PLANTING AND PROTECTING TREES. 



Maryland has spent millions of dollars in the past few years in building 

 good roads. This expenditure is universally approved, as good roads are 

 essential to our well being. But we are beginning to realize that good roads 

 without trees to shade and beautify them are like new houses with bare 

 floors and bare walls they need furnishing and ornamentation before we 

 can fully utilize and appreciate them. There is nothing that Can be done 

 at so little cost that will make the countryside more attractive or travel over 

 the roads more comfortable and satisfying than the planting of suitable 

 trees along the roadsides and caring for them properly. A stiff, formal and 

 forbidding street has often been changed to an attractive neighborhood by 

 the planting of a few trees. What makes the city of Washington so beauti- 

 ful is not so much its fine public buildings, but the long avenues of trees, 

 giving it the appearance of one great park. There is nothing more inviting 

 to the traveller on a hot summer day than a view along a good road lined 

 on each side by a row of fine trees, casting shade mingled with sun light 

 along the path. Trees along the roadside are useful not alone for the 

 beauty they impart and for the shade they afford, but they help to keep the 

 road in good condition. The great problem after the roads are built is their 

 maintenance, and it has been found that the wear and deterioration is rapid. 

 The heavy traffic grinds the stone surface, while the suction from the swift 

 moving automobiles lifts this binder in clouds of dust, which is then blown 

 away. Where the road is shaded the surface moisture is conserved, helping 

 to hold the binder on the road, preventing wear, and the row of trees 

 checks the wind so that it cannot do so much damage to the road. Further- 

 more the trees serve as a windbreak to protect the adjacent fields from the 

 drying force of the wind thus aiding the farmer with his crops. In a level 

 open countr}' the influence of a double row of trees as a windbreak is a very 

 considerable one in modifying the severity of the winds of winter. 



A number of States have enacted legislation providing for the planting 

 and care of roadside trees, and splendid results are being accomplished. 

 New Jersey was the pioneer in this movement, when a law was enacted in 

 1893 providing for a Shade Tree Commission in each municipality. Massa- 

 chusetts passed its Tree Warden Act in 1899, and now all the towns and 

 cities of the State come under its provisions. Pennsylvania passed a law in 

 1907 similar to the New Jersey law, empowering the commissioners of 

 townships, councils of boroughs or cities to appoint shade tree commissioners 

 who shall have entire charge of the shade trees. California in 1913 passed 

 a law enabling the Supervisors of each county or city in the State to appoint 

 County Boards of Forestry who shall have charge of the trees, hedges, 

 shrubs and flowers growing upon the public roads within the county. 



The situation in Maryland, so far as roadside trees is concerned, has 

 become worse each year. The status of the roadside trees is now very un- 

 certain. No one is legally authorized to defend them and yet they are 

 recognized as public property in which- everybody has an interest. The 

 owner of the land can prevent the cutting of trees on the public road in 

 front of his property by standing guard over them, but he cannot hold them 



