SHADE TREES. 37 



est trees in the winter, derived from experience in his own grounds, 

 which were protected by a belt of evergreens, and where the ther- 

 mometer ranged five degrees higher than in the grounds of his 

 neighbors in a similar location, but exposed to the wind. 



President Pai'kman said we must regard circumstances in plant- 

 ing. Where forestry has been made a stud}' and a profession, trees 

 are planted only on streets of a certain width, and distances are 

 carefully studied and proportioned to the size of the trees and the 

 width of streets. As remarked by Mr. Moore, trees are often 

 planted too closely, — Elliot street, Jamaica Plain, near Mr. Park- 

 man's residence, was an instance, and every alternate tree was 

 taken out. 



Mr. Hovey said in answer to an inquiry as to the cause of the 

 red maple dying at the top, that it was from want of moisture, the 

 species growiug naturally in swamps. The borer mentioned in Mr. 

 Barker's paper as injurious to the linden, differs from that infest- 

 ing the apple tree here. It can be kept down, but not easily. Mr. 

 Hovey accounted for the general propensity to cut down trees as a 

 hereditary trait, caused by the circumstances under which New Eng- 

 land was settled. On the prairies a man could look from his door 

 for miles without seeing a tree, and he naturally felt the want of 

 them ; but here the country was thickly wooded, and the traditional 

 Yankee feared an Indian skulking behind every tree. Mr. Hovey 

 said that he had so far inherited this feeling that when he was a 

 boy and had occasion to pass some pine woods, he looked for a rob- 

 ber behind every tree. The early settlers did not want to plant 

 pine trees, but to get rid of them, and that object has been so far 

 accomplished that now we feel the want of them, and have come 

 back to the necessity for planting. 



James Cruickshanks spoke of the sanitary benefit of trees, and 

 of the advantage of planting them where, as in certain regions in 

 Egypt, no rain fell from one year's end to another, but after the 

 planting of a large number of trees, from fifteen to eighteen inches 

 of rain fell annually. 



The Chairman of the Committee on Discussion announced that 

 next Saturday William Gray, Jr., would read a paper on the gen- 

 eral culture of Pelargoniums for bedding, with select lists of the 

 best varieties. 



