783 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ever, because they did not lose a 
single leaf till late fall, thus main- 
taining their reputation as being 
among the best of road trees. I had 
a very peculiar experience with Elms, 
U I inns glabra vegeta. Owing to 
the carelessness of one of the dis- 
trict gardeners, one group of these 
trees was not sufficiently watered, 
and as a result, as early as the month 
of June they were almost barren of 
foliage, in fact I suspected they had 
been attacked by some sort of a 
disease, which is often true of elms. 
But a most thorough watering- 
proved the best remedy to stop the 
threatening death. In a very short 
time after the application of this pro- 
cess the trees were again covered 
with beautiful foliage, notwithstand- 
ing the burning rays of the sun. The 
fungi and the rust disappeared, and 
the trees remained in fine condition. 
‘T shall now enumerate a few 
trees which are peculiarly sensitive 
to the attack of the sun rays but 
which showed fairly good results. 
The American oak Quarcus paltistris, 
and the horse-chestnuts, need a 
very thorough watering, but keep 
very well if they get it. The plane- 
trees lost their leaves even when giv- 
en very much water, but not as rap- 
idly as usual. But no amount of 
watering did the birch-trees any 
good, they losing their leaves very 
rapidly and becoming entirely bare 
rather early. However this same ex- 
perience has been had with these 
trees in less arid summers, and the 
unfortunate results must be attrib- 
uted to other causes. 
"I want to relate one more experi- 
ence of the greatest importance : As 
an experiment, some of the trees 
were sprinkled very thoroughly at a 
time when the sky was cloudless. 
This artificial rain produced most un- 
fortunate results. The leaves were 
nearly altogether burnt. The same 
has been observed to be true in the 
case of bushes which have been 
sprinkled by grass-sprinklers placed 
nearby.” 
In commenting on the above described 
methods, Mr. Jens Jensen, landscape 
architect of Chicago, says : 
“When I had charge of the West 
Park System, the trees on the boule- 
vards in the heart of the west side 
were sprayed for the purpose of 
washing the leaves clean from soot 
and dust. I did not, however, find 
any trouble with the leaves becom- 
ing burnt when the spraying was 
done in the hot sunshine, as the cor- 
respondent in the "Moeller’s Deutsche 
Gaertner Zeitung’’ calls attention to. 
I have, however, observed this burn- 
ing in hot sunshine on shrubs and 
green house plants. Our trees were 
Carolina poplars and elms.” 
PARKtVAY IN HANOVEfR. 
.Editor Park and Cemetery : 
The treatment of street trees suggest- 
ed by Mr. F. W. Kelsey in the January 
number of the Park and Cemetery, 
is beyond question invaluable where 
practicable, but it is seldom that cul- 
. tivation can be successfully adopted, 
except when the trees are quite small, 
in the usually very limited planting 
space between the street curb and 
sidewalk. As the trees increase in 
size and the roots extend far beyond 
this narrow area away under the 
street pavement, which as generally 
constructed is impervious to mois- 
ture, the small cultivated area around 
the trunk of the tree affords little or 
no benefit, especially in very dry 
weather, in supplying or conserving 
any appreciable amount of moisture. 
The tree ’under such circumstances 
depends almost entirely for water on 
the area inside of the sidewalk, which 
in many instances is quite restricted. 
.Surface watering in such conditions 
is of little benefit to trees of large 
size, a fact lamentably attested to by 
the sickly, starved appearance of hun- 
dreds of trees in nearly all of our cities. 
An effective remedy is found in 
sub irrigation, which may be adopted 
in a practicable and comparatively 
inexpensive manner by simply bor- 
ing a number of small holes at con- 
venient points around the trees be- 
tween the curb and sidewalk, or in- 
side of the sidewalk according to 
circumstances, the object being to 
afford a means of supplying water 
below the surface of the ground 
which may find its way by percola- 
tion and absorption in all directions, 
particularly under the pavement, to 
the most distant feeding roots of the 
trees. A very practicable and per- 
manent plan is to bore these holes 
with a 4-inch post hole auger to a 
depth of a little over two feet, in- 
serting two lengths of 4-inch drain 
tile which will always keep the hole 
open. The opening need not be 
closed if in sod and as the top of the 
tile is an inch or two below the sur- 
face of the ground it does not inter- 
fere with the lawn mower. Water 
is of course, applied most conven- 
iently through a hose and it is sur- 
prising in most cases the quantity of 
water each hole will absorb, depend- 
ing on the porosity of the soil. If 
the soil is clayey and compact and 
water is absorbed slowly, it becomes 
necessary to go over the hole sev- 
eral times perhaps at each watering 
to insure a sufficient supply. Very 
little skill and but little labor is re- 
quired in the installation of this 
simple but quite effective system of 
irrigation. Trees in all large cities 
and particularly in manufacturing 
districts suffer materially from un- 
favorable atmospheric conditions, but 
it is perhaps safe to say that street 
trees in general suffer more from 
want of water than from any other 
cause. James Currie. 
Supt. Forest Home Cemetery. 
Milwaukee. 
GERMAN METHOD OF WATERING STREET TREES IN 
