52 EXPERLAIENT STATION. [Jan. 



SHADE TREE TROUBLES. 



BY G. E. STONE. 



If the amount of correspondence is any criterion of what 

 people are interested in it might be inferred that the citizens of 

 Massachusetts place a high value on shade trees, and we are re- 

 ceiving an ever-increasing number of such inquiries. Such or- 

 ganizations as civic leagues, village improvement associations, 

 the Massachusetts Forestry Association and the different horti- 

 cultural societies are very largely responsible for this awakened 

 interest in the subject of shade trees, although landscape gar- 

 deners and highway and park commissions have had no small 

 influence in this direction. 



Shade trees have enough to contend with ordinarily, but 

 the extreme climatic conditions which have prevailed during the 

 past few years have been an additional burden on them. The 

 more extensive use of telephones, electric lights, trolley trans- 

 portation, gas, sewers, aqueduct water, etc., made necessary by 

 modern conditions, has been hard for our shade trees, and the 

 severe winterkilling of roots, which occurred a few years ago, 

 has been responsible for the death of thousands. Many trees 

 which were not so seriously injured a few years ago as to die 

 outright were left to a lingering existence, and many of them 

 are constantly deteriorating and in a few years will be dead. 

 The trees which have shown this slow dying back of the root 

 system most prominently, and which later completely collapse, 

 are the elm, red maple, black and white ash, and, to a less ex- 

 tent, the rock maple. The writer has had opportunity to observe 

 the condition of a large nund')er of these trees each year and the 

 effect which root killing has had upon them. Many large elms, 

 which a few years ago were in perfect condition, may be seen 

 slowlv dviiio' from the ofT(>('ts of severe climatic conditions, and 



