Trees as good citizens

Front matter

TREES AS

■ OOD CITIZENS

CHARLES LATHROP PACK

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Trees as Good Citizens. 17

II. Trees Crown the Home. 23

Chapter I

The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,

And spread the roof above them—ere he framed

The lofty vault to gather and roll back

The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,

Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,

And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication.

—William Cullen Bryant.

M AN owes it to himself to see that the street and road¬ side shade tree is given its well-earned place in the sun. This place has been won through a service of centuries. Since time began, the shade tree has been the changeless and unfailing friend of the human race. It has graced earth with its beauty, and to every generation has given freely of its protective shelter. Beneath its friendly boughs man has found refuge from the blazing sun and the angry storm. To every human being the shade tree is a bene¬ factor; to every community a blessing and a benediction.

Shade-giving is the one thing in which the tree’s relations with man have stood unchanged. All other relationships of tree and man have varied with the ages, for the uses of wood have gone through a steady development with the progress of the race. Shade trees alone, among the children of the forest, have been ever constant.

There has, it is true, been no change in the influence of trees on literature. To-day, as for countless centuries, man seeks the shade of a friendly tree to write or to enjoy what others have written. The poets of by-gone ages 2 * 17 i8 found ease and inspiration in shaded nooks, and the writer of to-day turns likewise to the shelter of his favorite tree.

One of the beauty spots of the world is the site of the tomb of Virgil, overlooking the Gulf of Naples. This tomb marks the great poet’s favorite retreat during his last years of life, and it was there, according to tradition, that he wrote his undying epics. The visitor to Posilippo finds it easy to understand why these wooded slopes, over¬ looking the blue Mediterranean, held such charm for the poet and made him choose this spot for his final resting place. In the same way, a visit to Cambridge shows why our own Longfellow sought the soothing shade of his beloved Elms for the writing of poems no less enduring than those of Virgil. For each of them, as for all man¬ kind, the shade trees held irresistible charm.

Trees have had their part in history no less than in literature. In modern warfare the great generals pitched their tents and held their councils under the trees, as did the captains of Carthage, Greece and Rome. The Cedars of Lebanon and the trees of Gethsemane have deathless place in man’s memory. It was under an Oak that Abraham received the angel, and it was in the shade of a tree that Socrates and Plato held discus¬ sion. Turn where one may, in the pages of history or in the life of to-day, the shade tree makes constant appeal to the imagination and to the sense of romance because of its unchanging role as man’s faithful friend. Through all the ages the sheltering tree has had no rivals. “The Groves were God’s first temples,” and man’s apprecia¬ tion of their use and beauty gives them everlasting place in his affections.

This permanent kinship entitles the shade tree to a foremost place on the bookshelf. Shade trees merit the best attention that can be given them. The more we know of their proper treatment, the greater will be our opportuni¬ ties for enjoying them. The more we study methods for their growth and nurture, the more of them we will have; and the more we have, the greater will be the beauty of our communities and our roads.

The purpose of this book is to simplify to some extent the problems of those who would grow shade trees. These problems can be made easy by study and the application of simple rules of safety and caution. The problems cover such subjects as the choice of the tree best suited for planting in a particular soil and location, its planting, its growth, its care and its protection. To disregard the information presented is to invite disappointment. To observe it is to bring true shade tree satisfaction which will repay the effort a thousand fold.

It must be borne in mind that for its friendly offices the shade tree is entitled to man’s best care and protection. In its demands it asks nothing in selfishness. Its one aim is to thrive for man’s benefit. Its sole purpose is to bless the world with its kindly gifts. In giving the shade tree its well-earned place in the sun, man is but creating, for himself and his heirs, a place in the welcome shade.

The city with fine shade trees is the City Beautiful. Travel where one may, in this country or abroad, it is soon learned that the final test of a city’s beauty is its shade trees. Fine buildings and broad avenues are not enough. The best works of artist and architect must have trees to set off and enhance their splendor. A city without an abundance of shade trees on streets, on lawns and in parks is incomplete.

