The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1907-06-20
PROTECT THE ROADS,
Value of Planting Trees Along
the Highways.
SAVES AND BEAUTIFlEs THEM.
Shade, Says an Authority, Keeps the
Surface Of Highway Moist, Pre-
venting Wear and Dust-Trees Also
Act as Windbreaks.

Surface OF Highway Moist, Pre-
venting Wear and Dust-Trees Also
Act as Windbreaks.
That many men sincerely believed
that trees which shaded the public
highway were not worth fair rental
of the ground they covered was proved
by their toiling to destroy every tree
that stood on that strip of land. says
Good Roads Magazine. But in those
days the highway was undrained ex-
cept by a shallow gutter, more or less
even less was done about making the
public thoroughfare 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 out
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 de-
layed when they did not wholly pre-
vent 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 to trimming the trees
so as to get the benefit they could
give, yet avoid the injury they might
do by shading ground that might have
produced food for man.
New light has come in this country
on the subject of rOadmakins. 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 management of
roads Today the plan Is to keep the
foundation of all roads dry by good
drainage and the surface slightly most
yet never let it become SO wet and soft
that wheels can cut it badly.
Shade trees of the right shape beside
road tend to keep the driveway SO
moist that swift wheels cannot easily
suck up much of it's surface to scatter
1t in clouds Of dust over the neighbor-
hood Roots of such trees bind the
earth of the ditch sides and even the
bottoms of the bitches, the banks of
cuts and slopes of fills, and by SO doing
retard If they do not entirely prevent
the washing away that melting SHOWS
and pelting rains would cause but for
these roots.
By their shade such trees hinder if
they do not wholly stop the growth Of
weeds that would choke the bitches,
cumber the roadsides and seed down
the fields of the farmer, and by prevent
ing such harmful growths they save
time, labor and money that otherwise
must go to maintain the road or to de-
stroy 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 fol
them, it would be blown from sod and
.grain field to bank behind stack and
fence and building, where it does nc
good. In springtime such trees check
the melting of the SHOWS and so help te
keep them from washing away the
driveway, securing out the bitches and
from flooding the lowlands.
Trees of suitable kinds along thu
roads attract people who have means
to get what they want, leisure and clll
ture that enable them to value ant
enjoy the comfort and beauty Of ;
road so adorned, money with which t.
buy land and pay for its Improvement
and influence which can often in,luc.
the powers to leave undone thos'
things they ought not to do and to d.
those things they ought to do for th'
good of the community.
Men trained by long experience an
by study to use their money shrewdl.
to get the biggest possible return
cheerfully pay large sums to get label
or packages that will catch the eye AM
please the taste Of possible buyers .
the goods those packages hold. Sucl
business men know that the pleasing
appearance of cover does much t
sell for $5 to So grain for which til
farmer is glad to get little more tha
dollar when he markets it in bulk o
in bag.
Many time pleasant drive has le
people Of means to buy Il summe
home in neighborhood and to brin
: their friends to do likewise. This mad
a market at town lot prices for farl
lands and a ready demand at good fis
ures at the very door of the farmer fo
his fruit and vegetables. milk and bu
ter poultry and eggs. 1t has helped I
swell the tax lists even while it r.
duced the tax rate and SO helped tn
neighborhood to make improvements
could not have afforded without sue
help and by doing SO has further rai'
ed the selling value of the acres near.
Many an illustration of this effect .
attractiveness of country roads inis
be seen in New England and Ne
York, where the coming of people {
wealth and refinement. acconipanie
by improvements they have caused. Ia
increased the prices Of farm lands {