64 
trees to support the drought and dirt to which trees in cities are sub- 
jected. The Ailanthus, however, cannot be successfully used in narrow 
streets. The streets which are usually planted in this country are not 
in the business and most densely populated sections of cities but in 
their residential quarters and in their suburbs; and it is difficult to find 
the proper trees to plant along the usually narrow streets of their out- 
lying districts. There are objections to most of the trees which gen- 
erally have been used for this purp>ose. At the north the tree which 
has been most generally planted along streets is the American Elm-tree. 
It is one of the finest trees in the world, and as it may sometimes be 
seen shading the broad central street of an old New England village 
no street tree can equal it. The American Elm, however, will not 
flourish in sterile soil, and it cannot bear drought or atmosphere con- 
tinually filled with dust and smoke. It needs room in which to grow, 
and its wide-spreading branches unfit it for the narrow streets usually 
found in the suburbs of large cities. Some of the Old World Elms are 
narrower trees, and the Hedge-row Elm of southern England, usually 
known in this country as Ulmus campestris, has grown well in Boston 
and its neighborhood for more than a hundred years and proved a bet- 
ter city tree than the American Elm. It is, however, too large a tree 
for the ordinary suburban street. The Sugar Maple is one of the best 
trees to plant by country roadsides, but the Sugar Maple cannot bear 
the hardships of city life, and even in suburbs usually languishes. The 
so-called Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is much better able to adapt 
itself to the conditions trees have to put up with in cities and in their 
neighborhood. It has been largely used as a street tree, but the trunk 
is too short and the branches are too low and form too broad a head 
for a good street tree. What is needed for street planting are tall, 
fast-growing trees with erect or semi-erect branches forming a head 
narrow enough to find room between the curb and the property line 
but wide enough to shade the street. An American Elm which may be 
expected to be a valuable tree for street-planting has recently been 
discovered in the neighborhood of Rochester, New York. This tree is 
now from seventy to eighty feet high, with a short trunk from which 
spring several long erect main branches which form a head not more 
than eighteen feet in diameter. It will be largely propagated for street- 
planting in Rochester. In Rochester, too, have recently been found 
two Norway Maples with erect growing branches. The head of one of 
these trees is too narrow for street-planting, but the other with an 
oval head equal in width to a quarter the height of the tree promises 
to be useful for this purpose. In the cities of the Southern States the 
streets are usually wider than in the north and the Water Oak (Quer- 
cus nigra) finds room in which to develop; and there is not in any 
country a handsomer, and more easily managed street tree than the 
Water Oak, which unfortunately is not hardy anywhere in the north. 
