190 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
some: old historic trees 
One of the most significant facts in 
the prevailing activity for local and na- 
tional improvements is the growing in- 
terest in tree preservation, writes W. R. 
Crane in the New York Evening Post. 
Old and historic trees, except in a few 
isolated cases, have never been regarded 
with more devotion than at the present 
time. A popular love of nature is 
abroad. It has' found expression not only 
in the jealous care bestowed upon cer- 
tain individual trees, but in the demand 
for state and national forest reservations. 
In this city and Boston the subject of 
tree preservation has appealed powerful- 
ly to the popular mind. Here the sacri- 
fice of hundreds of shade trees along the 
route of the underground railway came 
as a heavy blow to many of the resi- 
dents of the city, while the people of 
Boston about the same time experienced 
the shock of realizing that the old elms 
on their historic Common were in dan- 
ger of annihilation through decay and 
lack of proper care. In fact, three large 
elms, dating back before Revolutionary 
days, had to be cut down. They were the 
noblest survivors of American elms on 
the Common since the famous Common 
•elm was blown down in a gale in 1876. 
English elms have been planted in their 
places, and steps have been taken to pre- 
vent the transformation of the historic 
little park and playground into a minia- 
ture prairie. The famous dwarf ginkgo 
tree still remains, dear to the heart of 
every Bostonian and lover of Holmes, 
for the latter immortalized the tree in 
his “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.” 
It is also of interest to note the per- 
manent preservation of the celebrated 
Waverly oaks and the majestic Carlisle 
pines, accomplished primarily through 
the efforts of the Appalachian Mountain 
Club. Of the Waverly oaks it has been 
said that there is not another group of 
such noble trees in the Eastern States. 
Their age has been estimated at from 
400 to 800- years. James Russell Lowell, 
who made a careful study of one that 
was cut down over fifty years ago, said 
he counted 750 rings in the base of the 
trunk. These survivors of the forest 
primeval are in the Beaver Brook Park 
Reservation, a short distance from Bos- 
ton. There are over fifty acres in the 
park, and it was the first to be acquired 
by the Metropolitan Park Commission 
which was created in 1893. 
The Carlisle pines, which were saved 
from all danger of destruction about two 
years ago, stand in a little reservation 
of ten acres, twenty miles from Boston. 
The Appalachian Mountain Club is cus- 
todian of the property. The trees are 
white pines, and the group is the only 
remaining one of the extensive white 
pine forest which covered a large part of 
.New England in aboriginal days. 
The difficulties of tree preservation 
were illustrated a few weeks ago in 
Hartford, when despite popular appeals 
the old Wads'worth elm, or Washington 
elm as it was also familiarly called, was 
cut down, owing to its decayed condition. 
The elm stood in front of the Wads- 
worth Athenaeum and in 1894 the Sons 
of the American Revolution placed a 
bronze shield upon the trunk recording 
the fact that Washington was entertained 
there by Captain Jeremiah Wadsworth 
on June 29, 1775, while on his way to 
Cambridge to take command of the 
American army. Since the loss of the 
Charter Oak this elm was the most his- 
toric tree in Hartford. It was badly de- 
cayed, and when the trunk was cut 
through it was found that the live wood 
was barely two inches thick. The fear 
that the venerable elm might fall during 
a storm led the municipal authorities to 
order its demolition. A large section of 
the trunk has been placed in the rooms 
of the Connecticut Historical Society. 
The Charter Oak, although it is now 
nearing half a century since a great 
storm hurled it to the ground, still lives 
not only in memory but in countless 
souvenirs shaped from its wood and, bet- 
ter yet, in two vigorous offshoots, now 
sturdy and graceful trees growing in 
Bushnell Park, Hartford. Since Mark 
Twain uttered the facetious remark that 
• 
the bridge over the Connecticut River at 
Hartford was built entirely of Charter 
Oak timbers, a natural suspicion has 
been directed against the Charter Oak 
souvenirs. In the city of its home, how- 
ever. one may see some handsome pieces 
of the original tree. The Connecticut 
Historical Society possesses several, but 
the finest specimen is in the Capitol. It 
is a chair made wholly from Charter 
Oak, exquisitely carved, and is occupied 
by the Speaker of the Senate during the 
legislative sessions. The old Connecticut 
charter is still sheltered within the tree 
as it was in 1687, only instead of being 
secretly hid in the great cavity it is now 
in a box made from wood which was 
carefully selected after the destruction 
of the oak. Many estimates have been 
made of the probable age of the historic 
tree; and from 900 to 1,000 years have 
been accepted by many botanists. 
Some of the prettiest legends in Euro- 
pean folklore are centered about trees 
and indeed mythical trees have not en- 
tirely died out to-day. The cherry tree 
that the youthful George Washington cut 
down is a magnificent specimen of the 
modern tree myth. It had its origin not 
in the soil, but in the imaginative brain 
of Parson Weems, an itinerant preacher, 
book peddler, and writer of great men’s 
biographies. Local tradition has also 
invested many trees with so many inter- 
esting and remarkable associations that 
deeper reverence is paid to them than the 
stern facts of history would justify. 
This is true to a large extent of a vener- 
able tree in Waltham, Mass., upon, which 
a local chapter of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution recently placed a 
tablet reciting the fact that Burgoyne 
and his army halted beneath the branches 
during their march, after the surrender, 
to Boston. 
George Washington was a great ad- 
mirer of fine trees, and he set a worthy 
example for tree culture on his Mount 
Vernon estate, where immediately after 
the Revolution he had several hundred 
trees planted around the house. A num- 
ber are still standing. While it is im- 
possible to claim that Washington actual- 
ly planted any of them, they were at least 
set out under his personal direction and 
care. Frequent mention of his garden- 
ing and tree planting is made in his 
diary, and under date of February 28, 
1785, Washington says: “Planted all 
the mulberry trees, maple trees, and 
black gums in my serpentine walks, and 
the poplars on the right walk.” Among 
some of the survivors that add so much 
to the rural beauty of Mount Vernon to- 
day are a linden with a trunk four feet 
in diameter, a few oaks averaging three 
feet in diameter, a large maple, some 
tulip trees, elms, poplars, and magnolias. 
The increasing interest which has 
been given to local history within recent 
years, the organization of various Revo- 
lutionary and other patriotic societies, to- 
gether with a commendable growth in 
civic pride which is paying some atten- 
tion to the beauty as well as to the utility 
of its improvements, have all exerted a 
beneficient influence upon tree culture 
and tree preservation. Schools of for- 
estry are doing their share to prevent 
the wanton destruction of large areas of 
woodland. The problems of how to cut 
trees and how to preserve them are re- 
ceiving careful study, and this broader 
and deeper view of the tree question is 
certain to produce results of far-reaching 
importance throughout the entire coun- 
try. 
