4 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



poor road will permit of one row of trees, which should be placed on the south or 

 west side, as its direction may require, to temper the heat of the afternoon sun. 



One of the finest, smoothest roads in the State may be found in the Adirondack 

 forest — from St. Hubert's Inn to the Ausable Lakes — ■; and yet it is well shaded by- 

 trees that meet overhead, shutting out the sun except where the road is flecked 

 with light that streams through the small openings in the leafy cover. But this 

 road was constructed in proper shape, and of suitable material. 



Some States — noticeably New York and Massachusetts — have made large 

 appropriations recently for good roads, and these annual expenditures will not only 

 be continued but will probably be increased. With the money thus provided long 

 lines of stone highways with perfectly drained roadbeds have been constructed, and 

 with each succeeding year many more miles will be finished. We are entering on 

 an era of good roads. But the good work of the road-builders will not be com- 

 plete until trees are planted at proper distances on each side of the highway. In 

 his Annual Report for 1901, Hon. Edward A. Bond, State Engineer and Surveyor 

 (New York), states that the actual cost of 134 miles of stone macadam roads was 

 $7,955 per mile. Now it takes 196 trees to plant each side of a highway for one 

 mile ; and the cost of the planting will be less than two per cent of that of the road 

 construction. Having expended over $7,000 on the roadbed, there surely should be 

 no objection to paying $150 more in order to have a cool, shady driveway. Of 

 course, " dirt " roads have been constructed in some localities under the Good 

 Roads Law at a much less cost per rnile ; but the argument still holds good, in that 

 the work will not be complete until the trees are planted. Why not amend the 

 law so as to include the tree planting? 



The law of 1869, which is still in force, provides that any inhabitant liable to 

 highway tax who shall plant by the side of a public road '• any forest shade trees or 

 fruit trees" shall be allowed in abatement of his highway tax one dollar for every 

 four trees set. out. Similar laws for the reduction of road taxes, or for the payment 

 of a bounty, have been enacted in other States — Massachusetts, Connecticut and 

 Pennsylvania. In New York the law specifies that Elms must be planted, at least 

 seventy feet apart; that Maples "or other forest trees" shall not be set nearer 

 than fifty feet, except Locusts, which may be set at intervals of thirty feet. Fruit 

 trees must be planted at least fifty feet apart. Proper penalties are prescribed for 

 any one who shall injure a tree, or who shall hitch a horse or any animal to, or 

 leave the same standing near enough to injure a tree used for shade or ornament, at 



