WHAT SHADE TREES SHALL WE PLANT? 39 



curious, loosely-attached bark and is at home alike on marshy soil 

 and on well-drained upland. Another small tree that is almost a 

 total stranger on lawns is the American persimmon, which assumes 

 much the same shape and size of the common sour cherry and has 

 good, clean, rather glossy leaves. 



Ornamental species. Flowering and distinctly ornamental 

 trees have a legitimate place in lawn planting and are requisites in 

 almost every well-balanced planting scheme. Flowering dogwood, 

 service, judas tree, small magnolias, like soulangeana and others of 

 the Chinese type, the birches, native hawthorns and Chinese flower- 

 ing crabs are easily handled and are objects of surpassing beauty 

 at certain seasons of the year. The native wild crab apple, the 

 scarlet thorn (Crataegus coccinea) and the black haw (Viburnum 

 prunifolium) are native trees of great excellence. For improving 

 the banks of a pond or stream the Wisconsin weeping willow has 

 superseded the Babylonian willow which is lacking in hardiness in 

 the North. Red birch and American larch or tamarack are at home 

 in such positions. 



The long period of hot weather which we have in late summer 

 and autumn is remarkably favorable to the coloration of leaves and 

 the chief value of a number of our native trees is due to the rich 

 hues which their foliage takes on at this season. For outstanding 

 brilliancy none surpasses the sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica) whose 

 flaming canopy is visible for a long distance. The flowering dog- 

 wood, too, becomes a study in crimson and scarlet, illuminating 

 splendidly the locality where it is growing. Scarlet or rock maple, 

 sugar maple, ashes and oaks blend into shades and tones of color 

 which are invaluable in the composition of an autumn landscape. 



Pruning and spacing. The pruning of shade trees is a subject 

 concerning which information is often desired, and in a general 

 sense it is safe to say that the matter is usually overdone. During 

 the earlier years of a shade tree's existence but little cutting will 

 be required beyond such as needed to remove broken or otherwise 

 injured limbs or to preserve a moderately symmetrical, well- 

 balanced head. As the specimens grow older and often encroach 

 upon each other or sustain injury from storms, heavy cutting will 

 sometimes need to be done. The indiscriminate topping and head- 

 ing in of trees, particularly such as is in evidence along most village 

 streets, cannot be too severely condemned. The heavy, unsightly 

 stubs thus produced afford openings through which the germs of 

 decay enter and speedily work havoc to the larger branches and to 



