166 OF,IO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 332 



In antithesis to the foregoing condition, others have observed 

 that the production of beautiful, uniform trees of desirable, lasting 

 species will do more toward increasing property values and attract- 

 ing buyers to a given section than will any other single item of im- 

 provement. There are many instances throughout the state where 

 the promoters of subdivisions and additions to cities have given the 

 matter of tree planting careful consideration where the f arsighted 

 plan of using desirable species and allowing ample space for growth 

 has been followed, regardless of the fact that such species may grow 

 a little more slowly than some others and that the space allotted 

 for trees may detract a few feet from the depth of the lots. In- 

 variably the lots in subdivisions so planned and planted sell much 

 more quickly and at higher prices than do those in equally desirable 

 sections where tree conditions have not received proper attention. 



Not all the increased interest in trees is confined to the towns 

 and cities, since that of the rural districts has kept well apace. It 

 is evidenced in the endeavors toward the beautification of country 

 homes, in the care of the natural forest and woodlot, and most 

 strikingly by the act of the General Assembly in 1915, when funds 

 were appropriated for the purchase of a tract of land in Athens 

 County consisting of 221% acres, and of another in Lawrence 

 County consisting of 1,500 acres to be used for forestry purposes. 



Perhaps one of the most clearly outstanding reasons for this 

 changing attitude is the fact that each year more of us are learning 

 to appreciate a tree for its own sake, and the faster men and women 

 acquire this viewpoint at just the same rate will lasting progress 

 in civic and rural beautification be made. When we come to think 

 of the trees on our premises in the same way that we think of our 

 animal friends as living organisms unthrifty under abuse and 

 responsive to attention, the trees of both city and country will take 

 on an entirely different aspect. We do not pick up a puny cur from 

 the alley and expect it to grow into a bench dog, nor do we select 

 a blue blood and carelessly place it in the backyard, expecting it 

 without any further attention on our part to develop into a perfect 

 animal. Is it not just as reasonable to anticipate a magnificent tree 

 from the stunted, misshapen specimen we dig up from the roadside 

 or to expect even the finest, most thrifty, nursery-grown tree to 

 cope with the many hardships of a city environment without any 

 assistance on our part? 



The smoke nuisance, cramped situations, mechanical injuries, 

 careless mutilation either willful or accidental, gas and electrical 

 injuries, and increased attacks from insect hordes, all are factors 



