5 o EUCALYPTUS. 



plants, for reasons that I cannot guess at, unless it be an 

 antipathy to forests from hereditary experience of unfavor- 

 able conditions for rabbits and ground squirrels. It may 

 be interesting to some prospective planter to know how 

 the squirrels were conquered. I poisoned them with strych- 

 nine in watermelons for six miles in a strip sixteen hun- 

 dred feet wide, then had boys cover the holes. All the 

 holes reopened within ten days were reclosed, after placing 

 a piece of cotton saturated with bi-sulphide of carbon in- 

 side. The first method is a cheap, wholesale scheme, but 

 will not kill on a second trial those few that escape the 

 first. The squirrels will not again take it. The second 

 is too expensive for wholesale work, but is excellent as a 

 sort of amen. The trees on these six miles of road are 

 now safe, and make a most pleasing difference in the ap- 

 pearance and comfort of the roads. In this road planting 

 I used a number of varieties. In fact, most of the trees 

 were donated and we took what we could get, otherwise 

 the business and frequent re-plants could not, from financial 

 reasons, have been brought to a successful finish. I hope that 

 I so grouped the trees and arranged the lines that the pres- 

 ent pleasing effect will not be lost. In general, good effects 

 in road side tree planting are best obtained by a single 

 species of tree. When a street or road has trees planted 

 on it without either a unity of species or a unity of 

 plan it is incapable of an inspiring effect. The old elm 

 lined streets in New England are both beautiful and glo- 

 rious. Once seen they cannot be forgotten. The striking 

 beauty of these roads is due to the monopoly of the 

 elm. But a medley of trees on a street is a confused 

 bungle incapable of greatness. In our remarkable South- 

 ern California progress we see a good many cases of this 



