24 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
TREE PLANTING.— ITS NECESSITY" AND BENEFITS. 
It is very gratifying to note the rapid development 
of the sentiment resulting in the planting of trees, 
whether for use or beauty or both. And both use 
and beauty are involved to a remarkable degree in 
the practical application of the sentiment. The 
fact that communities, generally, have readily fol- 
lowed the lead of the advocates of tree planting, 
suggests that the education imparted by such advo- 
cates presents the necessity of the work in a forcible 
manner, as a means to health, comfort, pleasure and 
an improved condition of streets and avenues un- 
attainable in any other way. In the larger sense 
of converting waste places into useful woodland, or 
to replace the unrestricted devastation of the lum- 
berman, the question of necessity to the sensible 
citizen needs no argument. 
As Mr. S. Gordon Cumming, in a speech at 
Hampton, Va., on Arbor Day, Nov. 26, 1897, said: 
“The influence of trees upon climate and rainfall 
gives to their planting and to their protection where 
nature has already planted them, a national impor- 
tance. Our wicked wastefulness and contempt for 
the teaching of science in this matter will most surely 
be avenged on our descendants. Nature may not in- 
stantly rebuke, but she never forgives the breach of 
her laws. No instructedagriculturlist is unacquainted 
with the ameliorating influence on climate, rainfall, 
freshet, windstorms, etc., produced by the liberal 
planting of trees on waste lands; the cheering thing 
has been that the same wise ideas have crept into 
the minds of our people and made them set reso- 
lutely to work in carrying out the simple, practical, 
and benignant suggestion of Mr. Morton in Arbor 
Day observance.” 
In regard to tree planting in our cities and towns, 
the Philadelphia Enquirer in an article warmly ap- 
proving of the work of the Tree Planting and Foun- 
tain Society of Brooklyn, commends it as educating 
the people to an understanding of the value and 
beauty of shade trees in towns and cities. “It is 
to be regretted that men and women in large cities 
do not take more individual interest in tree-plant- 
ing. There is a short stretch of road on South 
Broad street, Philadelphia, which is lined with trees 
that were placed there only a few years ago through 
the exertions of one man, and already their shade is 
restful in summer, and they give added beauty to a 
noble thoroughfare. In caring for these things we 
might well imitate the dwellers in many cities of 
the old world which are familiar to transatlantic 
tourists. It was a wise remark that Sir Walter 
Scott put into the mouth of one of his characters: 
‘When you’re doin’ naething else, aye be stickin’ in 
a tree; it will grow whilst ye are sleepin’. ’’ 
There are but few cities in the country that would 
not be benefited by the active operation of a Tree 
Planting Association. It is not only in the planting 
of new trees, that such an association is valuable; 
that is the least feature of its usefulness. It is in 
preserving and intelligently caring for the trees al- 
ready mature and serving nature’s wise purposes, 
that the importance of the work is appreciated. It 
is an intelligence of no common order that can 
successfully imbibe and impart all the knowledge 
necessary to the care and culture of trees to ensure 
their best appearance, and health and vigor of 
growth. But let the work be appreciated, and con- 
fidence secured in the work of an association for the 
purpose, and it is astonishing how quickly the com- 
munity realizes the advantages secured, and lends 
its assistance to encourage the greatest usefulness 
of the society. 
On the subject of trees, the Hon. O. B. Hadwen, 
of Worcester, Mass., at a recent farmer’s meeting 
at Boston, said: The planting of trees is a subject 
that requires deep study, and that nowhere is there 
a better teacher than nature. For it is only by close 
alliance with nature that man can hope to beautify 
his parks or grounds. 
The last annual report of the Brooklyn Society, 
before referred to, contains a fund of information 
and suggestion on the subject of street trees truly 
surprising in scope and practicability. Of its past 
the report says: “The trees that have been planted 
will bear witness to future generations of the wisdom 
or lack of wisdom in their selection. Those that 
have been pruned likewise will testify continually 
of the judgment displayed in the pruning.” But 
the wisdom brought to bear in the conduct of the 
society’s missionary efforts, is already amply justi- 
fied in the increasing attention given to the subject 
all over the country, besides the efficacy of its prac- 
tical work in Brooklyn itself, where it is in positive 
evidence. 
Lord Kelvin has recently contributed an impor- 
tant emphasis to the value of trees in their relation 
to the welfare of higher animal life, a question which 
will be more readily appreciated as it is better com- 
prehended. Trees do a great work in maintaining 
the air in a fit condition for our use. Nothing takes 
the place of the tree in its power of laying hold of 
the carbonic acid gas, constantly being cast into the 
air, and separating the carbon and oxygen, absorb- 
ing the former for its own use and giving off the lat- 
ter that it may again serve its useful end in support 
of life. “In a fine shade tree we have on the sur- 
face both beauty and utility, and then this tree is 
part of a deeper utility that is about as vital as the 
air we breathe.” 
