MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS- 



LONDON BOASTS 



SOME FAMOUS TREES 



Not for many years has the foliage of Lon- 

 don trees been as beautiful as the past sum- 

 mer. Weeks of sunshine brought it to a lux- 

 uriance and richness of color it seldom at- 

 tains. 



No matter how hot and dry the summer 

 days may be here, Londoners have one great 

 advantage over dwellers in most other cities. 

 They can always find, even in the very heart 

 of their metropolis, cool, shady spots like 

 bits of the country, with magnificent trees, 

 tiny strips of grass and perhaps a sun dial, a 

 fountain or an old oaken bench. These are 

 oases which have been preserved by some 

 happy chance. 



Very few persons realize how many trees 

 there are in the square mile that goes to 

 make up that part of London known as the 

 City. Here in this most populous, busy part 

 of town there are some 1,200 well estab- 

 lished trees. 



Among the 1,200, however, there is not a 

 single specimen of the English national tree, 

 the oak. Though there is a Beech street 

 there are no beeches. 



But there is plenty of variety in those trees 

 that do grow and thrive in the heart of the 

 city. There are twenty-six elms, eight ash 

 trees, eight sycamores, eleven elder trees, four 

 rowans, nine figs, six wych elms, seven mul- 

 berry trees, two birches, three weeping ashes, 

 three willows, three service trees and one 

 solitary pear tree, which grows in the Mas- 

 ter of the Temple's garden. 



The most frequently seen tree in the City 

 is the plane. It is to London what the 

 maple is to many American cities. It seems 

 to enjoy the dirt and 'smoke of central Lon- 

 don, for it flourishes and grows in the face of 

 difficulties that would daunt most of the 

 trees. 



It was Leigh Hunt who boasted that in 

 London one could never be out of sight of 

 a tree, and thanks to the hardy plane even 

 nowadays this is very nearly true. There 

 are in the city alone 520 plane trees and it 

 would be difficult to estimate the number in 

 all London together. 



Next to the plane in popularity comes 

 the fragrant lime, of which there are 220 

 specimens, and then 215 poplars, of which 

 only eight are the tall Lombardy poplars 

 landscape painters love. The thorns, haw- 

 thorn and blackthorn, number sixty-one and 

 laburnums are only forty. 



Many of the city's trees are famous in 

 verse and song. There is the plane tree 

 at the corn of Cheapside and Wood street 

 which owes its immortality to Wordsworth. 

 Now it is no longer an inspiring sight, as it 

 has been cut and lopped until it is little more 

 than a mere bench. Then there were the 

 two famous limes that grew in Crosby Square. 

 They have gone with the palace itself. 



Some very 'beautiful plane trees are those 

 along the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard. 

 They are seventy feet in height and com- 

 mand the gaze of every one passing the 

 cathedral on that side. 



Still another well known plane tree, though 

 it has not been immortalized by any poet, is 

 packed away behind the houses in' Stationers' 

 Hall court. It fills the dingy court with its 

 presence and roofs it over with leaves. 



It gets almost no sunshine and has a daily 

 shower of soot from nearby chimneys, yet for 

 ages it has grown and flourished to the ad- 

 miration and gratitude of all who work or live 

 in that dreary neighborhood. Presumably 

 once it was in a beautiful garden which has 

 now become a crowded Stationers' Hall court. 



The lime tree in the garden of the Bank of 

 England is undoubtedly the chief of all the 

 city trees. I't is a magnificent specimen and 

 dominates the little garden plot. It is older 

 than the bank itself and at one time, no 



doubt, it was growing in the churchyard of 

 St. Christopher's, the vanished church of one 

 of the three old parishes on which the bank 

 is built. It is as healthy as any tree within 

 miles of London and in the summer evenings 

 sends forth an exquisite perfume. This year 

 a pair of wood pigeons nested in its branches. 



The Temple Gardens and Finsbury Circus 

 are the chief paradises of trees in the city. 

 Fountain court, in the Temple, has a vener- 

 able elm and plenty of plane and mulberry 

 trees. Finsbury Circus has fourteen plane 

 trees, twenty-five mulberries, twenty limes, two 

 fine weeping ashes and an elm. 



The old City churchyards are also reposi- 

 tories of London's greenery. One can turn 

 off from the rush and noise of a busy street 

 and sit in the shade of ancient trees in a quiet 

 ancient churchyard and forget the modern 

 world is in existence, so far away seems all 

 bustle and hurry. 



The lime and plane avenue of Christ 

 Church is worth seeing and the music of the 

 birds at Cripplegate makes one sure one is 

 in the depths of the country. The trees at 

 Cripplegate have always been the homes of 

 countless birds. Milton used to sit and lis- 

 ten to them when he was a parishioner at 

 the church, and though many of the trees are 

 not the same he walked among, yet the birds 

 of Cripplegate are still famous in the annals of 

 city history. 



