Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1905-08-24
THE VALUE OF TREES
NO PUBLIC EXPENDITURE WILL BRING
LARGER RETURNS.

Streets and Add to the Value Of
Real Estate-some Points ON Plant
ing Them.
The city of Boston could better at
ford to lose her famous statehouse
with it's gilded dome, her historic Fa-
neuil hall and her beautiful public IL
brary, with all it's treasures of art and
literature, than to lose her elms on
Boston Common
Its public buildings could soon be re-
placed, but it would take hundred
years to create those majestic elms.
Yet the cost Of maintaining the elms
is not a 1.-THE of keeping up and caring
for it's public buildings.
No public expenditure unless indeed
it be for the single enterprise of good
roads is wiser or brings greater re-
turns, says writer in Good Roads
Magazine. Shade trees add greatly to
| adjoining real estate values, and If
they do not make for civic righteous
ness they surely make for civic refine
ment and for the comfort of man.
Out lHcIc Is dllOlucl ICiSOu anu per
haps more important one yet for the
culture of trees on the borders Of
streets and highways. They add much
to the length of life and to the health
full condition of the street or road, and
where the water cart is used they re-
duce the cost of sprinkling more than
one-half. Too much rain, too much
sun and too much wind are each inju-
rious to all sorts Of streets and high
ways. Shade trees meliOrate or cor
rect their effect They protect the
road from the suns rays and thus pre-
vent it's surface from quickly becOm-
ing powdered like dust They break
the sweep Of the wind and thus pre-
vent the top surface from being blown
away In the case of heavy rain they
greatly reduce the wash Of the surface
to the cutters. Tree roots likewise
serve to draw up the destructive sub
surface water. Hail to the shade trees!
Their cost is a bagatelle; their exist
ence is a blessing.
| But there must be discrimination in
their planting. On high land, where the
surface is dry. they should be set out
nearer together than on the lOwlands
or valleys. where the ground is natural
~ moist The more dry the land and
the more exposed to the rays of the
sun and to the wind the greater the
necessity for thick shade. On low land
it is better that the spaces between
the trees be Of sufficient width to allow
the shadow to rest on the street or
highway but part of the day only
| Then there is the question of the dis
lance of the trees from the street or
! road and this depends so much upon
the width of the highway the location
Of the outlying property and the feel
ings of its owners that no hard and
fast rule can be laid down. On country
roads. however, they should be set out
side the pale Of the gutter and in city
streets wherever their growth and
health can be furthered most.
| Finally choose the kind of shade
tree for setting out that grows and
flourishes best in the immediate locali-
ty, and young saplings from three to
ten feet high are, as a rule, the most
desirable to transplant. 1t may be re
marked in passing that the size and
rate of growth of trees depend as much
upon heat, moisture and light as upon
species.
If there is anything under the sun
that city or town may be justified in
running in debt for, except of course,
good roads, it is for shade tree plant
ing Its utility is not immediate. 1t Is
largely potential. But in after years,
when the branches have spread, flu
ture generations will rise up and call
those who incurred the debt blessed