342 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



city forester must be a man of special training, equipped to handle not only 

 the old work but all the forestry and arboricultural interests of his city, 

 such as establishing a nursery in which to raise the trees to plant his 

 streets with, looking after the health and preservation of the older trees of 

 the city, and being able to advise the citizens about their properties from 

 a commercial as well as an aesthetic standpoint, and establishing and main- 

 taining a municipal forest, the products of which will help run his depart- 

 ment. 



At the present time, however, the chief duty of a city forester is the care 

 of shade trees. In taking over the position of forester in any city, the 

 first duty is to obtain information in regard to his city and the condition 

 of the trees there. To accomplish this he should first of all take a tree 

 census, i.e., all trees standing on public streets should be listed and a record 

 of same kept at a central office for future reference. This work should be 

 done as far as possible personally, as it gives him the personal acquaintance 

 with his trees and their surroundings. After this information has been 

 tabulated, and the forester has made himself familiar with his surround- 

 ings, his next step should be to get into the real work of putting the old 

 trees into better condition, removing worthless specimens, and replacing 

 and adding new trees to the streets. He should first of all obtain the 

 services of a good active man of considerable experience in tree work to 

 act as foreman, and then through this foreman put his own ideas into 

 practice. 



The question is often asked, "Why is it necessary to have a city forester 

 at all? Why do we need to spend so much money on our shade trees? 

 Cannot they take care of themselves as they have for centuries, without 

 the necessity of having a high-salaried official to look after them? Our 

 trees looked better twenty years ago, and with less care than they now 

 have. Why is it? " 



The answer is plain to one versed in the progress of modern events. 

 Our entire mode of living has changed in the past half century; we live 

 faster, we require more in everything. We are not satisfied with what we 

 have been blessed with naturally but we wish for everything that we see 

 others have. This same holds true about trees. We have not been satis- 

 fied with the species we find growing here naturally. We wish for some we 

 have seen in Europe, Japan or China. This is only natural; it simply 

 coincides with the progress of things in every branch of life. To satisfy 

 this we have imported foreign trees, shrubs and flowers, and with these 

 foreign plants we have also imported foreign diseases, which in their 

 native countries are not fatal, as nature has there established a balance, 

 and created parasites which in turn keep the pests down and preserve the 

 trees. This sudden change, however, of the insect or disease from one 

 climate to another often kills the parasite, or it is not imported, wliile the 

 disease itself enters and becomes fatal to our trees. This accounts for 

 practically all of our worst tree pests. The gypsy moth, brown-tail moth, 

 elm-leaf beetle, San Jos6 scale, leopard moth, probably chestnut bhght 



