TREES MAY BE POISONED 
water into the sink and down the sewer. Sooner or later, 
however, he or one of his clerks will roll one of these 
freezers out to the curb and empty its contents about the 
tree that stands there. He does not know of the harm 
he is doing the tree. He may even think that he is giving 
it a much-needed drink. This does not need to happen 
many times before the tree is killed. 
Ice cream manufacturers also are often to blame for the 
death of trees in front of the stores they serve. The ice 
cream is often delivered from the curb. Freezers packed 
with salt are put off and taken on. The ice cream that 
is being delivered is often repacked at the curb. Salt is 
spilled. It gets about the roots of the trees and kills them. 
Salt is death to most vegetation. There are only a few 
trees that will live in contact with salty water. Salt is 
often used to kill vegetation. If, for instance, one wants 
a plot of bare pebbles in front of a city house where a 
lawn will not succeed, he sprinkles the plot liberally with 
salt. It kills grass, weeds, and all kinds of vegetation that 
are likely to be growing here. But the tragedy comes 
when salt gets on great trees by accident and they are 
lost. 
7 
