CHAPTER V 
TREES IN TOWNS 
In foreign countries with a warmer climate than ours, like 
France, Italy, and the United States, trees are almost a 
necessity in the wider streets of towns on account of the 
shade which they provide in summer. They do away with 
the hot and dazzling pavements, which are not merely 
unpleasant but are highly dangerous to health. The New 
York Medical Society placed on record (1) their opinion 
“that one of the most effective means for mitigating the 
intense heat of the summer months and diminishing the 
death-rate among children is the cultivation of an adequate 
number of trees in the streets.” 
In the streets of our own towns the need to plant trees 
as a protection from injurious heat is not so imperative, 
and the arguments for the practice are mainly aesthetic. 
Trees add much to the beauty of a city. They soften the 
harshness of a row of bare houses. They have a restful 
effect, yet are intensely interesting in their variety, as they 
change from day to day and from season to season. In the 
winter we see their beautiful outlines formed by the tracery 
of their twigs, and admire their bark. In the summer 
they are varied in their foliage, which changes its tints 
often to magic colours in autumn. Trees are on the whole 
more suited for suburbs than for the central or business 
quarters of a town. They add greatly to the happiness of 
the inhabitants of mean streets. They have in this way a 
hygienic effect. 
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