The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-05-09
PROTECT The ROADS.
Value of Planting Trees Along the
Highways.

ed that trees which shaded the
public highway were not worth
fair rental of the ground they COW
cred was proved by their toiiing 20
destroy every tree that stood on
that strip of land, says Good Roads
Magazine. But in those days the
highway was undrained except by
shallow gutter, more or less
open, and little was then known
and even less was done about
making the public thorough
fare much more than lane, which
was muddy in wet weather and
barren, sunburnt and dusty strip
IN dry times. Having no way by
which to run off, water stood in
the shade of the few trees which
were allowed to reach their arms
over the driveway. Narrow tires
cut deep into the softened earth in
such spots, and lasting mudholes
were thus made.
Farmers found that the shade of
trees standing beside the highways
delayed when they did not wholly
prevent the growth of crops near
the road, but this may have been
largely because little or no thought
was given to saving or to planting
trees of the right kind or trimming
the trees so as to get the benefit
they could give, yet avoid the in
jury they might do by shading
ground that might have produced
food for man.
New light has come in this
country on the subject of road
making and now the truth is
known that good drainage is the
first essential of good roads. Well
made earth roads have no place
where water can stand, as it stands
through weeks or even through
months where there is bad man.
agement of roads. Today the plan
IS to keep the foundation of all
roads dry by good drainage and
the surface slightly moist yet never
let it become so wet and soft that
wheels can cut it badly.
Shade trees of the right shape
beside a road tend to keep the
driveway so moist that swift wheels
cannot easily suck up much of its
surface to scatter it in clouds of
dust over the neighborhood.
Roots of such trees bind the earth
of the bitches, the banks of cuts
and slopes Of fills, and by so doing
retard if they do not entirely pre-
vent the washing away that melt
ing SHOWS and pelting rains would
cause but for these roots.
By their shade such trees hinder
ifthey donotwholly stop the growth
OF weeds that would choke the
bitches, cumber the roadsides and
seed down the fields of the farmer,
and by preventing such harmful
growths they save time, labor and
money that otherwise must go to
maintain the road or to destroy
weeds among the crops.
AS windbreaks such trees help
to keep gales from picking up the
finer PARTICLES from the road to
scatter them over grass and fruit
and grain to sift them over flowers
and food, clothing and furniture.
They help to hold the snow on
field and road when, but for them,
it would be blown from soil and
grain field to bank behind stack
and fence and building, where it
does no good. In springtime such
trees check the melting of the
SHOWS and so help to keep them
from washing away the driveway,
securing out the bitches and from
flooding the lowlands.
Trees Of suitable kinds along the
roads attract people who have
means to get what they want, leis-
ure and culture that enable them
to value and enjoy the comfort and
beauty of road 50 adorned, money
with which to buy land and paw
for its improvement, and influence
which can often induce the powers
to leave undone those things they