200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



another man's land. We have had a law by which the tree 

 warden or the town could designate certain trees, and say 

 they were shade trees and were set apart for the purposes of 

 travel. And now the law comes in and takes the whole, and 

 says no man can touch anything on the roadside without the 

 consent of the warden. 



Mr. Bennett. I was chairman of the committee that 

 reported that bill in the last Legislature. I do not claim any 

 especial responsibility for it, because Mr. Ellsworth was on 

 that committee, and took more interest in the matter than I 

 did. It is often the case that public sentiment goes far be- 

 yond that of the abutter. For instance, we have in the town 

 of Saugus an old elm planted by Professor Roby. He has 

 been dead over a hundred years, but he was a friend of 

 every one, and his memory is strong in that town to-day. 

 The people have a stronger interest in that elm than the per- 

 son who happens to live opposite it. When a person lives 

 in a community like that, and sees the street railway com- 

 panies and the telegraph and telephone companies cut down 

 the trees and through the roots to run the wires, he sees the 

 necessity for some powerful authority in the matter. The 

 committee took a very judicial attitude. They recognized 

 that, as with the tariff law, there are conflicting interests. 



It was presented to us at that time that we were taking 

 away from the abutter a certain right to cut the trees he 

 owns. You have to have a certain amount of forbearance. 

 You have to frame the laws so as to be of the greatest good 

 to the greatest number. 



You say you are giving the tree warden great power. In 

 our large towns 3^ou have assessors, and you take away 

 power from the selectmen and give it to them, because you 

 want specialists who will take that particular department. 

 You place upon some one man authority and power in re- 

 gard to the shade trees, but you have a chance to get at him 

 at the end of his term. These two diflerent conditions of 

 affairs came before the committee, the one representing these 

 communities which are suffering terrible hardships from the 

 reckless depredations 1)y street railway companies and other 

 public-service corporations, and who want protection ; and 

 on the other hand you have the people living in the remoter 



