WHO SHALL CARE FOR STREET-TREES 233 



apparatus which the average citizen cannot be expected to 

 have. 



The injury to trees by borers is a case in point. The 

 foliage does not show the effects of the damage nor do the 

 limbs begin to die until three or four years after the cater- 

 pillars of the borers do their fatal work. Then the people 

 wonder why the trees are dying. Hundreds of sugar maples 

 died in the northern section of the State of New Jersey dur- 

 ing the years of 1905 and 1906 as a result of the ravages of 

 the borers a few years before that time. Attention to them 

 at the time the insects were active would have saved the 

 trees. 



We cannot blame the individual for unsatisfactory re- 

 sults. We are seeking in the planting of shade-trees that 

 which is for the common good of all, and we expect the 

 work to be done by the citizens without instruction, without 

 system, and leave to each one, if it so pleases him, to do his 

 share when and how he desires. It is the system that is 

 wrong, and the remedy can readily suggest itself. Other 

 municipal interests are vested in commissions, committees, 

 or other organized bodies. Experience has shown that in 

 order to obtain the greatest degree of excellence in the plant- 

 ing and care of street-trees, the matter must be entrusted to 

 a similar body, and a shade-tree department should be incor- 

 porated in every municipality. 



MUNICIPAL CONTROL 



It is only when the planting and care of street-trees is 

 vested in a special department that all the principles essen- 

 tial to secure the most stately and impressive effect of high- 

 way planting can be applied ; such as the choice of the prop- 

 er species, the use of one variety on a street, setting out 



