114 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In the planting of groups and masses of trees on the wayside for 

 ornamental or woodland effect, the soil should be plowed and sub- 

 soil plowed several times. The trees should be planted thickly, al- 

 ways remembering the old motto, "Plant thickly, but thin quickly." 

 INIore trees are ruined by crowding than from any other cause. 

 Thick ])lanting gives the advantage of shelter; each tree helps to 

 protect the other; and it has also the further advantage of giving a 

 greater number of trees from which to select the permanent ones at 

 thinning out time. 



Another important point is to give the plantation clean cultiva- 

 tion. The treatment in this respect that will grow a good cro]) of 

 corn will also grow a plantation of trees. Good tilth is both meat 

 and drink to vegetation, in that it conserves the moisture, which 

 assists in the decomposition of the fertilizing elements that the soil 

 contains. 



Street trees, generally, are planted too closely together. Some- 

 times this is done with the intention of cutting out alternate ones, 

 as the growth of the trees requires. This, however, is seldom done, 

 and the trees grow up too thickly, thereby overcrowding and injur- 

 ing each other, destroying also the individual beauty of the trees 

 and the symmetrical arrangement that an avenue of trees should 

 have. 



For sanitary and hygienic reasons, streets ought not to be too 

 much shaded. The sun should be permitted to shine on the walks 

 and on the walls of the houses in turn, as the earth moves in its 

 course. Glimpses of light and shadow, too, have an aesthetic value, 

 which is worth considering. 



In laying out for street planting, let the first stakes be set at the 

 street crossings. ^Vhen the abutting streets also are to be planted, 

 place two stakes at each corner, about thirty feet from the point of 

 intersection of the curb lines on each street; then space off the 

 intervening distance, setting the stakes equally distant apart, but 

 not less than sixty-five feet, as the shortest distance. 



Sixty-five feet apart is the minimum distance, I think, at which 

 street trees should be planted. For large-growing trees, as the 

 elm or the soft maple, seventy-five feet or one hundred feet apart 

 would be none too much space to allow. Wayside or highway trees 

 need not be set with the same precision as street trees. An irregu- 



