54 



GARDE NE R 5* MA G A ZINE. 



January 22, 1898. 



Tree Preservation in Suburban Districts. ?'- c I^V/ 1^5?^^^ ^ e ^ ^ H» ^ ««wn 



In the course of an important paper contributed by Mr. John Wilson, Leazes 

 Park, Newcastle, to the " Transactions " of the English Arboricultural Society 

 on the planting and management of town and surburban trees the author makes 

 the following pertinent remarks with reference to tree preservation : — 



In laying out suburban land for ordinary street purposes, it becomes no easy 

 matter sometimes to save existing trees ; still, I am satisfied that, with reasonable 

 care and consideration, much might be done toward their better protection and 

 preservation. The general tenor of public opinion at the present time is in favour 

 of preserving old trees whenever it is reasonably possible. In this matter, how- 

 ever, the same public opinion, it must be confessed, is often weak against personal 

 interest, and is often also purposely withheld, probably on the principle that 

 * 1 what is everybody's business is nobody's business." Therefore things are 

 often allowed to go on without any kind of protest, and a good deal of unnecessary 

 destruction consequently takes place. I hold it to be the province of such a society 

 as the English 'Arboricultural Society, to use its influence in order to support 

 public sentiment in regard to such matters. This it ought to be able to do with 

 a competent knowledge, and without any particular danger of being carried away 

 by the fascination of hobby. Hobbies, it must be remembered, if not wisely 

 tempered with consideration for others, are ever apt to carry their riders beyond 

 the bounds of a reasonable limit ; and I have known an intemperate zeal for pre- 

 serving old trees pushed to such a ridiculous extent as to almost warrant the 

 epithet of folly. As an individual, I advocate every reasonable care in the pre- 

 servation of old trees (and I wish the society to advocate it as well), but not to 

 push the matter to extremes. It is remarkably easy to persons who have no 

 monetary interests at stake, to point out how things can be done ; but how far 

 will it prevail with those whose chief concern is pounds, shillings, and pence ? 

 The most that can reasonably be expected from them is that no wanton destruction 

 shall be permitted to take place. Perhaps I might go a step further and appeal 

 to the good sense of responsible workmen. I have often noticed with regret that 

 when trees have been left standing they have frequently been sadly disfigured 

 through sheer carelessness. Bark stripped off, branches broken and mutilated, 

 roots hacked and bruised, and the whole tree so hopelessly damaged that it were 

 better to have taken it down altogether. Instances such as these are the more 

 regrettable when it is evident that a little care and common sense in the method of 

 working might have preserved an object of beauty, and, perhaps, of considerable 

 usefulness too. 



It not unfrequently happens that when excavations are being made for buildings, 

 some of the roots of the trees are unavoidably laid bare, and have to be cut away. 

 This often affords a favourable opportunity to add some fresh material to the trees 

 in order to induce the growth of fresh young fibres, which are ever the health- 

 sustaining portion of the roots. A little extra care when chances like these offer 

 would doubtless often save considerable trouble and expense afterwards to those 

 immediately concerned and with ultimate satisfaction. 



I have principally in view middle-class streets, and it remains for me to say a 

 few words about the more pretentious streets. These always offer a much better 

 field to the arboriculturist : more money, more influence, more space— in short, 

 infinitely belter opportunities of displaying a decorative taste. Even the builder 

 himself has here a better chance to be merciful, and to 44 spare the tree," when 

 the garden space is larger. Suburban villas, too, as a rule, afford good scope for 

 the growing of fancy trees. Indeed, I often think towns are characteristic in 

 their suburban planting. I judge not altogether from the main bulk of the trees 

 planted, but rather from that love shown for having the rarer and more beautiful 

 species dotted about. In some places, poplar, willow, sycamore, elder, privet, and 

 such like, satisfy the paucity of arboricultural taste. 



One thing I ought to mention here in reference to the preservation of old trees 

 on new villa sites, that is, the great difficulty of adapting young and newly-planted 

 trees to the old ones left standing, and at the same time having due regard to the 

 general effect. It becomes a nice question of taste, and a good deal might be said 

 about^ it which would be interesting to landscape gardeners, as well as to those 

 more intimately concerned in the preservation of trees. 



