SHADE TREES. 261 



electric railway company. The court awarded triple damages on the 

 ground that the cutting was willful, and the company was fined $1,200. 



A case is recorded of a superintendent of an electric light company 



being adjudged guiltj r in a Massachusetts court on a charge of injuring 



and destroying shade trees on the highway. The court imposed a fine 



. In another case a lineman was fined $15 in the district court on 



complaint of a tree warden for climbing trees with spurs. 



Innumerable other court cases could be cited similar to those already 

 given illustrating the laws in regard to public shade trees. In some States, 

 however, according to decisions of the courts, public shade trees may be 

 destroyed from almost any cause without any compensation to the ad- 

 jacent property owner. By far the larger number of cases of injury to 

 and destruction of shade trees from various causes never reach the courts, 

 and it is much better to arrive at some satisfactory settlement by arbitra- 

 tion than to resort to criminal proceedings. One Massachusetts city, 

 however, has attempted to require a public-service corporation to give a 

 bond for the payment of damages to trees, but this regulation was not 

 adopted by the aldermen of the city. 



There are only a few instances, to my knowledge, of the courts awarding 

 damages for trees supposed to be killed by electricity. Most courts 

 would undoubtedly allow damages for serious burnings brought about by 

 wires, but there are only a small number of cases in which electricity has 

 actually killed a tree and in these cases the death of the tree was due to a 

 reversed polarity in the electric railways. 1 



CODIFIED SHADE TREE LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1915. 

 For several years prior to 1899 there was a provision in the Massachu- 

 setts statutes that towns might elect tree wardens. By the acts of that 

 year it was provided that every town must elect a tree warden, and the 

 duties and powers of the office were defined. The tree warden law of 

 1899, with certain amendments in details, remains in force to-day and 

 regulates the care of shade trees in every town in the Commonwealth. 



CHAPTER 145, GENERAL ACTS OF 1915. 



SECTION 1. The powers and duties conferred and imposed upon tree wardens 

 in towns by this act are hereby conferred and imposed upon the officials now or 

 hereafter charged with the care of shade trees within the limits of the highway in 

 cities, by the charters of the said cities, by other legislative enactments, or by the 

 ordinances of the said cities, and upon such officials as the city governments shall 

 designate to have charge of said shade trees where it is within their power to trans- 

 fer such duties, by ordinance or otherwise. 



SECTION 2. The tree warden may appoint and remove deputy tree wardens. 

 He and they shall receive such compensation as the town determines or, in default 

 thereof, as the selectmen allow. He shall have the care and control of all public 

 shade trees, shrubs and growths in the town, except those within the limits of a 



1 Electrical Injuries to Trees, Mass. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 156, 1914. 



