SHADE-TREES IN TOWNS 

 AND CITIES 



CHAPTER I 

 TREES IN THE LIFE OF A CITY 



IT is a well-known fact that cities are founded in certain 

 particular localities on account of some commercial incen 

 tive. Any situation offering special advantages as a place 

 where business men may conveniently meet, or commodities 

 may be cheaply manufactured or easily exchanged, is likely 

 to be occupied by a town or city. Places that are near to 

 sources of natural wealth, at the mouths of navigable rivers, 

 at falls or rapids of streams or at large and deep harbors, 

 are sites favorable for the location of large cities. 



Whatever the reason may be that induces people to settle 

 in a certain place, their first desire is to build shelters and 

 homes in which to live. With this thought in mind, every 

 natural feature of the land is swept away to make room for 

 the city. As it grows there is an addition of square block 

 to square block, and a plan of the resulting city looks like a 

 huge checkerboard. 



Such, briefly, has been the history of the development 01 

 most of our cities. When this country was first settled the 

 forest was regarded as an enemy to be vanquished rather 

 than as a friend to be protected. The country seemed so 

 vast and the natural resources so limitless that no one ever 



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