4 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 349 



The first legislation on the subject of shade trees was passed in 1856.'' It 

 was therein provided that the mayor and aldermen of cities and the selectmen 

 of towns, or any municipal officer to whom the care of streets or roads was in- 

 trusted might "authorize the planting of shade trees", wherever they would 

 "not interfere with the public travel, or with private rights"; and that "such 

 trees planted pursuant to such license" were to be deemed and taken to be the 

 private property of the persons planting them, and to be protected "in the same 

 manner as any other private property." It was declared in that statute that 

 trees planted under a license were not to be "deemed a nuisance, or abated as 

 such, except upon complaint made to the mayor and aldermen or selectmen . . . ", 

 who "in case of complaint" could "cause such trees to be removed, if the public 

 necessity" seemed "to them to require their removal." It was made a criminal 

 offence wantonly to "injure, deface, tear or destroy any ornamental or shade 

 tree or shrub" in any street, road, square, court, park, public garden or other 

 enclosure. For each offence a penalty of not less than five, nor more than one 

 hundred dollars was provided, which was to be recovered by complaint in any 

 court of competent jurisdiction; one half of which penalty was to be paid to the 

 complainant and the other half to the person upon whose propert}' the trespass 

 was committed. 



In the following year, municipalities through the mayor and aldermen or 

 selectmen were enabled to "set out and maintain shade trees, upon public squares 

 and highways, at the expense of the city or town"; a.nd authority was granted 

 to appropriate annually for such purposes, "a sum not exceeding twenty-five 

 cents for each of its ratable polls in the year next preceding"; provided, the law 

 was accepted by the city council of a city, "or the inhabitants of a town, at a 

 legal meeting."^ 



By an act passed in 1859, a person who negligently or carelessly suffered any 

 horse or other beast driven by him, or any beast owned by him and lawfully' on 

 the highway or other public way, to break down, destroy or injure any tree not 

 his own, standing for use or ornament on the highwaj^ or who negligently or 

 wilfully, by any other means, broke down, destroyed or injured any such tree, 

 was subject to an action for damages, at the suit of the owner or tenant of the 

 land in front of which the tree stood.** These statutes were made a part of Chapter 

 46 of the General Statutes (Revision of 1860). It is to be noted that no particular 

 officer was given charge of public shade trees, and that the term "shade tree" 

 was defined. 



The first law which imposed any obligation, except upon the surveyor of high- 

 ways as stated previously, with respect to shade trees, was passed in 1867.^ 

 It was permissive, and was effective only on acceptance by a town at a town 

 meeting, or a city by the city council. In any municipality which accepted this 

 law, a person who had b}' law a right to cut down or remove any ornamental or 

 shade tree standing in any highway, town way or street could not exercise that 

 right without first giving notice of his intention so to do to one of the selectmen 

 of the town or the mayor of a city. If these officers desired to retain the tree, 

 they were required to give notice to such person within ten days after his notice 



«St. 1856, c. 256. 



'St. 1857, c. 115. 



«St. 1859, c. 261. 



»St. 1867, c. 242. 



