P/ioo by H. ft. Francis. 



WEST 130TH STREET LOOKING FROM FIFTH AVENUE. 



There are many trees in poor condition among this planting, but the improvement brought about by 

 the presence of the trees is something that should be duplicated on streets wherever it is possible 

 to plant and maintain trees. 



NEW YORK CITY'S TREES 



TREES planted on city streets 

 are surrounded by unnatural 

 conditions and the struggle for 

 existence is therefore intense, 

 while in most cities it is made worse by 

 improper care, lack of systematic and 

 skillful management and by too small 

 an appropriation for the department 

 which should have control of the tree 

 work. New York City, like many other 

 cities, is in need of a bureau of tree 

 culture, and as a result of a recent 

 cooperative study of tree and street 

 conditions there by the Tree Planting 

 Association of New York City and the 

 New York State College of Forestry, at 

 Syracuse, which assigned Prof. H. R. 

 Francis to the work, a plan has been 

 suggested which may be adopted by 

 New York, and which will furnish to 

 other cities an idea of how such a 

 bureau should be established and con- 

 ducted and what it will mean to a city. 

 Up to the year 1002 in New York 

 City, when for the first time the trees 

 were placed under the exclusive con- 

 560 



trol of the Park Department, trees 

 were planted by private property own- 

 ers, real estate promoters, civic im- 

 provement associations, etc., without 

 consideration of the future beauty of 

 the city as a unit. This is invariably 

 the case where public improvement of 

 any kind is made in a haphazard man- 

 ner without the intelligence and fore- 

 sight of expert supervision. Conse- 

 quently, there were many causes for 

 tree planting, all varying in motive and 

 therefore in attainment. The result is 

 that the city has thousands of trees 

 that were planted without regard to 

 uniformity and were not adapted to 

 local conditions. Many of them also 

 were of short-lived varieties, bringing 

 about conditions that were altogether 

 unsatisfactory and unnecessarily ex- 

 pensive to ' maintain. Furthermore, 

 these unsystematic and irregular efforts 

 have resulted in the complete denuda- 

 tion of large areas since trees have been 

 removed continually and none planted 

 in replacement. 



