242 SHADE-TREES IN TOWNS AND CITIES 



One of the sections of the ordinance passed by the East 

 Orange Shade-Tree Commission provides that no tree shall 

 be planted in any of the public highways until such tree shall 

 have been first approved and the place where it is to be 

 planted designated by the Shade-Tree Commission and a 

 permit granted therefor. If the citizen were permitted to 

 plant shade -trees as he saw fit he might plant a tree unsuited 

 for street use or might place it close to a tree on his neigh 

 bor's property, and in either case would produce a result 

 detrimental to the street. The other sections of the ordi 

 nance relating to the protection of trees also embody this 

 idea, that the shade-tree is something in which all the resi 

 dents of the street share. 



The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, in the case of 

 Baker vs. the Town of Normal, in Laws of Illinois, volume 81, 

 page 109, says: "The town under its charter has the control 

 of streets, may improve them and adorn them. It may per 

 mit its citizens to improve and adorn that part of the street 

 in front of his lot, but the improvement and adornment does 

 not thereby become the property of the citizen. The plant 

 ing of a shade-tree in the street by a citizen by permission 

 of the village or city authorities is a gratuity to the public, 

 and the citizen has no more right to control the shade-tree 

 so planted than he would have had it been planted by the 

 city authorities. The control is in the public. The adjoin 

 ing proprietor has a common interest with other citizens in 

 these shade-trees and incidentally derives a special benefit 

 from their existence, but no title of authority over them, as 

 against the public/* 



A little over two years ago, two citizens came into my 

 office and complained that one of the residents of their street 

 had cut down a tree in front of his own house. They were 



