ORNAMENTAL AND SHADE TREES 



933 



Ttie American city is, however, 

 gradually realizing the vital need of 

 caring for its citizens and of making 

 life more enjoyable for them. It has 

 recently awakened to the need of more 

 trees and parks as factors in the city 

 beautiful and city healthful, and has 

 already done much along these lines. 

 Every progressive city nowadays has a 

 tree department or is considering the 

 organization of one. Mt. Vernon is 

 therefore very timely in its recent 

 choice of a trained forester to head its 

 tree work. Mr. A. Oakley Smith, a 

 graduate of the Yale Forest School, 

 who fills this office, has specialized in 

 the care of ornamental and shade trees 

 at the Yale School and has enhanced 

 his experience under such men as Vi- 

 tale, Munson-Whitaker and others. 



TREES OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 



Washington, D. C, now has 584.18 

 miles of shade trees, with an average 

 of 3.52 trees to the mile, according to 

 the annual report of Trueman Lanham, 

 superintendent of trees and parkings, 

 presented to the District Commission- 

 ers. The total number of trees is 103,- 

 135. During the last year 3,388 trees 

 were planted and 2,596 removed, mak- 

 ing an increase of 792 trees. 



No other city in the world can com- 

 pare with Washington in the mileage of 

 oak planted trees, according to the re- 

 port. There are 52,783 miles of them 

 here on the streets, or 28.15 miles of streets have a double 

 row of the oak trees. During the past year more syca- 

 mores were planted than any other variety. Trimming 

 of trees was handicapped considerably during the twelve 

 months by scarcity of funds. More than 55,000 trees 

 were sprayed, a vigorous crusade having been waged 

 against the tussock moth and other insects. 



BUFFALO PROGRESSING 



City Forester Filer of Buffalo writes: '"Plenteous 

 rains and absence of hot weather makes the 1915 summer 

 and spring the best we have had in Buffalo for 10 years 

 for trees. Last year at this time the trees looked pretty 

 burned and tough, but today they are green and fresh 

 and beautiful. " That Buffalo will in the future be "a 

 city of trees," Forester Filer has a corps of men now at 

 work treating the young trees all over the city, restaking 

 and readjusting wherever needed. The tree-trimming 

 will continue until cold weather. Twelve spraying crews 

 have completed war on the tussock moth and started 

 out to destroy the cocoons. Because of the consistent 

 crusades against the tussock moth in IJufifalo the specie 

 is becoming less and less each year. 



BAYONNE, N. J., TREE WORK 



Bayonne, N. J., has some beautiful 

 shade trees worth preserving and 

 should have many more planted. The 

 following editorial in the Bayonne Re- 

 vieiv indicates the sentiments of the 

 city's residents : 



"The shade trees of Bayonne have 

 been remarked by many visitors as its 

 crowning beauty. They have been sur- 

 prised at the verdant streets and the 

 lieavy foliage in a city that they had 

 been led to believe was a collection of 

 oil tanks and tall chimneys. 



"That this beautiful feature of the 

 city has been left untended and uncared 

 for by any public authority has also 

 been a source of surprise to many. 



"The appointment of a city forester 

 is not a useless job. It can be made a 

 most important one and for Bayonne, 

 can fill the place occupied by the shade 

 tree commissions in other cities." 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



Q. Some one told me that the pop- 

 lar tree is not a desirable tree to plant. 

 Please give me a reason, if that be true. 

 A. F. L., Indianapolis, Ind. 



A. For general planting the Caro- 

 lina and all other poplars are not de- 

 sirable. They are short-lived trees and 

 their wood is so soft and brittle that 

 they very readily break in windstorms. 

 They grow too fast and generally be- 

 come top-heavy and dangerous. Their 

 finer rootlets penetrate the neighboring sewer and water- 

 pipes and their larger roots upset the sidewalk. Their 

 leaves drop earlier than the leaves of other species and 

 the catkins of the female tree are quite a nuisance to 

 pedestrians in the spring. The only reason for planting 

 the poplar is where the local soil and atmospheric condi- 

 tions are so poor that nothing else will grow as well or, 

 in case of the Lombardy poplar, its use is justified for 

 aesthetic effects. A screen of poplars is also very de- 

 sirable at times. 



Q. I would like to get literature which would be of 

 use to me on a small place, about two acres, in Dutchess 

 County, now practically bare, except for a few ash. 

 This is the last slope of the hills south of Fishkill where 

 I have thought I might develop a very small nursery 

 probably of deciduous trees. But having no practical 

 knowledge, only general interest, I do not know what 

 books would be of the most service. 



A. R. V. H., Lake George, N. Y. 



A. For literature, see "Studies of Trees" by J. J. 

 Levison, and "The Care of Trees" by Dr. B. E. Fernow, 



IMPU()}'I:KL^ PKl'.NED 



Shade tree on a city's sidewalk as an 

 example of how not to cut branches. 

 Stubs are shown projecting from the 

 trunk and limbs wliile the cutting 

 lioiild be close to the trunk or the 

 limb. 



