PARK AND CEMETERY. 
15 
ELM STREET; CHARACTERISTIC TREATMENT OP SIDEWALK AND TREES 
Sidewalk bordered with lawn on both sides; trees on street side. 
way with what one may now see. In- 
telligent attention is given to careful 
instruction and many a barren factory 
home has been transformed into all that 
can be done with flowers and shrubs. 
Here, as in the case of the Cleveland 
Home Gardening Association work, 
real estate values have actually in- 
creased so that the gardeners have been, 
in what would have otherwise been 
their , idle and wasted moments, among 
the most constructive people in the 
community. Mr. Cable’s direct, per- 
sonal interest in this work has brought 
him into contact with people in a way 
far more helpful to them and to him 
than is that of the social settler who 
puts to his work the narrow bounds of 
wise instruction and moral homily. 
Northampton has many educational 
and charitable institutions worthy of 
note : Smith College, Forbes Library, 
the Clarke Institution (for the special 
instruction of the deaf), the Emily H. 
Burnham School, Hospital for the In- 
sane, Dickinson Hospital, Home for 
Aged and Invalid Women, the Smith 
Charities, .Whiting Street Poor Fund 
and others. Thus has a well rounded 
development come about, through in- 
dividual initiative or the activity of 
small groups: almost never, unfortu- 
nately, through general community ac- 
tion. 
The illustrations herewith nave been 
selected to show as far as possible the 
street trees, the chief item in the out- 
ward aspect of Northampton. They 
are everywhere present, even causing 
the county jail to be one of the most 
pleasant places to look upon, if not to 
tarry in. 
Century old elms are too numerous 
to attract individual notice. There are 
many magnificent trees which have 
seen 150 years of growth and a few 
which are well on to the 200 year 
mark. Thanks to the tree doctor, they 
will probably add at least another cen- 
tury to their existence. 
The most conspicuous example in 
Northampton of the modern method of 
dealing with a disabled tree is the Ed- 
wards elm. It was set out more than 
150 years ago, by Jonathan Edwards 
himself. The famous old preacher lived 
in Northampton a score or more of 
years, and this elm he planted in front 
of his house. House and preacher have 
long since moulded away, but the old 
tiee still stands. The profession of 
tree doctoring developed too late, 
though, to save the old tree in a hale 
and hearty condition. The trunk was 
so far gone that 100 barrels of cement 
were packed into it before it was con- 
sidered ready for tinning over. It will 
not live a great many years even now. 
In Northampton the trees not only 
receive enough cement to protect the 
open wound, but also are built up with 
it to their natural symmetry of shape. 
Then this cement trunk is covered with 
tin plates, which are painted so as to 
be as inconspicuous as possible. In 
this way some of the finest trees in the 
state liave been preserved, and unless 
other localities wake up to greater ac- 
tivity this part of the Connecticut Val-- 
ley will soon boast the finest old elms 
in the country. 
There are maples here, too, which 
are 150 years old. The maples are 
treated in a slightly different manner 
from the elms. After the cavity is 
cleaned out it is filled with wood driven 
in piece by piece, till the cavity is en- 
tirely full, when it is tinned over and 
painted. 
Mr. Clarke says that if old orchards 
receive a little care of this sort they 
would live to return good profits to 
their owners. He himself had an old 
apple tree — about seventy-five years 
old — which he repaired, putting in sev- 
eral barrels of cement where it had 
decayed. 
