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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



desirability of adjacent property. There should as a rule be in 



the neighborhood of 200 trees to a mile of street, which would give 

 rows on both sides with the trees in each about 50 feet apart. 

 Col. William Fox of the State Forest Preserve estimates that 

 there should be 196 trees a mile. None of these could be replaced 

 for less than $10 apiece and in not a few instances 10 times 

 the amount would be inadequate to secure their duplication. 

 Furthermore the supply is very limited and can not be renewed 

 under 25 to 50 years. Taking the above figures as a basis it is 

 interesting to estimate the total amount of this form of wealth. 

 The city of New York, with over 3200 miles of street, has shade 

 trees valued at the enormous sum of $6,475,100. There is an 

 entomologist connected with the department of public parks in the 

 borough of Manhattan and he, with a force of men, does all that 

 is possible with the means at his command to protect the trees 

 in that large area. The cities of Albany and Troy, each with 

 about 100 miles of street and shade trees therein valued at nearly 

 $200,000, were compelled by the ravages of the elm leaf beetle 

 in the early 90's to adopt some measure for the protection of 

 their elms. Experience is costly, and before the public really 

 comprehended the danger some 2500 trees in the two cities were 

 ruined or dead, a loss of at least $25,000 and probably of double 

 or treble that amount. The result has been that the city of Albany 

 as a municipality has in the last few years expended annually with 

 most beneficial results from $1600 to about $2000 in protecting 

 its trees from this pest, while the same ends have been obtained 

 in Troy through private enterprise. It is estimated that all the 

 cities of the State have 6831.9 miles of street giving us a total 

 valuation for the trees therein of $12,590,524. This is by no 

 means the whole, as many beautiful villages throughout the State 

 owe much of their attractiveness and prosperity to the rows of 

 stately trees adorning their streets. Our incorporated villages have 

 at least 2800 miles of street, and using the same estimate as before 

 we have a total of $5,511,324, representing the value of street 

 trees in the villages. There are in addition to the above, accord- 

 ing to estimates by the State Engineer, 73.746 miles of country 

 road, most of which might easily be bordered here and there with 

 street trees. A pertinent suggestion was made a few years ago 

 by Colonel Fox, who advocated the setting of trees beside the 

 newly built State roads, stating that only 2fo additional would 

 be necessary for this purpose. 



