HOUSE AND GARDEN 
88 
M 
ARCH, 1910 
In these days of big tree moving there is no excuse for a sun-blistered, treeless home 
so easily by wrong placing of trees has an 
important lesson for prospective planters of 
trees. 
Of course foliage will never be dense 
enough anywhere to smother anybody, but it 
can very easily be dense enough to seriously 
interfere with that free circulation of air which 
is so essential to comfort in hot weather and 
to health at all times. That is the point. 
On the other hand, a dwelling situated in 
the open, with no trees near it, is subjected to 
such a glare of sun and heat during the summer 
as to seriously affect those living in it; for even 
with awnings or shutters it is impossible to 
secure that depth of shade needful to repose in 
scorching weather. Nor is a breeze sufficient 
compensation—man needs rest from heat and glare as much as he 
needs cooling, something to soothe disquieted nerves as well as 
something to lower his temperature. A certain measure of dark¬ 
ness is comforting as nothing else can be—thus it is evident that 
air is not enough without shade. We must have both. 
But ventilation cannot be perfect where the sun’s rays do not 
reach—heat is necessary, in other words, to help us keep cool; 
so, though air is the prime essential and shade next, the ideal 
conditions provide all three and all three are what we must aim 
to secure, the first in fullest abundance, the second and third in 
needful proportions. 
1 doubt if the real secret of the relation between shade and 
a building, the thing which makes the planting around it a success 
or otherwise, presents itself very often to the gardener. Certainly 
1 have never found any mention of it in any work on planting, 
though hints leading in its direction are given in one or two very 
ancient treatises on the subject—and some gardens, especially 
those of India and other tropical countries where the art has been 
greatly perfected, seem to show a development of the idea that 
may or may not be conscious. Yet this one thing is to my mind 
the most important in the whole matter of shade tree planting. 
Planting should shade the ground 
around a building rather than the 
building itself. No structure is ever 
one whit cooler for having the sun 
kept away from it on one side or 
another if it shines directly and hot 
upon the earth immediately about it. 
It may look cooler from without, but 
that is all. Even a lawn reflects the 
light and heat up and back into win¬ 
dows and doors and porches; and 
awnings afford no relief from this 
reflection, for it rises under them. 
A house is itself a shelter from the 
sun; the sun should shine upon it— 
into its windows indeed. Every room 
needs light and unobstructed outlook 
—which means of course that trees 
cannot stand very near. But this 
unobstructed outlook from windows 
and doors and verandas should be cool 
and inviting, should rest upon shade 
instead of a dazzling expanse that 
glimmers with heat. 
Shade around a house means 
cooler air around it, therefore cooler 
air coming in at its open windows, 
whereas shade that is only upon it 
cannot affect the surrounding atmos¬ 
phere in the least; and shade at a 
considerable distance from it is offset by the intervening sunny 
area whence come blistering little puffs of heat that are the very 
last straw to one’s endurance on a genuinely hot summer day. 
The little diagram of tree arrangement around a dwelling is 
given as a study in shade only and illustrates the manner of 
finding out what results any given arrangement of trees will give. 
At noon, with the sun approximately a little south of overhead, 
the trees will cast their shortest and least shadow, and this will 
of course fall on their north side. The object is to place them 
where this shadow as it swings on towards the east and lengthens 
in the hottest part of the day, is seen at its maximum from the 
house. This has been effected with every tree as here shown 
save the two small ones in the upper left hand corner and the 
single one opposite on the right. The latter is placed to cut off 
the hot sun of early morning, while the two former, which may 
very well be some tall, spire-like tree such as the Lombardy 
poplar, will stretch their lengthening shadows around as the day 
wanes until they reach along the grass to the house at sunset. 
The tree nearest the house is fifteen feet from it and though the 
shade of several will fall on the building’s foundations and part of 
the lower story at some hour of the day, the building itself is 
actually in the open and the sun has 
free access to every side. 
In passing it is worth while to re¬ 
mark that a house placed thus at an 
angle to the points of the compass 
enjoys the greatest number of those 
advantages which arise from sun and 
weather. Every room has sunlight 
for a little while daily, winter and 
summer, and the prevailing south and 
west breezes will, either of them, 
strike two sides of the building. 
It is always very easy and very 
wise to work out shade out-of-doors 
on the ground, using rather long stakes. 
Where there is not much space this is 
particularly advantageous; the direc¬ 
tion of the stake’s shadow will of 
course be the direction of the tree’s— 
and very exact locating of a tree is 
sometimes necessary to get shade just 
where it is wanted. 
Always bear in mind that the 
promotion of individual growth is not 
the most desirable thing to foster in 
tree planting. Symmetrical specimen 
trees are interesting, impressive and 
sometimes very beautiful as speci¬ 
mens, but the effect of many soli¬ 
tary, evenly branched individuals, 
It is better to plant two trees of one kind rather 
than one each of two kinds 
