82 AMERICAN MUSEUM (AIDE LEAFLETS 



ARRANGEMENT, SELECTION AND CARE OF LAWN AND 

 STREET TREES 



WHEN planting trees about the home, arrangement and selection 

 must be considered from other than the economic standpoint. 

 For instance, instead of scattering trees over the lawn and 

 grounds, it is better to mass them on two or three sides of the buildings as 

 a frame for a picture, leaving open space centrally. In this, dense effects 

 may he produced by filling in a lower story with shade-enduring trees or 

 shrubs such as beech, sassafras, dogwood, witchhazel, tupelo, hornbeam and 

 birch. Consider the view and plant no tall trees in position to obscure it. 

 If the grounds are large, little mistake can be made if the picturesque 

 effects of natural forestation are followed; that is, if a brook passes through 

 the lawn droop willows over it, or if there is a small lake fill a point of land 

 with them. If there is a rocky slope make it beautiful with hemlock and 

 beech. Group birches so that they will be set off by a background of dark 

 tree trunks or of evergreens (Fig. ~>4); plant the low ground-juniper in 

 open stretches. Lombardy poplars add a conventional touch to the scene; 

 locusts distract from the formal. An occasional isolated tree may be 

 effective; oaks, elms, beeches, maples and many others make luxuriant 

 growth when standing alone (Fig. 55). Add some evergreens in all artistic 

 planting if only for the effect in winter. (Frontispiece.) 



Plant many trees in cities. They not only give moisture and coolness 

 to the air but also actually make it more fit to breathe by taking out its 

 carbon dioxide ami increasing its supply of oxygen (see Fig. 17, p. 20). 

 Trees in congested city neighborhoods tend directly to diminish the sum- 

 mer death rate among children. 



In planting along city streets the conventional row must be followed; 

 but on country roads a more natural arrangement should prevail, groups of 

 trees alternating with spaces left open for distant views. .Mass tall sun- 

 loving trees with lower shade-enduring trees or with shrubs, and in places 

 allow wild grape and shrubby bittersweet to add their artistic presence. 

 Why conventionalize country roadways? Conformity to the conventional 

 must exist in most that greets our eyes — in city streets, in agricultural fields, 

 in tree plantations. A country roadway may be orderly and yet have a 

 natural arrangement of trees and shrubs, which will have the advantage also 

 of making the place a more attractive rendezvous for our native birds. 



