No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 34S 



disease and others have all been imported from some foreign country 

 through our greed to have everything that some one else possesses. 



The insect problem, nsvertheless, has in a way been a benefit to us. 

 It has brought to the notice of the people in general, through actual experi- 

 ence, the fact that a city or town without shade trees is a pretty poor place 

 to live in. It has made them observe their trees, and has caused certain 

 people to awake to the fact that trees, like any other living thing, cannot 

 be set down in artificial conditions and expected to live on forever without 

 some kind of nourishment and care. 



There are a number of other items that enter into the cause of decline 

 of our shade trees in the past quarter century, and especially so in our cities. 

 The shade tree in most of our modern cities has a very hard life to live. 

 Practically all the conditions under which it is forced to grow are entirely 

 foreign to its natural element. The soil usually is not as good; it has in 

 most cases been impoverished by continued use for agricultural purposes 

 before it w\as cut up into building lots. In many cases the land has been 

 made by filling in with ashes, stones and other refuse. In other cases the 

 rich top soil has been removed to enable a grade to be established, the tree 

 being set out originally in poor soil and handicapped from the very start. 

 To add to this handicap, the atmospheric conditions are much different 

 from what they used to be. The air is full of smoke, dust from oiled streets 

 and noxious gases from various manufactm"ing plants. All these choke 

 the lungs of the tree (its leaves) and cut off its supply of pure air. Add to 

 this the fact that its roots are cut off when the road is regraded, again 

 when the sidewalk is put in; that a tar or cement sidewalk and a macadam 

 or paved street is put in around its roots and its water supply cut off. 

 Then what chance has the poor tree of living? 



To meet all these conditions the tree has to change its way of growing 

 many times, and becomes almost an entirely different tree from the same 

 species growing under natural conditions. Some species are not capable 

 of doing this, and will therefore die and have to be removed. It has be- 

 come necessary for us therefore to make a study of the species most ca- 

 pable of living under these adverse conditions and to replace the less 

 desirable ones with these. 



When a tree has all it can do to obtain nourishment enough to live on, 

 it does not take much of a setback to allow the entrance of some disease, 

 which once started quickly weakens the tree, allowing other diseases to 

 take hold, which, combined, quickly prove fatal. 



The familiar stag-headed effect, i.e., the top of the trees dying, leaving 

 only the lower limbs alive and green, is caused in most cases from lack of 

 nourishment and moisture. This lack of moisture is not always caused 

 from the absence of the proper elements in the soil, but from the weaken- 

 ing of the tree to such an extent that it is unable to assimilate it. The past 

 few very dry summers have had their effect on the shade trees of all locali- 

 ties, and especially so with us on account of our topography. The dry, 

 hot summer has almost stopped growth in the tree, and then the fall rains 



