CHAPTER XX. 



Town and Park Planting. 



Theke is perhaps nothing which gives so much pleasure to people 

 residing in towns and cities as trees planted along the streets and other 

 thoroughfares. The shade received from them makes the walks cool, 

 and the bright glare which is so trying to the eyes is mellowed down to 

 such a degree that walking in the busy streets in the noon-day heat 

 becomes bearable, and even pleasant, to all. Moreover, the effect of 

 having the thoroughfares of our cities lined with arboreous growths would 

 be to purify and regulate the condition of the air, and thus make it suit- 

 able for the healthy residence of the people. Trees are very searching 

 and wonderful scavengers, and their leaves so act upon and assimilate 

 deleterious gases arising from the gregarious habits of men, that many 

 epidemic diseases consequent upon atmospheric distui-bances are frequently 

 prevented by them. 



That happy and beneficial results would flow to the city and towns of 

 South Australia, if trees were planted regularly and systematically along 

 both sides of the streets and roads, there can be no question of doubt. 

 Indeed, with the climate which we possess, the general good which 

 would arise from this would be far greater than we are at present really 

 aUve to. It is most gratifying, therefore, to find that the spirit of the 

 age in regard to tree-planting is upon us, and that the municipal bodies 

 of several of our largest centres of population are making praiseworthy 

 efforts to make them "a thing of beauty and a joy for ever." 

 Prominent among these I have pleasure in naming, besides our fine 

 city of Adelaide, the townships of Jamestown, Gladstone, Port Pirie, 

 Port Augusta, Strathalbyn, Gawler, and Kapunda. 



The rearing of trees of a character suitable for planting in streets and 

 avenues generally, the manner in which they should be dealt with when 

 planted into their sites, and their management afterwards, requiring very 

 special treatment, I shall devote this chapter to giving some hints on 

 the various matters connected with the subject as a whole, for the 

 guidance of our municipal bodies and others. 



Under another heading of this work will be found a list of the kinds 

 of trees which I consider suitable for street-planting generally. I 

 am strongly of the opinion — which is derived from Parisian, and American 

 experience in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and Toronto, of such 

 matters — ^that deciduous trees are, as a rule, better suited for planting in 

 our streets than those of an evergreen habit. In the cities named, such 



