Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-06-26
TIMBER ON HIGHWAYS.
How Trees Should lie Plantcd--Tho Cui-
ttyation NcCcssary.

tivation Necessary.
In the prairie sections of Illinois the
highways, which werc properly laid out
and plotted when the land was first sur.
veyed, run upon all section lines and
are sixty-six feet wide. In some local
tiles, however, the highways were not
laid out when the land was surveyed,
and the farmers who bought the land
set their hedges and fences ten to
twenty feet from the line, leaving a
space OF only twenty to forty feet in
width for the road. In townships where
this was done the farmers, rather than
move their hedges and fences, manage
by hook or crook to elect road com
missioners who will allow things to re-
main as they are, and consequently
they have no roads fit for travel except
in the drycst portion of the year.
When n person driving across the
country passes out of a township where
| all the roads are sixty-six feet wide into
one where the other short.sighted policy
prevails he can not fail to be struck
| with the vast difference in the general
appearance of the country. Where the
lanes are narrow the people seem mar
| row and selfish in their views. Their
roads are chronically bad, and they APP
pear to be similarly affected Their
| lawns, when they have any, are made
to match their highways, and every
thing about them seems to be on the
same pattern except the army of ours
they keep, and they are constructed, as
| to teeth and bark, on generous scale.
To talk to such people about planting
forest and fruit trees along their high
| ways, is like throwing pearls before
| swine, because they have no highways
that respectable tree could live, much
less grow, upon. To those who live
where the highways are wide, or who
have been generous enough to widen
them, few hints may not come amiss.
That man owning farm of one
hundred and sixty acres with a high
way on two sides of it can grow about
all the fence posts he needs with very
little cost to himself is fact often
overlooked, even by thrifty, enterpris-
ing farmers. The law gives him per-
mission to plant forest or fruit trees
along his side of the highways dioin ng
his farm. The Stock law prevents own
ers of stock from permitting them to
run at large upon the highways, and
| thus insures his trees against injury
from that source. All he has to do is to
| plant the trees and bestow reasonable
amount of care upon them.
| Forest-trees for planting along the
highways should he at least six feet
high. They may be planted in either
| spring or fall, whenever other work is
not pressing. Those planted on the
north sides of the road may be set eight
or ten feet apart; eight feet is not toe
close for ash. On the south side, how
ever, they should be placed fully
twenty-five feet apart. If set closer
they so shade the road as to prevent its
drying readily, and thus do more harm
than good. On east and west sides they
may be set twenty feet apart without
injury to the road.
The cultivation and care necessary is
good mulch of wet or half-rotted
straw or other material placed around
them in the spring of the first, third and
fifth years after they are set, and the
shortening in or cutting off of useless ol
struggling branches and supertiuous
leaders early each spring. With such
care they are sure to make fine trees
The mulch should cover Il space around
the tree three to five feet from its trunk,
in order to keep the soil mellow anC
kill out the grass and weeds.
l. As soon as the trees will make one
post, each alternate one should be GU
down and another planted close by it
stump. When these are large enough
for one post, those left standing at the
previous cutting will make three post
and an enormous quantity OF tirewool
and they should be cut down and other
immed ately planted by the stumps
BY alternating in this manner the sup
ply of posts and wood will be constant
while the attractive appearance anc
usefulness of the highways will not h
impaired in the least.
The principal objection to trees alon!
the highways lies i'll their being allowed
to attain such a size as to completed,
exclude the sunlight from the roads
and thus prevent their drying quickly
BY pursuing the method have outlinct
this trouble will be entirely obviated.
1t is not generally expcdcnt to plan
fruit trees along highways, except i'm
mediately in front of the house, as the,
are apt to be neglected and thus be
come harbor for insect pests, whicl
are multi piled by wholesale, to the grea
detriment of the fruit interests. - Con
N. \. Examiner.