The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-04-17
PLANT SHADE TREES.
SALT LAKE Cry. April 16. 1850.
Editors HeraL9:

{ necessary or desirable. MOL you par
ticularly, but everybody, in the street
, in iroat of the premises or lot. Of
the value OF shade trees in this part
of the continent, no person who has
walked our streets one hot summers
day has any doubt. and this Is the
time of the year to plant trees.
Shade trees saould be fast growers.
healthy and hardy They should have
a we'll shaped top, and boso bvanChy
and leafy as to offer a rather thick
shade. The cottonwood and the
black locust are among our most
rapid growers, and the timber of the
latter is very valuable. But both
trees have characteristics which rer-
der them not very desirable. aud
shade trees are supposed to be planted
for shade, not for their timber value.
The white ard the golden willows do
not give q deuse shade, especially In
the latter and dustier part of the
summer. Balm of Gilead grows
t9leIably fast, but the branches are
rather soft, and the trunk is some
times attacked by grubs, as are many
of the cottonwood trees. The null
berry makes q good shade tree. Some
OF the varieties have a large leaf and
manifest a tendency to grow into a
very handsome shade. But the fruit,
even the insipid, or rather sickly
sweet, white berry, is o great tempta-
ton 10 boys and girls, young and not
60 young. They throw stones and
sticks and CID fruit cans and oyster
cans into the trees and climb into
them and break the branches. The
mulberry fruit season, too, lasts nearly
all summer. So that the tree becomes
a nuisance and will remain such until
our more youthful denizens become
educated into a decent respect for
street trees. For this reason, null
berry and other fruit trees are bad |
investments as street trees and are
likely to become nuisances 10 the |
owners. l have cut down mulberry |
shade trees with trunks a foot in |
diameter, solely because they were
rendered unbearably obnoxious
through being besieged and bombar
ded and stormed and manned all
summer long by eager children of
both sexes and various ages. Rather
than have the trees so abused and |
disfigured, the lot covered with the
debris Of said bombardment in the |
shape of sticks and stones and old tin
cans, and my family sauced and in
suited if they went out into the street
to demonstrate with the cheeky hood
lums, at last resolved to cut down
the trees, which [ did mercilessly.
But assure you l never did anything
Of the kind with greater reluctance
and regret, and ! do not wish to be
driven to do such cruel thing again, !
albeit I did it in sheer self-defence.
1t is always a matter of modification |
to me that l could not let those hand
some trees stand and grow older and
larger and still more handsome. But
l could not, for neither myself nor my
family could retain a desirable seren-
ity of mind while these devoted trees
were standing. They did not induce
peace on earth, nor good will 10 men.
Hence their untimely, undeserved,
and ever to be lamented fate.
AS have planted several kinds Of
shade trees, and seen others do Ike
wise, ! have q little experience in the |
matter. One great mistake consists
in planting the trees too closely to-
gether. I would not plant them, to |
remain, nearer than two rods apart. |
Three rods apart is better, l think.
When trees are planted SO close to-
gether in the row, they do not have
room to properly expand, and to de-
velnp themselves naturally and SYM
metricaIly, nor 10 grow up into liberal
proportions and sturdy robustness. |
After few years the branches inter-
tWine 10 such an extent that the |
owner thinks he will thin them out,
and let a little daylight into and |
through them-not thin the trees, but |
the branches. and he sometimes does
it with a vengeance. Hence the |
odious tree butchering which we see.
If he would thin the trees out and
let the branches alone. instead of
being open to the charge of being a |
tree butcher, ruthless tree slaugh- |
terer, he would be credited with being
man Of feeling and judgment, a |
person OF sense and sensibiiity, a gen.
tlemsn of taste end culture, and
would be respected accordingly.
Now 1 will venture suggestion.
Suppose you have no shade trees in
the street in front of your lot, but
desire to have some. Then you plant
some box elder trees, each three rods
from the next in the row. They will
look very wide apart, but don't mind
that, for after few years they will
not appear to be so far from each
other. Moreover, they will have
plenty of room to grow and expand
into noble proportions and beautiful
appearance, instead of being cramped
hy oloseness of company. The few
trees cost less than many, and can
have all the care that would have had
to be divided among a larger number,
planted closer together. There will
be room between them for the people
of the .house to see what ia going on
in the street, and how the neighbors'
gardens are getting on across the
street, as well as what the neigbbors
are doing.
But l will hazard another sugges-
ton. Plant a Lombardy poplar be-
tween each box elder tree. The
poplar does not afford a great deal OF
ahade, it is true. It's shade is long
and narrow. But the steeple-like
poplars in your row Of shade trees will
make a good set-of to rounder hesied
box elders, and will constitute with
them an agreeable contrast. Let the
poplars and box elders grow a few
years, and your row OF trees will have
quite a distinguished and even
elegant appearance,
l say box elder, because that tree is
a moderately fast grower, is a hand
some shade tree if properly attended
to and not Ill used, has no objection
able characteristic, is indigenous to
this region. and-csn readily be OBJ
tanned.
There may be other shade trees as
desirable as the box elder, perhaps
more so. However, that tree will not
disappoint, but will give good results
within reasonable number ofyears.
might say that the tree known here as
the sycamore grows into very hand
some shape and as fast as many
, others do. The honey locust often
cooH eho1o h,rk