234 
TREES AS GOOD CITIZENS 
1676. This action was based on the premise that “The 
Town, seeing some trees spoiled in the streets by barking 
or otherwise * * * hath agreed that no green tree within 
the Town, as marked with N, shall be barked or felled, or 
any otherwise killed, under the penalty of 10 shillings 
(for each tree) so killed.” 
Judicial recognition of this method of computing dam¬ 
ages has been given in various suits at law. In Olean, 
New York, judgment of $150 against a gas company was 
awarded for four trees destroyed by escaping gas in soil, 
and this judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. 
In Kansas City, judgment of $200 was obtained against a 
telephone company, because the linemen, without consult¬ 
ing the owner, had chopped out the top and center of a tree, 
causing its death. This decision is of especial interest, for 
the reason that the verdict involved a single tree only, and 
that tree a Poplar with a girth of but six inches. One won¬ 
ders what the verdict would have been in the case of a mag- 
ificent Elm or some other really desirable tree. In New 
York State a verdict of #500 apiece for the destruction of a 
row of trees was awarded against an offending construction 
company. In the case of Bathgate vs. North Jersey Street 
Railway Company, (70 Atlantic Reporter, 132 etc.) it was 
shown that four of Bathgate’s trees had been injured and 
eventually killed by electric current from the company’s 
wires. Damages were awarded in the sum of ^$300, and 
the decision of the lower court was upheld by the Court of 
Errors and Appeals. 
(2) Replacement Value— In the application of this 
method computation is based on the cost of removing a 
damaged tree and its subsoil, if the latter has become 
vitiated, and replacing them with a good tree and good 
soil. This plan contemplates that the new tree shall be, 
as nearly as practicable, of the same size as the tree which 
