INJURIES TO SHADE-TREES 139 



case of injury to the foliage of trees or shrubs resulting 

 from the oiling of roads has come to the observation of the 

 writer. The Director of Public Roads of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture writes, under date of September 

 2, 1910: "I am pleased to advise that from personal observa- 

 tions and from conversations with officials in a position to 

 know, I am confident that where roads are oiled, so that the 

 roots of trees or shrubbery do not come in contact with the 

 oil, no injury occurs to the foliage. ' ' 



On the other hand, the writer noticed some items in the 

 newspapers stating that in Paris the oiling of streets proved 

 injurious to foliage. He wrote to the Prefect of the Seine, 

 who has charge of the street-trees of Paris, and under date 

 of August 23, 1910, received, through the American Ambas- 

 sador in Paris, a reply as follows : 



"I am just in receipt of a report of the Commissioner of 

 the Western Section of Thoroughfares, in which the latter 

 indicates the baneful effect of the spreading of hot tar upon 

 the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, and proposes to call the 

 attention of the Public Roads Service to the withering of 

 the trees on the avenue which, in his opinion, must be at- 

 tributed to the tarring of this road. 



"It appears from this report that a border-plot of stone- 

 crops was burned in 1908, and lost its leaves the very day 

 after the spreading ; that some geraniums, and some bego- 

 nias showed leaves shriveled, spotted, and their growth 

 stopped. It was the same with some lilac, currant, and 

 gooseberry bushes. 



"This year, likewise, many of the trees on the Avenue 

 du Bois are in an alarming state of decay ; several specimens 

 of ailantus, maple, and American walnut, formerly in good 

 vegetation, are dead. Others are in a drooping state. 



