INSECT PESTS OF OHIO SHADE AND FOREST TREES 181 



mission is composed of public-spirited business men who stand high 

 in their community and who are willing to donate some of their 

 time and thought to the cause of the public good. 



An executive officer is appointed by the commission whose duty 

 lies in putting into operation the ideas of the commission. This 

 officer may be called the secretary of the commission, the entomolo- 

 gist, the forester, or by some other name, but regardless of his title 

 he should be well versed in all matters concerning trees and should 

 be consulted freely by the commission members, especially on all 

 points of a more or less technical nature, since the commissioners 

 themselves are not necessarily supposed to be thoroughly informed 

 regarding such details. 



Working directly under this executive officer and responsible 

 to him alone, may be specialists or foremen in charge of the various 

 departments of the work and under the foremen the laborers. 



The size of the organization, of course, depends upon the mag- 

 nitude of its duties, but great care should be exercised in prevent- 

 ing over-organization, since the over-organized department results 

 in an overhead expense wholly disproportionate to other items. At 

 the same time, however, while the danger of over-organization is a 

 great one, an equally grave possibility of under-organization exists, 

 the latter condition being just as likely to hamper the successful 

 execution of the work. One man cannot give the proper attention 

 to all the operating details of such a department, though it be one 

 of no more than moderate size. 



The city department plan. With the city department plan of 

 organization the work may be conducted upon the same basis as 

 that of any other city department, and the leader of the work may 

 be classed on a par with any other departmental head, such as the 

 chief of police, chief of the fire department, etc. In some cities the 

 work of looking after the tree problems is made a phase of the work 

 of some other department, as for instance a branch of the Public 

 Service Department. In the larger cities of the State, if the plan 

 is followed of conducting the work under the city department plan 

 rather than by the commission plan, the department should be one 

 of full standing with other city departments; but in the smaller 

 cities, where the expense of maintaining a separate organization 

 is not justified, it is best made subsidiary to some department 

 already in existence. 



A civil service basis desirable. After an investigation of the 

 shade-tree problem over a 10-year period in Ohio and an extended 

 trip of inspection of some of the existing departments in the New 



