SUBURBAN AND COUNTRY ROADS. Ill 



already three or four times too many. Instead of bu3ing more, he 

 would take up a large proportion of those now growing. The case 

 was similar with many of the wa3's laid out during the late period 

 of inflation. He could point to trees set out twentj^-five years ago, 

 which are now all drawn up for want of room. 



John B. Moore said that one of the first steps towards improving 

 the appearance of our roads is to get rid of nuisances. By a recent 

 act of the Legislature, authority is given to towns to pass b3'-laws, 

 subject to the approval of the Superior Court, for this purpose. 

 The town of Concord, where he resides, had passed such a by-law, 

 and it is now the duty of the road commissioners to remove from 

 the roadsides all piles of wood, manure, stones, rubbish, or other 

 unsightly objects. The people generally have acquiesced in the 

 law, and there has been no occasion for an appeal to the courts to 

 enforce it. The residents in the village have cleaned up the brush, 

 and mowed the grass by the roadsides. The speaker agreed with Mr. 

 Capen that trees were frequently planted too close ; he thought elms 

 should be a hundred feet apart. The danger is that if they are 

 planted too closely, with the idea of thinning out, it will not be 

 done. As to thinning the trees on Boston Common, as Mr. Capen 

 would do if he had the power, he would be hung in fifteen minutes 

 after doing it. The speaker did not approve the action of the 

 Society in regard to the Paddock elms, which were so much 

 decayed as to be dangerous. People may like to see walls grown 

 up to a solid hedge with wild shrubber}^, but he regarded it as evi- 

 dence of a poor farmer ; it wastes his land and affords a harbor 

 for skunks, woodchucks, and other vermin. He would ornament 

 roads by planting trees or saving those standing, and did not like 

 to see trees planted too regularly, but the first step must be the 

 adoption of by-laws to prevent nuisances. 



Leander Wetherell agreed in the main with Mr. Moore, and felt 

 that the Society made a mistake in desiring to retain the Paddock 

 elms. The trees on the Common would not all bear out the remarks 

 which had been made in regard to crowding ; some of those on 

 Beacon street had long limbs, reaching nearly across the street, 

 though planted near together. Mr. Wetherell spoke of the influ- 

 ence of trees in keeping roads wet, though perhaps such roads were 

 not well made, and were not underdrained. Trees were sometimes 

 removed on account of keeping the road wet. He spoke of cases 

 where road-masters had ordered trees cut down for this reason. A 