It must be admitted that tree planting, in and about large towns, has received 

 a considerable impetus during recent years. Much, however, yet remains to be 

 done in order to improve the methods of planting, and particularly in regard to 

 the way the trees are afterwards cared for. Trees of more suitable quality require 

 to be provided and planted, and, in many cases, more of them, so that a selection 

 CI only the best and most vigorous can afterwards be made. It is a remarkable 

 fact that while certain trees, in a particular situation, at once start away and con- 

 tinue to thrive, others, under the same apparent conditions, languish and die 

 although the plants at the first were of the same quality, and had the same care 

 bestowed upon them. 



Where trees are transplanted favourably— that is, into better conditions— they 

 much sooner overcome the effects of removal from the nursery ground than when 

 transplanted unfavourably. Trees intended to be planted in towns should never 

 be grossly grown in the nursery, but should always be of a firm, robust, and 

 healthy consutution, and with plenty of fibrous roots, so that a good start if 

 possible, may be ensured to them in their new home. Richly and closely-grown 

 trees always suffer most from removal, on account of their more attenuated 

 character, both of roots and branches. They, no doubt, make the best appear- 

 ance when so grown, and for that reason are more attractive to the inexperienced 

 purchaser. Price and height—the common tests usually employed— are of them- 

 selves very inadequate standards to judge the qualities of trees by, and are never 

 adopted by one who thoroughly knows what he is about. One is reminded of the 

 story of the man who, having a house to sell, brought a brick with him to town in 

 his pocket as a sample of the property. 



■ When once young trees have been planted and become established it is a verv 

 important matter indeed to know how to take care of them. There is, I reeret to 

 say, oftentimes far greater lack of judgment displayed in their after-management 

 than at the first planting. I have frequently noticed, too, that many of those 

 persons who have been most enthusiastic about tree-planting in towns take com- 

 paratively little interest m the matter afterwards. Now, if the pecu krities ^f 

 human character were the subject of my disquisitions, I might follow uv> this as 

 rather an interesting trait ; but dealing as I do with the subjects of plantine and 



shade and shelter, and are infin]telvTe7s \rK^ *? oid both 



interested in them at all stages of 9 ll&JZ^h 1 Y th V n * us . last that is 



trees, which the storms had shattered, because he and they had grown old togeth 

 This is the natural conservative spirit in an old man, for long-loved and km T 

 objects. A bond of sympathy even for old trees that, like their master Tl 

 baffled time, and, as it were, fought for immortality ; for it is a universal princil 

 that everything struggles to be— that is, to endure on its own individual accoum 

 This, it may be said, is but sentiment. Perhaps it is so, but how are our pt a 

 old trees, picturesque and historic trees, going to be preserved without sentiment) 

 I heartily wish that there were more genuine sentiment in favour of such grani 

 and noble productions of the earth. 5 m 



A sort of protracted murder (I can call it by no other name) is frequently 

 perpetrated upon town trees under the plausible term, pruning. Amonc "all ft 

 varied operations connected with arboricultural work, this appears to^ me ih 

 least intelligibly understood. Foresters may wrangle and argue about the fa 

 methods of securing the greatest amount of marketable timber at the least possible 

 cost. I shall not meddle with that ; it is a money-making job, and outside of mv 

 legitimate domain. With regard to ornamental trees,|however, or trees planted for 

 ornamental purposes, I do claim, according to charter, so to speak, the right to say 

 a few words. There is plenty of room for dispute with regard to the consistent 

 of many of the practices that come under the name of management. Management 

 as applied to ornamental trees, may be regarded as a kind of professional inter' 

 ference with the ways of Nature, in order to bring about a result in some way 

 consistent with the adopted ideas of the " professor " himself. However, though 

 we may admire Nature fervently, we do not choose that she should have 

 unqualified liberty to disport herself in vagrant freedom about our dwelling 

 According to the peculiar dictates of his fancy, man seeks to subject the 

 joyous liberty of Nature to his prosaic convenience. . If he be a person 

 endowed with a well-balanced judgment, and has withal a cultivated 

 taste, he will never coerce his trees beyond what more important considera- 

 tions require. The object chiefly in view when planting ornamental trees is 

 that they may grow and display some characteristic beauty. Now, beauty 

 in a tree is not confined to any special form, but each kind assumes a general 

 shape peculiar to its tribe, which is always more or less pleasing as it approxi- 

