I. Stttrofcurtum 



It will not be considered necessary in this report to discuss 

 the many ways in which trees on city streets affect the health, 

 the beauty and even the real estate values of the community. 

 Everyone has heard of these things, everyone believes them 

 and nearly everyone is willing to pay his share in securing 

 them. 



To the city dweller the street trees are peculiarly precious. 

 Foremost among the features which surround his home or 

 place of business they make real to him the changing seasons 

 and serve to remind him of the open country which lies be- 

 yond the confines of his masonry and asphalt existence. 



It is not surprising therefore the amount of interest which 

 problems in connection with street tree growth have awak- 

 ened during recent years not only in New York but in many 

 cities, for there are few questions of municipal life upon 

 which the average citizen is more unanimous in his opinion 

 than in the desirability of shade trees on the streets of his 

 city. 



In spite of this interest, however, and the popular support 

 of all movements in behalf of street trees the progress which 

 has been made in the art and practice of growing trees upon 

 the streets of our larger American cities has been largely neg- 

 ative. This is mainly because the street tree problem on ac- 

 count of its apparent simplicity has not received the amount 

 of serious attention from experts which it has demanded. 



Our city planners and landscape architects have for the 

 most part been engrossed with more adventurous problems 

 and our city foresters save in a few cases have given their 

 attention to the simpler horticultural and entomological prob- 

 lems of planting and care, rather than the more important 

 features of design, engineering and administration. 



(17) 



