TREES CROWN THE HOME 25 



This principle applies to communities as well as to 

 individual homes. The visitor to town or city gains his 

 first and most lasting impression from the presence or 

 absence of shade trees. The community with streets bare 

 and bleak and shadeless is dismissed as an undesirable 

 place in which to live. Shaded streets and tree-clad lawns 

 have a charm which often proves the deciding factor in 

 influencing the home seeker in his choice of a place of 

 residence. 



Definite evidence of this is found in the efforts of real 

 estate men to give new property added beauty and attrac- 

 tiveness by the planting of trees. That their choice of 

 species is ofttimes ill-advised, because of demand for 

 quick growth, does not change the major truth that they 

 recognize the value of the shade tree. Experience has 

 shown them that in the sale of homes in a new residence 

 district, trees are as essential as sidewalks and paving, and 

 second only to sewer, water, gas and electric connections. 



Whether along the street or on the individual lawn, 

 the cost of planting trees is insignificant, and no man who 

 can afford to own a home can afford to deny himself and 

 his family the added beauty, health and comfort to be 

 derived from trees. It is not a question of one's ability 

 to afford the outlay. It is a simple truth that none of us 

 can afford not to do it; tree planting is good business as 

 well as good taste. 



Unlike paving and other improvements, including the 

 house itself, the tree, properly cared for, is not subject to 

 depreciation in value. On the contrary, its worth becomes 

 greater with the passing years. In the towns of New 

 England to-day there are massive Elms which are known 

 to have spread their overhanging beauty before the eyes of 

 the Pilgrim, and which now give to the old homes a 

 value that can be measured in dollars just as surely as in 



