SHADE TREES. 



247 



service corporations there can be little or no opportunity to preserve the 

 natural symmetry of shade trees, especially when low branching maples 

 and other trees are planted on the same side of the street with the wires. 

 There is less interference from limbs with low than with high tension 

 wires. Trees like the elm, whose branches form acute angles, offer less 

 obstruction to wires than maples; but not all streets, of course, are 

 planted with elms, which may be as well, 

 considering their susceptibility to various 

 pests and unfavorable climatic conditions. 



The best solution of the wire problem 

 lies in burying the wires. This has been 

 done to quite an extent in large cities, 

 especially in the business sections, the 

 telephone corporations having adopted 

 this system to a much greater extent 

 than the electric light companies. It is an 

 expensive system, however, and those who 

 so strenuously advocate its adoption do 

 not always consider that in the end it is 

 the patrons who have to pay for it. 



Another method of preventing wire 

 injuries is the erection of high poles to 

 bring the wires over the trees. This is 

 sometimes done, especially where the 

 trees are young or of a species that 

 naturally grows low, when a very high 

 pole would be sufficient to clear them for 

 manj^ years. The cable system may be 

 used for telephone wires, and much injury 

 to trees prevented. Large cables are 

 rather expensive to install, but what is 

 termed the ''ring construction" system 

 may be used to advantage in many 

 instances, particularly in the suburbs. 

 In this way it is possible to run a line 

 through avenues of fine trees in the 

 country districts without necessitating 

 pruning or disfiguration. 



Rights of way for poles on private property back of residences are 

 sometimes secured, and by this means the poles and wires may be re- 

 moved from the streets, much to the advantage of the trees. But such 

 rights are often difficult to secure, and are not always satisfactory either 

 to the public-service corporations or the owners of the property. The 

 former naturally do not care much for these rights of way unless they are 

 legal and permanent, and the owners in granting permanent rights run a 

 risk of lowering the value of the propert\-. IMost of the very high-tension 



Fig. 103. — Showing the destructive 

 effect on the growtli of a maple 

 tree of a mass of wires. 



