FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 87 



He has it in his power and does compel the planting^ of trees 

 on every piece of new road that is built in the state of Con- 

 necticut to-day. (k)d bless him and all who helped to pass 

 the law. 



Trees on State Highways. 



By J. H. MacDONald, State Highway Commissioner. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I shall not trans- 

 gress, Mr. Chairman, on the time, but I will stop long enough 

 to quote one of the best things, I think, that the Autocrat 

 of the Breakfast Table wrote, if I say no more. 



"Give fools their gold. 

 Give knaves their power, 

 Let fortune's baubles rise or fall. 

 Who sows the field, or plants the tree, 

 Or grows the flower, is more than all." 



It was a wise thought that occurred to the minds of the 

 gentlemen comprising the state board of trade, when they 

 suggested to the commissioner the wisdom of installing upon 

 all sections of improved highway, trees. There was no trouble 

 in getting the Legislature to heartily concur with the propo- 

 sition, and it was engrafted in the law of 1903, and last year 

 w^e put in some two thousand trees under that law. There 

 is no question in my mind but what it will be a saving of 

 thousands of dollars in keeping our highways in better order. 

 It is for the benefit of the state or those building a road, 

 that costs seven or eight thousand dollars per mile to con- 

 struct, to have anything that will assist in keeping that road in 

 repair without any appreciable outlay on the part of the town 

 in which the road lies, and is a great benefit to that town. 

 There is no question but what the longevity of any mac- 

 adam road is added to five or ten years by having that advan- 

 tage ; a macadam road delights in a semi-shade. It was no 

 doubtful compliment that was paid by a man who is second 

 only to Tennyson, the poet laureate of England, in his pro- 

 fession — J. C. Loudon — when he was asked by a committee 

 who had charge of a park what would they plant in the way 