When the traveler gives thought to the world’s most beautiful cities, he thinks instinctively of Washington and Paris; and in thinking of them he delights in the memory of their wealth of trees. To the fame of these two capitals shade trees have given generously of their charm. In each of these cities great architects and gifted artists have created buildings of rare splendor and stately grace, such as the White House, the Capitol, the Pan-American Building and the perfect facade of the Treasury Buildingj in our own National Capital; and the Louvre, the Elysee Palace and the marvellous creations of Versailles, in Paris and its environs. One lingers in admiration and reverence on these wonders, but the chief charm of both cities is found in the magnificent shade trees which line their streets and beautify their lawns, parks and public grounds.

Who can picture Sixteenth Street, or Massachusetts Avenue, or any of the streets of Washington deprived of shade tree beauty? How much pride could Americans take in the beautiful park around their Capitol if the grounds lacked the trees which now cover its sweeping slopes? How would Paris look without its Champs Elysees, its Bois de Boulogne or its Champ de Mars? Think of New York covered with brick and stone through¬ out the area now occupied by Central Park, a Chicago without Lincoln Park, a Boston without its splendid Common, or a San Francisco lacking its Golden Gate Park. Visualize without their trees, the city streets, parks or lawns with which you are familiar, and see what be¬ comes of the City Beautiful.

Throughout America there are cities famous for their shade trees. The magnificent Elms of New Haven and Oberlin, the tree-lined thoroughfares of Brooklyn, East Orange, Springfield, Mass., Detroit, Indianapolis and Los Angeles—compare them with city streets which lack the glory of the trees. The contrast should give each of us increased spirit to see that our own streets and our own lawns shall not suffer by any similar comparison.

WHITE OAK IN AUTUMN

The worth of trees to a city is by no means confined to beauty. The city of fine shade trees is the City Healthful as well as the City Beautiful. In comfort, in health and in sanitation the shade tree is an important factor in civic welfare. Only a part of the benefit gained by man from shade trees is reckoned as by pleasure to the eye, and relief from the direct rays of the sun. Added to the welcome shelter is the cooling influence produced by the trees through their leaves; for trees transpire through their leaves in a way that has a pronounced influence on tem¬ perature. By absorbing moisture from the earth through their roots and releasing much of it into the air through their leaf-pores, the trees cool the air and freshen it. Enter the woods on a hot summer day, note that the temperature among the trees is several degrees lower than in the open. Wherever a shade tree spreads its leafy branches, this influence is constantly at work.

By this process of evaporating and exhaling moisture, the trees not only reduce the temperature, but serve a further useful purpose in giving off oxygen required by man in the air he breathes; and, by drinking in the carbonic acid gas, perform a double function in purifying the air.

Medical authorities recognize the value of trees in their influence on the health of a community. In the study of human illness, and particularly of the ailments of children in the crowded cities, doctors have found that trees do much toward reducing the death rate. Research has shown that one of the chief causes of sickness and death among the children of the congested districts is the stifling heat of midsummer days, intensified by reflection from heated pavements and sunbaked walls. On streets where shade trees are lacking, this reflected heat is given off night and day, to the severe discomfort and serious harm of people so unfortunate as to be denied the grateful shade of tree-lined thoroughfares.

In addition there is a different stimulus produced on the nervous system by the various colors. The effect of green is soothing, so that foliage masses tend to counteract the irritating effect of many of the colors common in city streets, especially that of red brick buildings.

What has been said for trees in the city holds equally well for the open country, although, to those familiar with country conditions in the eastern United States a country lacking in trees can hardly be realized. In nat¬ urally treeless regions, tree masses are also valuable in protecting small areas from the sweep of the drying winds and making possible the growing of plants, not otherwise practicable, as well as making living conditions more comfortable.

From every point of view, shade trees are of vast im¬ portance to the dweller in city, town or country. In beauty, in comfort and in public health the shade tree is the indispensable and never failing friend of man.

