CITY FORESTRY AND SHADE TREES 161 
park plan may,be under expert supervision from the 
beginning. 
The duties of a city forester are many and varied. 
When work of this kind is begun one of the first 
things usually done is to take a census of all the shade 
trees in the city on a map showing the streets and 
blocks. Each tree is plotted on this map and its 
Species, condition and distance from the curb, side- 
walk, other trees, etc., is shown. With such a map in 
hand accurate information concerning streets and dis- 
tricts is available so that a beginning can be made where 
most needed. 
Choice of Trees——Another part of their work is the 
establishment of a municipal nursery where planting 
material for parks, playgrounds and streets can be 
raised for much less than private nurserymen would 
charge. The laying out of such a nursery and the prop- 
agation of species suited to the local conditions require 
a great deal of technical knowledge. The choice of 
trees for city planting is a question which requires a 
great deal of thought for trees, like human beings, have 
their peculiarities which may make some of them quite 
unfit for shade or park purposes. In the past many 
streets have been planted with trees that apparently 
were desirable only to find out thirty or forty years 
later that they possessed certain habits which made them 
objectionable. Among such undesirable trees the follow- 
ing might be mentioned: 
The Silver Maple—Fast-growing but very brittle and 
easily broken by wind or sleet. Grows in a straggly 
fashion; is comparatively short-lived and subject to 
insect and fungus attacks. 
The Carolina Poplar.—Possesses all the above objec- 
tionable points and in addition has the disagreeable 