At St. Botolph's, Aldersgate, there is a 

 poplar with a twisted, wrinkled, knotted black 

 trunk with a seat around it that looks as if it 

 had once been the centre of a village green. 



Another peaceful little Old World corner 

 is just off Fenchurch street and can only 

 be approached on either hand by a covered 

 lane called Star alley, where once stood the 

 church of Allhallows Staining. Now only the 

 tower of the church remains embowered in 

 the trees among which is a fine hardy fig tree 

 covering with its green leaves the desolate old 

 tower. 



Londoners love these quaint old spots in 

 their rapidly changing city, and there is al- 

 ways much lamentation and many petitions 

 when it is learned that one of the oases is to 

 be swept away by relentless progress and 

 model buildings or ugly warehouses or tremen- 

 dous offices are to rise in its place. But la- 

 mentations and petitions are fruitless, and the 

 day is not far distant when all these charming 

 places will have disappeared. 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



It is expected that Ing-ham county will vote 

 in favor of the County Road System when the 

 proposition is submitted next spring. Much 

 missionary work has been done this year. 



Bagley. Livingston and Hayes townships 

 in Otsego county are discussing the question 

 of combining to purchase a stone crusher to 

 supply material for macadam roads. It is 

 likely that an agreement will be reached this 

 winter and that a crusher will be purchased 

 next sprinsr. There will be a great deal of 

 road building in the county next year if the 

 deal goes through. 



Negaunee rock crusher will go into com- 

 mission too late this fall to use the stone on 

 the streets. The plant will be operated dur- 

 ing the winter if the tests to be undertaken 

 this fall prove satisfactory, and next summer 

 will be a lively one for the street commis- 

 sioners. 



It is probable that six miles of state re- 

 ward gravel road will be constructed in Me- 

 costa county next year under the county road 

 system recently adopted. The road commis- 

 sioners have designated six one-mile routes to 

 the board of supervisors and a tax of $2 per 

 $1,000 valuation to raise a fund of $10.000. The 

 estimated cost of construction is $1,200 to $1,- 

 400 per mile. 



TIMBER JOBBERS WAITING. 



Thomas Connors, who handles the output of 

 a large number of the timber jobbers along the 

 line of the Chicago & Northwestern railway, 

 between Marquette and Escanaba, says that 

 operations are practically at a standstill. A 

 number of the men who have cut timber in 

 that region during the past several years in- 

 tend to do some work this winter, but their 

 operations will not be conducted on as large a 

 scale as in former years, unless there are 

 advances in the price of the various grades of 

 timber. Mr. Connors said that none of them 

 will do anything to speak of until after elec- 

 tion. 



Reports from other districts are to the effect 

 that the lumber trade is very quiet. It is said 

 that the profits of the business have been cur- 

 tailed to almost nothing by the decreased price 

 of lumber. It is said that the big lumbermen 

 of the country are doing very little selling on 

 the present price basis. Most of the com- 

 panies seem satisfied to break even and pay 

 operating expenses, but a general improvement 

 is looked for in the near future. It is pre- 

 dicted, in view of the increased demand for 

 lumber of various grades, that there will be a 

 slow but gradual increase in prices from now 

 on. The big lumbermen are generally of the 

 opinion that both the wholesale and retail 

 trade will rapidly become normal after election. 



At this time last year most of the jobbers 

 in the district south of Marquette had started 

 their season's work or were preparing to do 

 so. Only a small percentage of the operators 

 made money last winter, in spite of the fact 

 that conditions in the woods were favorable 

 for successful work. There was such a big 

 drop in the prices that those who did not close 

 up their contracts early had much of their 

 timber left on hand at the close of the season. 



CUT-OVER LANDS SOLD. 



Parcels of land in Ogemaw county belong- 

 iing to the estate of the late Barney Mills, of 

 Marysville, were sold this week. The land is 

 situated near the village of Prescott and con- 

 sists of 7,000 acres of stump land with some 

 pine and other timber on some portions of it. 

 The largest sum paid by any of the several 

 purchasers is $4,000 by Charles H. Prescott, 

 brother of G. A. Prescott, secretary of state. 

 The latter now owns about 12,000 acres of land 

 in that vicinity, and it is believed that the pur- 

 chase of the Mills land was with a view to 

 enlarging the estate already owned by the 

 Prescotts. 



The McAfee stave mill olant at Manton is 

 running full time and with a full complement 

 of men and the output this year will equal 

 that of last and preceding years. In the 

 handling of the orders this year, the wisdom 

 of the management in the installation of new 

 and up-to-date machinery has been fully dem- 

 onstrated. 



TRAP ROCK FOR SALE 

 Fine trap rock for sale, best in the 

 country. Inquire JAMES M. 

 YOUNG, 15 Winder St., Detroit. 



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