SHADE TREES. 



249 



as they are furnishing valuable and necessary facilities for business, 

 and in towns they obtain their franchises and location of poles from the 

 selectmen with little difficult}^ The selectmen notify the abutters of any 

 contemplated installations of poles and wires or of changes to occur in 

 the systems, and the abutters are given a hearing. However, they usually 

 wake up to their duty only after the installation of the lines, when the 

 tree warden must assume all responsibilitj'- for injury to trees. He has to 

 choose between two courses, — prevent the pruning or permit it. In 

 either case the companies can erect the poles and install the wires, allowing 

 the wires to burn their way through the trees, although this, of course, 



Fig. 105. — Showing different types of guards for electric 

 wires: 1, porcelain dowel guard: 2, porcelain wood guard; 

 3, wooden sleeve. 



often causes trouble to the corporation as well as to the .abutter. In case 

 of injury to trees the warden has access to the courts, but most companies 

 are willing to put up with a few moderate fines for the sake of the right of 

 way through a tree belt. 



The Spraying of Shade Trees. 



The great value and economic importance of spraying shade and fruit 

 trees have resulted in placing on the market a large variety of fungicides 

 and insecticides and types of machinery. Massachusetts has unfortu- 

 nately been obliged to spend more money in spraying than any other 

 State, and many towns and cities in the eastern part of the State, where 

 the brown-tail and gypsy moths are so prevalent, appropriate thousands of 

 dollars yearly for spraying. 