Chapter II. Trees Crown The Home

What does he plant who plants a tree? He plants, in sap and leaf and wood, In love of home and loyalty,

And far-cast thought of civic good His blessing on the neighborhood.

A LL of the arguments in favor of trees for the com¬ munity at large, and for the town or city street or the country road, bear with concentrated force on trees for the individual home. However small the lot, if there is a place for a tree there should be a tree in that place. If there is no room for a tree, shrubs, at least, should be planted. Trees and shrubs give the final touch that marks the difference between the home and the mere house. Shaded lawns complete the picture of shaded thoroughfares. They pro¬ vide the poetry of the home setting; they give expression to the bit of sentiment with which every true home-lover is blessed; they color the home with the tinge of romance that meets universal human need.

No other feature does as much to give the home a welldressed appearance as the presence of trees. Whether it be the stately mansion, with its broad sweep of spacious lawn, or the modest residence on the forty-foot lot, the graceful foliage of trees or shrubs is necessary to produce the home¬ like charm. If there is room for many trees, this room should be used; but the space for the single tree must not be neglected.

It is only necessary to note the appearance of homes in general to realize the emphasis of beauty produced by trees and shrubs. The best kept lawn, whether the impressive slope of the pretentious establishment or the tiny strip of grass on the small city lot, is robbed of its best chance for attractiveness by a lack of shade and foliage. The transfor¬ mation brought about by the planting of trees and shrub¬ bery is sometimes beyond belief until the demonstration has been actually made. By careful planting, the compar¬ atively small place can be given the dignity of acres; the modest home may assume the appearance of the small-scale estate. The house glimpsed through foliage has a charm not possible to the more costly house in treeless setting.

In lawn plantings, as in street plantings, the relation of cost to results is an important consideration. The increased value, accruing to all of the property on a tree-lined thoroughfare, is again made greater in the case of the individual home which adds trees of its own to those of the street. Any one of us, in buying a home or a site on which to build, would be influenced in favor of the lot with shade and foliage. Trees and shrubs give the contact with Nature which man instinctively craves, and for which he is willing to pay.

Let it be remembered, then, that in beautifying the home with trees the outlay is to be regarded as an invest¬ ment, pure and simple; an investment in beauty, in health, in comfort, and, finally, in cash value. Any one of these would make the investment worth while.

The tree, therefore, should be recognized as blending beauty, poetry, sentiment and romance with the practical and important elements of profit and health.

The planting of shade trees, too, must be looked upon as an investment, not as an expense. Trees increase the dollar and cent value of property. Those familiar with the values of residence real estate recognize the greater worth of homes on streets lined with shade trees. Of two houses alike in design and structure, the place on the shaded street will always command the higher price.

BEECH IN WINTER

TREES CROWN THE HOME

This principle applies to communities as well as to individual homes. The visitor to town or city gains his first and most lasting impression from the presence or absence of shade trees. The community with streets bare and bleak and shadeless is dismissed as an undesirable place in which to live. Shaded streets and tree-clad lawns have a charm which often proves the deciding factor in influencing the home seeker in his choice of a place of residence.

Definite evidence of this is found in the efforts of real estate men to give new property added beauty and attrac¬ tiveness by the planting of trees. That their choice of species is ofttimes ill-advised, because of demand for quick growth, does not change the major truth that they recognize the value of the shade tree. Experience has shown them that in the sale of homes in a new residence district, trees are as essential as sidewalks and paving, and second only to sewer, water, gas and electric connections.

Whether along the street or on the individual lawn, the cost of planting trees is insignificant, and no man who can afford to own a home can afford to deny himself and his family the added beauty, health and comfort to be derived from trees. It is not a question of one’s ability to afford the outlay. It is a simple truth that none of us can afford not to do it; tree planting is good business as well as good taste.

