110 PLANTING. 



" Tree-planting in towns may be fairly considered as 

 a work to be taken into the consideration of our muni- 

 cipal authorities. We have more than once pointed 

 out the desirability, for several important reasons, of 

 the open spaces of towns being planted with trees. 

 A month or two since we referred to a paper, read at 

 the Manchester Town Hall by Mr Findlay, curator 

 of the Manchester Botanical Gardens, on this subject 

 (see 'British Architect' for October 25, 1878). Mr 

 Findlay, in his paper, dealt with the difSculties under 

 which trees in towns exist, and how these difficulties 

 may in a measure be overcome. He also gave a list 

 of the trees most suitable for town cultivation, how 

 to plant them, and their after management. Since 

 the meeting at which this paper was read and the 

 subject discussed, the Manchester City Council have 

 formed an Open Space Committee, under whose di- 

 rection several open spaces in the city have been 

 planted — viz., St Mary's Churchyard, South Parade ; 

 St George's Churchyard, Hulme ; All Saints' Church- 

 yard, and the Infirmary Grounds. The work has been 

 carried out according to the instructions given in Mr 

 Findlay's paper, and there is every likelihood that 

 the experiment may prove a successful one. It is to 

 be hoped that other spaces save churchyards will re- 

 ceive the consideration of the Open Space Committee, 

 and that the sickly specimens of tree-life in the sub- 

 urban streets, or groves and avenues, as they are 

 called, may also become the care of the committee. 

 Other towns in the cotton and woollen districts might 

 with advantage follow the example thus set in the 

 Cottonopolis. Tree-planting schemes of any magni- 

 tude, and likely to have beneficial sanitary effects, 

 require time for working out ; hence the desirability 



