FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 63 



I visited the place again in August and had a dead tree dug up to see if gas 

 had injured the roots. In this I was kindly assisted by Mr. Charles Thomas, 

 Vice-President and General Manager of the Flushing Gas Company, who furnished 

 the men to do the digging. A Maple tree, fifteen inches in diameter and about 

 thirty-five feet high, which stood in front of the schoolhouse on Sanford avenue, 

 was selected, a permit having been obtained from the Commissioner of Parks. 

 The roots were much blackened, as if colored by acids, and a strong odor of gas 

 came from the excavation. It should be stated, however, that the branches of 

 the tree had been broken by the ice storm which occurred in February ; telephone 

 wires were strung upon it, and it had suffered somewhat from insects. Sections 

 of the trunk and branches were sent to Albany by Mr. Frank A Collins, Deputy 

 Superintendent of School Buildings. These, though showing some rot, do not 

 give evidence that the borers had injured the tree sufficiently to cause its death. 

 It is well known, however, that leakage from gas mains is a common cause of 

 the destruction of trees. Twenty were thus killed in Albany this year: six Norway 

 Maples on Western avenue and fourteen Elms on State street. How much the 

 death of trees in Flushing is due to leakage from gas mains can be determined 

 only by the examination of a large number of dead trees, and this examination 

 can be carried on best by the people who have suffered damages from this 

 cause. 



Trees are, no doubt, injured by electricity when feed wires come in immediate 

 contact with the branches. Many instances are known of their having been set 

 on fire from trolley wires. Unless such contact exists, however, it is doubtful if 

 the trees receive any injury from electricity. 



As in all cities, many trees had been damaged by mutilations, some by the 

 gnawing of horses, and some by having been cut in digging for water mains, gas 

 mains and sewers, and in laying curbstones. Trees also die, no doubt, from lack 

 of plant-food, or from lack of water and air about the roots. Streets and sidewalks 

 are made hard and nearly impervious to water and air, and trees standing close 

 to them must suffer as a consequence. 



I would refer the Good Citizenship League to Bulletin 131, published in 

 November, 1900, by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, 

 Conn., and would advise that they act, as far as possible, upon the following 

 recommendations, which I have here given essentially as they are written in that 

 publication : 



(1) The rigid enforcement of the city ordinances which forbid the bruising, 

 injuring or destroying of trees, and the fastening of animals to trees in such a 

 way as to injure the latter. 