Unlike paving and other improvements, including the house itself, the tree, properly cared for, is not subject to depreciation in value. On the contrary, its worth becomes greater with the passing years. In the towns of New England to-day there are massive Elms which are known to have spread their overhanging beauty before the eyes of the Pilgrim, and which now give to the old homes a value that can be measured in dollars just as surely as in beauty, in the same way that the massive Oaks of the South Atlantic and Gulf States have added beauty and value to plantation and town. What could be a more grievous mental picture than that of Northampton, Greenfield, or historic Williamstown, in Massachusetts; picturesque old Charlestown, in New Hampshire, or Savannah, Georgia, or Mobile, or Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Pass Christian, Miss., or any one of scores of other communities, shorn of the crowning beauty of these stately veterans of shade?

The community in which any one of us may live is entitled to this asset. That our forefathers failed to provide shade for the coming generations is no excuse for similar failure on our part. The longer we delay the plant¬ ing the more remote will be the time of gaining the bene¬ fits of the trees we plant. We can never start any younger. This applies to communities and individuals alike. The time, therefore, for a beginning is the immediate present.

Chapter III. How To Identify Shade Trees

H OW many trees do you know well enough to call by name at sight? Can you tell an Oak from a Beech, a Red Oak from a White Oak or a Norway Maple from a Sugar Maple? Do you know the difference between the Buckeye and the Horse Chestnut?

The man who loves trees should be able to identify them at a glance. This does not mean that he should turn botanist and spend his life in the pursuit of such terms as “staminal differentiation” or “pinnately com¬ pound,” or that he must study the trees of Borneo or Madagascar. It does not call for scholarly research into the many-syllabled Latin names employed by the scien¬ tists. Plat anus Occidentalis is all right for the expert, but for the plain citizen the simple name of Sycamore meets every demand. The one thing that is suggested is that he should make himself familiar with the trees most commonly found in his own section of the country and that he learn to know them by the names in everyday use.

A little study along this line may save one from em¬ barrassing moments when somebody asks the name of a particular tree in city park or by country roadside.

Take the Oaks, for instance. The average man is not concerned with the distinction between Quercus palustris and Quercus velutina . What he wants to know is how to tell the Pin Oak from the Black Oak. He would like to be able to distinguish an Oak from the other trees and the different species of Oaks from one another.

As a group the Oaks carry general marks of distinction

from other trees. One of these marks is the bearing of acorns, in which the Oak has no competition. Within the group itself, however, there is more or less kinship of appearance which is confusing to the person who has given no thought to identifying trees.

All of the Oaks may be grouped as either white or black. To the former group belong the White Oak proper and the Bur Oak, Swamp White Oak, Chestnut Oak, Overcup Oak, the Post Oak and Live Oak, which may be recognized by the rounded lobes of their leaves, with the exception of the Post Oak and Live Oak, which have no lobes; and by their light grey or light buffishbrown bark, which breaks off into loose, flaky scales. The Bur Oak is distinguished from its close kinsmen by its cork-like branches. The trees of this group mature their acorns in a single year, and for this reason acorns of old and new crops are never found on a tree at the same time.

To the Black Oak group belong the Black, Red, Pin and Scarlet Oaks, Spanish, Water, Willow and Laurel Oaks. Instead of the rounded lobes of the leaves of the other group, all of these have leaves with lobes that are sharply pointed, or the leaves are tipped with bristles. The Pin Oak may be recognized by its horizontal and drooping zigzag lower branches, the deeply cut leaves, the tiny branchlets set into its limbs suggesting wooden pins, and the small acorns and cups. The Black Oak has rough, dark bark, growing in ridges; its leaves are a deep lustrous green above and dull light olive green beneath; its buds are pointed and have a dense, hairy covering. The inner bark is yellow and has a very bitter taste, in sharp dis¬ tinction to that of the closely related trees such as Scarlet Oak. The Scarlet and Red Oak have nearly smooth bark. The Red Oak when young has bark that is almost smooth, greyish or greenish cast brown, becoming darker later. Its new twigs are terra-cotta colored and the

