252 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1919 



trimmer Is employed, it is the policy of the 

 public utilities employees to submit all ques- 

 tions of shade tree alterations to the judgment 

 of the aforementioned officer. It would seem, 

 therefore, that in some of the larger places the 

 city engineer's department must answer for the 

 instances of shocking maltreatment of valuable 

 shade trees. 



Is $10 Enough? 



As matters stand at present, the usual com- 

 pensation paid owners of trees for their total 

 destruction is a ten-dollar bill. This price may 

 be adequate for some types of trees and will 

 certainly be entirely adequate for Manitoba 

 maples and horse chestnuts, which do not de- 

 serve encouragement in Ontario under any cir- 

 cumstances. Were the rate of compensation 

 multiplied by five it is altogether probable that 

 the shade tree trimmers would exercise more 

 precaution, for presumably the engineer in 

 charge of construction would be anxious to hold 

 down his initial costs to the minimum. At a 

 ten-dollar rate, however, it involves no serious 

 outlay to condemn and destroy three or four 

 hundred beautiful trees. Fifty dollars is little 

 enough for a full-grown, well-shaped maple or 

 elm. If a public utilities company or com- 

 mission were compelled to put up that much 

 money for every ruined tree, there would be 

 more hesitation in applying the axe to fine old 

 trunks. The United States courts have been 

 accustomed to strike a higher estimate in shade 

 tree damage cases than seems to be the case 

 in Canadian courts thus far. Several instances 



have come to the Journal's attention from the 

 records of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. In 

 one instance a tree butcher destroyed four 

 maple trees and was forced by a jury to pay 

 damages of $100 a tree. Another case shows 

 that an electric railway company paid $1,200 

 damages for destroying fifteen tupelo trees. An 

 assistant foreman of the street railway company 

 cut down three sapling elms and mutilated one 

 large ash tree. He was fined $100. In Athol, 

 Mass., a gas company, through neglect of gas 

 mains, killed nine shade trees and was fined 

 $300. In Hampton County, seven trees were 

 killed by gas and the company was fined $700. 

 Another company in Lowell on a similar com- 

 plaint was fined $900. Twenty-eight trees on 

 one street in Springfield were damaged by gas 

 and the company paid the property owners 

 over $2,000. A contractor engaged in moving 

 a building in Lawrence cut off limbs of a shade 

 tree standing in the way of his structure and 

 his fine and costs amounted to $400. 



These instances seem to show a much higher 

 valuation on shade trees than has yet been 

 displayed in the compensation arrangements 

 between Canadian public utilities bodies and 

 private tree owners. United States court cases 

 indicate that $100 is by no means a high valua- 

 tion upon a shade tree. 



The Forestry Journal would welcome further 

 evidence from readers in all parts of Canada 

 as to the practices of linemen. This should 

 comprise, wherever possible, specific details as 

 to the age and condition of trees and the de- 

 gree to which they were injured. 



SASKATCHEWAN'S PROTECTION 



WATERLOO TO PLANT. 



"The dry spell has been marked by an un- 

 usual number of prairie fires in Saskatoon dis- 

 trict and provincial police officers have a busy 

 spring-time tracking down careless farmers who 

 neglect to plow fire-guards and otherwise en- 

 dangered surrounding property. At provincial 

 police headquarters here four 'crime reports' told 

 of as many farmers being fined by rural justices 

 of the peace in the last couple of days." — ■ 

 Saskatoon Star. 



It will be interesting to learn of the Sas-. 

 katchewan Government's efforts to track down 

 any settlers responsible for the terrible forest 

 fires of the last two weeks in May. Saskatche- 

 wan has a law forbidding the clearing of land 

 by fire except under safe conditions and only 

 by taking out a permit from a fire-ranger or 

 municipal fire-guardian. 



The Waterloo Golf Club will plant on its pro- 

 perty, near Gait, 200 trees, the gift of E. J| 

 Zavitz, Provincial Forester. They include 50 

 Scotch pine, 50 Austrian pine, 50 Douglas pine, 

 50 Douglas fir, 25 white spruce, 50 white cedar 

 and 25 bull pine. 



MR. A. L. DAWE GOING TO LONDON 



Mr. A. L. Dawe, Secretary of the Canadian 

 Pulp and Paper Association, is going to Lon- 

 don as representative of the Canadian pulp and 

 paper industry in connection with the work of 

 the Lloyd Harris Commission. Mr. Dawe's sterl- 

 ing service during several years of critical pulp 

 and paper history in Canada will ensure high 

 efficiency in the new enterprise. 



