232 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



Q. I have been asked to outline a plan for a shade-tree 

 department to systematically plant and care for the city's 

 shade trees. Can you give me an itemized estimate of 

 the probable annual cost of maintaining such a depart- 

 ment, including city forester, necessary assistants and 

 material, for a city of 100,000 population. The work 

 needed includes a shade-tree survey to determine the 

 needs, pruning and spraying established shade trees, 

 replacing partly-grown cottonwoods and other poor stock, 

 and making new plantings. About what salaries are city 

 foresters receiving? F. I. R., 



Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. 



A. Generally speaking, a shade-tree commission should 

 consist of five members responsible to the mayor, and 

 appointed on terms expiring in different years so that 

 it may always have among its members someone who has 

 had more or less experience in the work. It should be 

 also allowed certain fixed revenues with which to carry 

 on its work. This may be done by providing an annual 

 tax levy of say three-fourths of one mill tax for shade- 

 tree purposes, and. as has been done in some cases, an ad- 

 ditional tax of 10 per cent of all licenses and fines collected 

 by the city. The latter should only be resorted to if the 

 revenue is insufficient. A technically trained forester 

 should be appointed from the start and a set of tree 

 ordinances, such as Mr. Levison has drawn up for the 

 city of Rome, N. Y., long ago, a copy of which we are 

 sending you, should be installed. After this, the forester 

 should be provided with a good foreman, a set of equip- 

 ment and a crew of at least six men. The salary of the 

 forester should be at least $1,200 to $3,000, but $1,200 is 

 the usual price for a beginner. The annual wages of a 

 foreman will be about $900, and the wages of the six men 

 will be about $3,600. In addition to this it will be neces- 

 sary to spend about $1,500 on teams, about $200 on 

 tools and about $400 on a spray outfit, if conditions war- 

 rant it. The cost of material and the trees for the first 

 year will vary with the amount of work done, but $500 

 will be least estimate of cost of such work. The cost 

 of the survey should not be included as an item, because 

 that will be done by the forester and the foreman along 

 the lines suggested by Mr. Levison, in the Shade Depart- 

 ment in this issue relative to a tree census. If, in work- 

 ing out your system, there are any specific questions you 

 desire to put, do not hesitate, and we will give you our 

 test information, on request. 



Q. Please advise what practical method you would 

 advise for taking a shade tree census. 



N. R. M., Harrisburg, Pa. 



A. In Brooklyn, N. Y., a census of city trees was taken 

 ten years ago and consisted of the following method : 

 On one side of a plain card was indicated the approxi- 

 mate location of the trees on the block, using a system 

 of colors to designate good, bad and dangerous trees ; 

 those that had a cavity were marked with a small "c," 

 and those that were particularly dangerous, or otherwise 



important, were noted with the number of the house 

 alongside of it. Cards were made out for each block 

 and were filed consecutively for each street and the dif- 

 ferent streets were then filed alphabetically. In this way 

 it was possible to locate any block in the street and tell, in 

 a genera] way. the condition of the trees on desired 

 block and their approximate location. Whenever there 

 were any trees removed from the city streets, any new 

 ones planted, or any other changes made, it was noted 

 on the card and in that way they kept changing the 

 records and always had the census up to date. 



This plan entailed no laborious work such as would 

 be required in the making of maps and, for practical 

 purposes, served better than any formal maps or elab- 

 orate sheets would have done ; as a matter of fact, it was 

 found that the tree census has its principal value in the 

 beginning of shade-tree work, in helping the tree warden 

 or city forester to acquaint himself with the condi- 

 tions of trees, their number and the need for additional 

 planting; but after its first or second year's service, the 

 census becomes less and less important until, eventually, 

 it is nothing but a matter of record rather than a practical 

 help in the field. 



Q. I am sending you two small branches from the 

 limb of a tree that retains what would seem to be the 

 seed pod of last year, and showing new budding, to ask 

 if you would kindly designate the kind of tree. It is a 

 very much-admired tree, the four or five specimens hav- 

 ing been brought here more than 45 years ago, and we 

 have been told it is a cypress. But there are no cypress 

 knees apparent (if there were very small ones, the filling 

 in of the ground covered them) and there is doubt as 

 to the kind. The foliage is as dainty as a maiden-hair 

 fern, and a few of the townspeople have been very anx- 

 ious for their preservation. A man who bought part 

 of the lot with two or three of the trees, raised the grade, 

 regardless of those valuable trees, and badly injured the 

 bark on one, but so far they have stood even that ill 

 treatment. I have been told some trees stand the raising 

 of the grade close to the tree trunk; is this one? 



J. A. T., 

 Asheboro, N. C. 



A. Replying to your inquiry, would say that the tree 

 of which you have submitted a specimen is a Bald 

 cypress. The knees, which are characteristic in its 

 native locality, are not always present and all the trees of 

 this species which you find in cities do not show these 

 knees at all. The knees are an adaptation for the pur- 

 pose of absorbing air and are only important in cases 

 where the trees stand in swamps and cannot get the air 

 directly from the roots. The knees, under the circum- 

 stances, serve to draw the air above water. On city 

 streets or on lawns, there is no reason for the presence 

 of these knees and consequently they are lost. As to 

 the filling of soil around such trees, I have seen many 

 cases where a slight filling of about one foot or even two 

 feet has not hurt the tree at all, but it is important in 

 all cases to keep the soil away from the bark of the trunk 