WHITE

OAK

SCARLET

OAK older ones sepia-brown or grey. Its buds are pointed and practically free from hairs; the leaves are not as deeply lobed as the Black and Scarlet Oak and are of a dull, dark green or yellowish green on the upper side, somewhat paler underneath and with lighter veins. In the autumn the leaves turn a deep maroon red. It has a large acorn set in a broad shallow cup. The Scarlet Oak has thick dark brown bark, with irregular, shallow furrows. Its leaves are thin, a shiny olive green above, somewhat paler beneath. The autumn coloring of the leaves is deep, car¬ dinal red. The buds are blunt and smooth with a slight hairy covering at the base. The oaks of the Black Oak group require two years to mature their acorns, and for this reason the same tree will, at the same time, show young acorns of the new crop and fully grown acorns of the previous year. The kernel of the acorn in the White Oak group is mostly lacking in the bitter principle, some of them being quite edible, while those of the Black Oak group are bitter.

Ash leaves are composed of several leaflets along a single leaf stalk. These leaflets are in pairs, opposite to each other on the stem, together with a terminal leaflet. The number of leaflets on each ranges from five to nine, most frequently seven. The leaves are also arranged opposite one another on the twigs and branches. There is a wide difference between the characteristics of the Green Ash and those of the White Ash. The leaves of the White Ash are whitish beneath and smooth, often with a few suggestions of coarse teeth; those of the Green Ash are green on both surfaces and have teeth like saws.

While the Horse Chestnut belongs to the same genus as the Buckeye, the two are quite different. The leaves of the Horse Chestnut are seven-fingered, while those of the Ohio, Sweet and Red Buckeyes are usually five-fingered; the flowers of the former are five-petaled, of the Buckeyes

WILLOW

VALLEY OAK

LIVE OAK

CALIFORNIA LIVE OAK four-petaled. The fruit of the Horse Chestnut is a glob¬ ular husk containing a single nut; that of the Buckeye usually contains two. The Horse Chestnut has the ad¬ vantage of the Buckeye in profusion and beauty of blooms. The buds of the former are sticky, shiny and resinous, which is not true of the Buckeye.

The Maples have opposite leaves, with deeply recessed edges and always bear keys, or seeds with a long wing¬ like appendage, in pairs. These are as characteristic as acorns are of the Oaks. The leaves are borne in pairs, one opposite the other, along the stems. On the Norway Maple, the leaves are broader than long, five-lobed and easily identified for the reason that the leaf stalks and veins give forth a milky juice when cut or broken. Its bark is dark grey, fairly smooth and compact, with shallow, close and narrow furrows. Its twigs are compara¬ tively stout. The Sugar Maple has leaves very much like those of the Norway Maple, but are longer than broad and the exuded sap is clear. Its bark is a light brownish-grey, deeply furrowed perpendicularly into coarse flakes. Its twigs are about half as thick as in the Norway Maple. The bark of the Red Maple is smooth in youth, furrowed and shaggy and with long ridges on older trees, and changing in color from light to dark greyish-brown as the tree matures. The leaves are quite variable but are three-lobed, sharp pointed and, quite unlike the Norway and Sugar Maple, have definite saw-tooth edges. Leaf and flower buds as well as twigs and fruits are red, the summer foliage a light green on red stems and the autumn leaves a brilliant scarlet. There is a variety with yellow¬ ish instead of red twigs, flowers and fruits.

The Box Elder, or Ash-leaved Maple, is to be distin¬ guished by its ash-like leaves of three to five leaflets on a single stalk, coarsely toothed and usually deep green.

The bark on the trunk resembles that of the Ash, and is light brownish-grey, with narrow, shallow furrows. The young twigs are a light olive green.

