452 Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



One of our local horticulturists and botanists is fond of saying that a 

 ten cent tree planted in a fifty cent hole will soon outgrow and always surpass 

 in healthful vigor a fifty cent tree planted in a ten cent hole. He is quite right. 

 Too much attention cannot be given to the preparation, of the soil bed that 

 acts for the plant as does the foundation for a building; for it lies at the 

 bottom of the tree's health, theoretically and literally. Where the soil is poor, 

 a hole should be dug from three to four feet deep, sometimes as long as twelve 

 or fifteen feet, and filled with light, loose, rich loam obtained especially for 

 the purpose. If a hardpan exists anywhere near the surface of the ground, 

 the bottom of the hole should be shot with dynamite- to crack this layer, thus 

 asisuring drainage and conservation of the moisture. Now such preparations 

 seem rather extensive and expensive, but nevertheless become capital stock 



4 Plate 19(i. Blue Kan Palm {Krythtn w , , .,). This well illustrates how our i)uhlic 

 service companies are allowed to ornament the streets. They show even less 

 taste than the ordinary tree planters. 



for the city that really desires to have avenues of beautiful trees, for they 

 will save much later expense that would otherwise become necessary, aside 

 from greatly increasing the growth and beauty of the trees. 



Now that we have set the tree it might be well to see what we have 

 planted, though this does not generally seem to worry the planter very seri- 

 ously. I, personally, feel that trees of pyramidal or straight, slender habits 

 of growth are not satisfactory as street trees in California, for they not only 

 afford no shade, but the}' shut out the wind, reflect the heat from the smooth 

 pavement and add a stiffness and formality to the landscape that detracts 

 from its beauty and becomes monotonous. ]\Iost of the palms and conifers 

 fall quite naturally under these two heads and are also being quite generally 

 used as roadside trees. 



