 any part of the city glaring examples of distrust in the Creator's good taste and ability 

 to grow a tree properly. 



To many people who do their own pruning and do a good deal of it, the idea may not 

 have occurred that nature really intended certain trees to grow in certain forms, and that 

 no matter how they may be pruned, that form will always be the ultimate aim of the 

 tree. They fail also to realize that the hand of God is omnipotent, and that their best 

 endeavours will only mar the perfection of beauty into which a tree would come if per- 

 mitted to follow its natural bent. 



The love of trees is implanted deep in the nature of nearly every person. Many 

 people do not realize this until they come into possession of a plot of ground, where a few 

 trees are growing, when their natural affection comes quickly to the surface. But few, 

 however, have this feeling so chastened with wisdom as to enable them to treat their 

 trees well ; nearly all want to grow two, three or even a dozen trees in the space that 

 shodld be given to one, not realizing how much better it would be to have one fine, large, 

 well-shaped, handsome tree, than to have half a dozen stunted, mis-shapen, lopsided ones, 

 whose only real utility is for consumption as fuel. No better proof of this deeply im- 



