Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-08-09
A Treeless CITY.

Probably It has never occurred to
the ladies of the village improvement
society that there ever existed such
thing as a treeless city. A city street
without trees or growing hlngs of any
kind is not at all unusual but though
the trees may be missed there Is al
ways a comfortable consciousness
L ait few blocks farther on there
is shade and beauty to refresh body
and mind. Until came to Ashland /
had never thought of town without
trees any more than had thought OF
woods without birds or homes with
out books. And when the train pull
ed into the center OF the town did
not suspect for a moment we had ar
rived. As we passed up. the street to
the clearinghouse kept saying to
myself again and again How alb
surd, how perfectly funny, how pitt
fuliP Being unable to decide wheth-
err the situation called for tears or
smiles l INDUCED in neither. Few
other women passing up an Ashland
street for the first time and knowing
it was to be their home for season
have shown such seh-control. One
young woman told me that she came
to Ashland a bride and cried all day
long the day she arrived. The train
on which everybody comes reaches
here at 7:45 in the morning and 1t is
quite as customary to ask new-com-
er what her sensations during the
first day in Ashland we're as to speak
OF the weather. Another woman
told me she actually had Mysteries ON
her way from the train, while still an
other said she cried at least once every
day for week,
The reason of all this depression
which is inevitable to one coming
here to live Is | believe the fact unat
there are practically no trees The
wea .ler is usually perfect and there Is
splendor TO the open northern sky
and brilliant sunshine which could
not fail to impress one IL he were shot
so absorbed in the utter barrenness Of
the town. No house can be attractive
which stands with its angles and
straight lines silhouebted clearly
against the sky, with no suggestion of
shade or the graceful lines and irreg
ularlties of trees and shrubbery. An
architect though the most skilled in
the world, can not equal creator, and
the builder OF houses fails where the
builder of trees succeeds. So 1t hap
pens that this town Of unshaded
houses is as fiat and inslpid beside a
wooded village as Louis Fourteenth's
artificial gardens before Versailles are
beside the natural beauty OF the park
beyond the Trianon.
Like all this Northern Wisconsin tho
site OF Ashland was covered with pine
forests, and the question is always
asked, why were not some trees left?'
Because when bereft of their compan-
ions the trees that are left pine away
and die. It has been tried repeatedly
and in no case has an isolated fcgest
tree lived any length OF time.
1t Is an expensive and Wearisome and
task to plant and rear trees, as a solid
red clay abounds here, which bakes in
the summer, so that trees will not
live In 1t. To be successful in raising
a tree 1t Is necessary to prepare a bed
OF considerable size and depth, and af-
teTwards to wait and walt, for the win
ters are long and severe and the grow
ing months few.
Perhaps the real reason in many
cases why trees are not started and
cared for is that the first impression
made by the town is so strong that no
body expects to stay long and thinks 1t
not worth while to spend money and
energy for those who shall come after.
II Ashland were full Of fine trees
can imagine 1t the most attractive Of
places, with its surrounding low hills
and splendid bay beyond which lies
that bewitching group Of Apostle Is
lands and Lake Superior. Foliage
would hide that pulled" expression
which the town has. Hero you see a
fine large building which seems to say,
I'm pull the growth OF the town
Abound me-" and there another with
the same lengend written all over Vt.
DeannOt but wonder that somebody
pes not raise fine tree, for am sure
The town would graVftate around 1t.
1t seems to me that there can be no
more important and patriotic work
than thar done by Village Improve
ment Society" and no more important
committee than the one which inter-
ests itself in trees. This amounts 10 q
conviction, because l have lived in a
town whore crying need is a 'iVillage
Improvement S0Gisty," and whose lack
OF beauty Is mainly due 10 tta tFesless-
ness.
Ashland, Wis, June II. 1899.
EdaoAas YOsF Eowsls With Casoarass.
0auho Oafhartfa anra onuatfraalnn 9.-a....