The Sycamore is a large, handsome American tree. Its European relatives are called plane trees. The name Sycamore is used in Europe for the Sycamore Maple or False Plane Tree, while in the Orient and among the ancients it was a kind of Fig. The Sycamore is also called Buttonwood, Buttonball or Button Ball tree, Plane tree and American Plane. It has large maple-shaped leaves but has balls instead of keys as the seed vessel; the leaves of the Sycamore are not borne opposite one another, being thus in contrast to the habit of the Maple. Furthermore its bark peels off in thin, brittle layers, a characteristic lacking in the Maples except to a very small extent in the Sycamore Maple. The peeling process leaves almost white patches on the dull, ruddy brown bark, giving a character¬ istic mottled effect which can be recognized at a long distance. This appearance is not even suggested in the Sycamore Maple. Another characteristic peculiar to this tree is that the base of the leafstalk makes a cap-like cover¬ ing over the young buds and the bud is not seen in the axil of the leaf as in nearly all other trees. The leaves are light green, five-lobed, and with a few coarse teeth. The fruit is in the form of a single ball, rarely two, known as the but¬ tonball, which changes from green to light brown in the au¬ tumn and hangs throughout the winter. The London Plane, often cultivated as the Oriental Plane—a sister tree to the Sycamore—sheds its bark as does the Sycamore but leaves pale greenish patches beneath, instead of almost white ones. Instead of the single ball the fruit of this tree is generally borne in clusters of from two to four.

In the American Elm, the trunk divides gradually a short distance from the ground into two or more stout branches, which curve gracefully upward and outward to form a symmetrical, rounded, wide-spreading or vase¬ like top. This tree’s brownish grey bark is furrowed into perpendicular flat-topped ridges, very rough and solid, with whitish inner layers. The tree is marked by droop¬ ing twigs, and by pointed leaves which are usually quite rough above, sharply double-toothed, with straight, pale veins clearly marked and extending to the teeth on the margins. The English Elm has an oblong top, often divided into two sections, one above the other and the lower smaller than the upper. The trunk does not sep¬ arate into branches as in the American Elm, but is more or less continuous well into the top of the tree. Its branches are crooked and heavy, and its twigs do not droop as do those of the American Elm. The leaves are similar to those of the American Elm, but are apt to be smaller. The two trees are similar as to bark, except that the bark of the English Elm is the harder and coarser.

The Hackberry resembles the Elm in some respects, but its trunk does not divide so gradually. Its light bark is irregularly ridged and after a few years is covered with prominent wart-like projections of the outer bark, which are a distinguishing characteristic. The leaves, like those of the Elm, are unevenly developed and lopsided to a much greater extent than in the Elm. They are a light olive green, sharp pointed and coarsely toothed, and each leaf has its two lowest side veins prominent and extending well up from the base. The berry resem¬ bles a yellow cherry, turning to purple-black and is sweet and edible.

While the various Poplars have numerous points in common, they are marked by distinctive characteristics. The Lombardy Poplar is tall and slender, shaped like the spire of a church, and its erect branches normally start at a point not far above the ground; its bark is brown and rough, the leaves a dull olive green, blunt toothed and triangular, often broader than long, and tapering to a sharp point. The Carolina Poplar, or Cottonwood, has a wider crown and more open branching than the Lom¬ bardy Poplar, and is marked by its large twigs at the ends of branches; its bark is dark grey, almost smooth, and its leaves are larger than those of the Lombardy and have coarse teeth. The Quaking or American Aspen, another member of the Poplar group, is easily recognized by its finely toothed, small, trembling leaves, its reddish brown twigs and its sharply pointed narrow buds; its trunk, gradually tapering to the top and its slender branches. In the Large-toothed Aspen the buds are thicker and broader and the leaves have much coarser and more remote teeth. The unfolding leaves are white and woolly.

The Ginkgo is a tree of unusual appearance, with slender branches, extending upward and outward from the trunk at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. The trunk and branches are straight and tapering, the bark dark brown or greyish, smooth in youth and becoming rough and seamed. The leaves are a bright green, fan¬ shaped, and have several short clefts in the edge, and grow from alternating short button-like branches in clusters of from three to six. Because the leaves resemble those of the maidenhair fern in shape, though much larger, this tree is frequently called the Maidenhair Tree.