PARK AND CEMETERY. 
130 
STREET SHADE TREES AND THEIR TROUBLES 
There is nothing which adds so 
much to the beauty of a town or city 
as shade trees, and persons of good 
taste appreciate this fact. One will 
notice in traveling that the villages 
adorned with a large number of beau- 
tiful shade trees are those in which 
have existed for some time consider- 
able public spirit, refinement and cul- 
ture. On the other hand, mill towns 
whose inhabitants have no perma- 
nent homes, are usually notable for 
their lack of trees and embellish- 
ments in general. Shade trees, how- 
ever, possess another value, — that of 
utility, and we wish to call attention 
to this feature because it is not gen- 
erally appreciated and furthermore 
because it will appeal to the practical 
man who is little in sympathy with 
the beautiful in any form. The de- 
, cisions of courts in this country have 
in more than one instance proved that 
trees possess a property value, and in 
many cases from $50 to $200 or more 
have been awarded to the abutter for 
the destruction of a single tree. It 
makes little difference whether a tree 
is located on the street or on private 
land or whether it is, set out by the 
town or city, or by the abutter, since 
a tree in front of a piece of property 
adds value to it and the abutter can 
claim damages for the destruction of 
such a tree. An elm tree 18 to 20 
inches in diameter, for example, may 
be worth $100 to $300, and one would 
experience little difficulty in obtain- 
ing recompense for the destruction of 
such a tree. If a gas leak occurs in 
front of a certain property and a tree 
is killed by gas, the owner can take 
the case before a court and obtain 
damages, the amount to be based up- 
on the deterioration of the property 
owing to the destruction of the tree. 
There appears, to be no legitimate 
reason why a city or town should not 
appropriate money for the setting out 
of trees along streets and highways, 
although of course the taxpayer bears 
the burden of expense. It is recog- 
nized that a sidewalk or curb put in 
front of an estate is an improvement 
to it, the abutter being taxed for such 
improvements, and since a tree is an 
Lecture before the Worcester County Hortti ultural 
Society, by G. L Stone., Botanist , Lila.ssa- 
cliusetts Agricultziral College. 
improvement to an estate and has a 
property value there is no reason why 
the community as a whole cannot be 
taxed for such improvements. More- 
over, the value of a tree is continu- 
ally increasing, since a tree which 
costs $2.00 or $3.00 to plant should 
be worth $100 to $200 or more in the 
course of 50 years. This aspect of 
the problem should undoubtedly be 
emphasized at the present time, as 
many individuals regard trees as 
merely ornamental and of no utili- 
tarian value. 
The matter of selecting trees is im- 
portant from the point of view of sus- 
ceptibility to disease as well as from 
the aesthetic and utilitarian aspect, 
and the following list, prepared by 
Col. W. F. Fox, Superintendent of 
the State Forest of New York, is quite 
complete : 
Wide Streets 
American or White Elm; Hard or 
Sugar Maple; Tulip Tree; Basswood 
(Linden); Horse-chestnut; Sweet 
Gum; Sycamore, (Buttonball) ; White 
Ash; Scarlet Oak; White Oak; Red 
Oak; Honey-Locust; American Chest- 
nut; Sycamore Maple; Italian Poplar. 
Narrow Streets 
Norway Maple; White or Silver 
Maple; Red iMaple; Ailanthus; Cu- 
cumber Tree; Ginkgo; Bay Willow; 
Pin Oak; Red Flowering Horse- 
chestunt; Black or Yellow Locust; 
Hackberry; Hardy Catalpa; Lombardy 
Poplar; Carolina Poplar; Cottonwood. 
Of this list we are all familiar with 
the sugar maple and. elm, as they have 
been extensively planted in this re- 
gion for years and they are undoubt- 
edly the best trees for this region. 
There are many other trees which 
might be employed to good advan- 
tage in street planting, although some 
of those in the list are not best suited 
to our conditions. We occasionally 
find the sycamore maple, horse- 
cljestnut, tulip tree and white ash 
planted on streets. The horse- 
chestnut has the reputation of being 
a rather dirty tree and is not very 
long-lived. The sycamore is not 
planted to any extent with us, al- 
though it is a native tree and more 
or less abundant in our river valleys. 
In Europe it is used quite largely in 
a conventional form and in this way 
may be made adaptable even to busi- 
ness streets, provided there is a space 
tWo or three feet wide between the 
curbing and the sidewalk filled with 
good loam. This would afford suffi- 
cient soil for the growth of conven- 
tional trees, as the crown may be 
modified to any desired size by prun- 
ing. 
The native basswood when young is 
a well-shaped tree, but those we have 
seen growing on streets are inclined 
to be tall and slender and are not al- 
together satisfactory, although their 
shape might be modified by pollard- 
ing. 
The various species of oak are 
hardy, well proportioned trees, al- 
though they grow rather slowly, but 
if planted a good distance apart and 
filled in with some quickly growing 
tree, like the Carolina poplar, they 
make excellent trees for roadsides and 
when the oaks have attained ,a fairly 
good size the poplars may be sacri- 
ficed. Various combinations of trees 
may be employed, an especially effec- 
tive one being maples and Norway 
spruces, planted alternately. 
To obtain the desired effect quick- 
ly, the various kinds of poplars are 
frequently planted, the most , highly 
prized at the present time being the 
Carolina poplar which in our state 
grows wild in the Connecticut valley. 
The Italian poplar grows the most 
rapidly, attaining a diameter in some 
instances of 26 inches in 20 years. 
The silver maple is a symmetrical 
tree of rapid growth, but is easily in- 
jured by ice. 
The red maple is not a desiraljle 
tree for planting, and about eighty 
per cent of them in Massachusetts 
are in a diseased condition. One of 
the mistakes often made in planting 
the red, Norway and sycamore map- 
les on streets is neglecting to prune 
