INJURIES TO SHADE-TREES 155 



shade-tree departments, the people always have the sense 

 of security that the safety of their trees is being guarded; 

 and, if any are to be sacrificed, it is because of inevitable 

 conditions. If, after careful consideration, it is found that 

 there must be cutting of limbs or roots of trees, the work 

 should be done under the supervision of one in charge of 

 the care of trees. 



BUILDING OPERATIONS 



There are minor improvements in city streets during 

 which trees are killed or damaged without any show of 

 reason. Guy-ropes are frequently attached to trees in the 

 process of building which bruise or cut them severely. The 

 piling of lumber, bricks, and other material, and careless 

 carting, cause serious injury to trees while construction is 

 under way. In the erection or repair of a building the 

 owner or contractor should put such guards around the 

 neighboring trees as will effectively prevent their being 

 injured. 



MUTILATION BY HORSES 



Of all mechanical injuries to street-trees, however, none 

 are more numerous nor more fatal than the mutilations 

 caused by horses. One would not have to go very far in 

 any town to find scores of examples of trees as badly muti- 

 lated as the one shown in Plate 33, Fig. 3. Such trees owe 

 their present condition to horses that feasted on their bark 

 many years ago. Most cities have ordinances forbidding 

 drivers to tie animals to trees, or to leave them standing near 

 a tree. Occasionally a man is arrested and fined for having 

 allowed his horse to injure a tree, but it is not always an 

 easy matter to catch and punish the offender. Besides, in 