 mates a perfect type. To be periodically hacking trees into shapes unnatural to 

 them, common sense might induce people to see was absolutely wrong ; yet this 

 is what is constantly taking place under a mistaken idea of pruning. Pruning, 

 in its proper sense, is not, surely, to ruthlessly denude a tree of a lot of its healthy 

 branches, but to train, thin, and regulate them with considerate care, with due 

 regard always to the character and well-being of the tree itself. Why young 

 trees intended for picturesque effect about a lawn should be trimmed into poles' 

 with a tuft of branches at the top, I can never quite understand. Things of 

 beauty are altogether out of the question. It never seems to enter the heads o( 

 those practitioners that, in addition to making a thing that is hidecus, they are at 

 the same time mincing away the vital energy of the plant itself, and helping every 

 adverse element to bring about its ultimate destruction. I have often noticed, too, 

 certain shrubs and bushes that have been persistently cut down, gradually, after a 

 few years, to give up the ghost, and " pass into nothingness." It seems to me tha: 

 if trees were " protected " against this kind of unnatural treatment, a great and im- 

 portant point would be gained, and there would be vastly fewer sickly, hide-bound 

 specimens disgracing our suburban gardens and public pleasure grounds. The 

 same physiological principle holds goods in regard to roots. Where annual dig- 

 ging is practised, great quantities of young fibrous roots are constantly being 

 destroyed, which still further debilitates the struggling tree. 



When trees have outgrown reasonable bounds, however, and it has become 

 necessary to curtail them, it should always be done carefully, and with well 

 sharpened tools. Every competent arboriculturist knows that it is seldom required 

 to cut off large branches from growing trees, but that they can be reduced bj 

 judicious " shortening back," as it is called, and with little or no disfigurement to 

 the tree itself. In " shortening back," the cuts should always be made clean, as 

 these heal up much more readily than when the operation is roughly performed. 

 Besides, it betrays a peculiar kind of negligence and want of skill when long 

 tongues of bark are left protruding from the sides of the cuts. Even where large 

 branches are to be taken off by the saw, it is always advisable to smooth the 

 surface of the saw-cut with some edge-tool. This prevent* the damp from hang- 

 ing upon the rough surface and causing decay. Indeed, as a further merns of pre- 

 servation, it is a commendable plan to paint any large cut carefully over ; and this 

 is almost always done by skilful workmen. 



It is always very important that newly-planted specimen trees should be staked 



or stayed in some way, in order to prevent them from being knocked about by the 

 wind. More particularly ought this to be attended to in regard to trees planted 

 on the sides of streets. The common practice is to tie them to one strong stake, 

 which should be proportioned to the height of the tree. A watchful eye should 

 be kept on the ties, so that they be kept secure, and no damage done by their 

 cutting into the bark. A good plan of supporting trees, and consequently a means 

 of protection, is, that instead of a single post-like stake, to have three, or ev* 

 four, lighter ones placed round the stem, but not too close to the bottom. The 

 will be brought together at the tops and secured, along with the stem of the tree: 

 and a little wrapping of some kind should be put round, in order to protect tt* 

 bark against friction. It is not advisable to have the supports too rigid ; they w* 

 be all the better in giving a little to the strong winds, so long as they have sufficg 

 elasticity to recover themselves from the strain. No doubt this latter method m 

 m the first instance, be a little more trouble and expense, but it will be sufficient? 

 compensated by the efficacy of the work when it is once done, 



As to the general management of common trees, planted principally for o& 

 ment, there is really not much to be said. The leading points are tolerably *J 



understood by all experienced men. Local circumstances, no doubt, often r . 

 an important part, which is inexplicable to science ; and which renders it* 

 always wise to dogmatically denounce rule-of-thumb experience. Indeed, it * 

 seem both prudent and profitable to keep in friendly touch with common wort* 

 day methods. They will certainly not square at all points with the technj* 

 formulas laid down in the school ; but where satisfactory results stand out in 

 dent contradiction to authorised rule (which not unfrequentlv happens among 

 vated trees), there is something for science to investigate d posteriori,** 



schoolman might say, and to establish a definable connection between cause*" 

 effect. 



"THE PLAY'S THE iUJ 



men since the time when Shakesp 

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M^rJ 6 °^ re ^ e .( ant | Cllre f°i must Known complaints in all parts ot the civ 



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