THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SHADE TREES. 



28^ 



sued the company for damages and the jurv awarded him a 

 verdict for $499.00. The case was appealed, and the supreme 

 court sustained the decision. 



There have been some re- 

 markable instances of the value 

 set upon trees in the amount 

 paid for moving and protecting 

 them. In an eastern city a tree 

 was moved at a cost of more 

 than one thousand dollars, and 

 it is not' unusual to hear of their 

 being transplanted at a cost of 

 from one to three hundred dol- 

 lars. The owner of some very 

 old trees in Connecticut which 

 were suffering from the decay 

 of the heart wood had the decay- 

 ed wood thoroughly taken out, 

 the surface treated with creosote, 

 then painted with heavy lead 

 paint. The cavity in one of 

 these trees required more than 

 fifteen tons of cement concrete 

 to fill it. The facing was cover- 

 ed with lamp-black to match tlie 

 bark and was corrugated in such 

 a way that at a little distance 

 the filling could not be distingu- 

 shed from the bark. The cost 

 of treating this one tree was 

 nearly $400, and the owner was 



delighted with the prospect of cleaning a cavity in a white oak on the 



Cheney Estate, So. Manchester, Conn., after- 



addmg many more years to the wards fined with 15% tons of cement- in 1905. 

 155 which the tree had already lived. 



The economic value of trees in cities cannot be estimated, 

 but it is well known that they are great aids in preventing con- 

 flagrations, that they add greatly to the health and comfort of 

 communities whose streets are well shaded — and that they 

 purify and cool the air scientists have given us abundant proof. 

 Purification, as they tell us, is performed as follows : The car- 

 bonic acid gas, which is given off by man and animals, at every 

 breath, also from every coal of fire, whether in stove or furnace, 



