FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 89 



authorities, statutes and decisions in order to find out what 

 every one is presumed to be famiHar with. A short time 

 ago 1 received a cohimunication from a tree warden reading- 

 something Hke this, with the names of persons suppressed. 

 "Dear Sir: I liave just been elected tree warden of the Town 



of and \\ould hke to know my duties and powers. 



It seems to me that the time for me to act has arrived, and 

 I am entirely ignorant what course to pursue. The occasion 

 for my action is this. The Tel- — — — (now I won't tell this 

 name as I started out with the announcement that all proper 

 names should be omitted, although no great mental effort 



will be required to imagine it) — the Tel has severed 



some large limbs from several magnificent shade trees in the 

 highways of our town. It is not the first time, and some of 

 our citizens would like to know if the existing laws are able 

 to protect our trees from mutilation and destruction. What 

 shall I do to bring the offenders to justice? Yours truly, 

 , Tree Warden." 



Now I knew a tree warden from the warden of the State 

 Prison, but the ofiice had been created so recently, and so 

 little had been done by tree wardens, that I knew no more 

 about their powers and duties than I did about the powers 

 and duties of the old Sho-Guns of Japan. In 1901 the 

 Legislature first authorized towns to elect tree wardens, but 

 the provision that they may elect them was not sufficient to 

 arouse the municipalities to a realization of the importance 

 of the office. In 1905, therefore, the General Assembly 

 made the election of a tree warden in each town which does 

 not include within its limits a city coextensive with the town, 

 imperative. The results are, the people are paying more 

 attention to trees, their uses and beauties, and their mutila- 

 tion and destruction by the commercial spirit of the age, and 

 a large body of officials is studying its powers and duties in 

 relation to these highest forms of the vegetable world. But 

 to return to my letter. Someone had mutilated a tree in the 

 public highway. Could he be punished, just what proceeding 

 must be started, and what has the tree warden tO' do with it? 



To make an intelligent reply to my enquirer, a knowledge 

 of all the circumstances was essential. For the ordinarv 



