The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-20
MORE TREES ARE NEEDED.
THEY ARE RAPIDLY DYING OUT ON
MANY STREETS.

Property Owners should Lend a
Hand-Jones Street Especially
Needs Improvement of This Sort
Says Commissioner Theus-Thc
Commission VIII Plant and Guar
antee Trees, He Says, ut Small Cost
to Property Owners-The Season
for Planting VIII Soon BE ut Hand
The Park and Tree Commission is
DESTROYS of impressing upon property
owners the desirability of planting
trees in front of their property as one
of the most economical, as well as one
of the most desirable, means of inn
provement.
THE indifference on this subject is
something astonishing" said Mr. S. e.
Theus, of the Park and Tree Commits
sion TO a Morning News reporter. "All
over the city there are hundreds, per-
haps thousands, of places where trees
should be planted, but where the prop
erty owners are taking no steps what
ever to this end, probably taking it for
granted that the trees will grow up
there of their own accord some day.
This is particularly the case on Jones
street, which has become almost de-
nuded of trees and which is badly in
need of such improvement"
Perhaps some of the property own
ers are under the impression" said
Mr.. Theus. that it is the duty of the
Park and Tree Commission to plant
trees wherever they are needed, but
such is not the case. There is no re-
quirement to this effect and we have
no money furnished us for this pur-
pose. Growing trees are a property
improvement, for which the property
owner must pay. 1t is the duty of the
commission to provide trees only for
the parks and squares, and for the
greens, such as those on Oglethorpe
avenue and on Liberty street. Our
slender appropriation is hardly suffi-
cient to do this properly"
For the expense of a few dollars
said Mr.. Theus, ANY property owner
can have trees planted in front of his
property by simply making application
to the commission. We have blank
applications printed for this purpose,
with a list of the varieties of trees
which may be planted. All that is
necessary is for the property owner to
fill out the application, indicating the
kind of trees wanted. The cost is
anywhere from 81 so to SO per tree,
81 being about the average. AS the
average lot on Jones street is only
thirty feet front, only two trees would
be required to each lot. Thus each
property owner could, for the small
sum of 81 or S., have trees placed in
front of his property. The commission
guarantees the trees, and if the first
lot should die, others would be sup
piled"
The Commission will not begin its
work of tree planting a until cold
weather sets in, but it desires to have
a number of applications on file by that
time in order that the work may pro-
coed rapidly. The commission has had
it's greatest success in handling trees
of from ten to fifteen years Of age and
from five to eight inches in diameter.
These appear to thrive better than the
younger trees, and, of course, produce
a satisfactory shade tree in a much
shorter time.
The row of magnolias on the Liberty
street green has proved an exception
to the general work of the commission
the majority of the young trees having
died. This is supposed to be due to the
cutting off of the moisture by the
asphalt paving, the exposed surface OF
the green being rather limited. The
question of whether to replant nagno-
las or to replace them with some other
tree will be taken up shortly by the
commission.