The Yale expositor., 1909-05-21
GORLES QFLNNZZRcWI or EN5ZNSAHHIARNG

That New Haven is fast losing the
bosky glories for which she has been
renowned for two centuries, and
whence her title, Elm City, was de-
rived, is bad news to thousands of
ELS graduate sons and to many 9TH
ers who visit the university town to
be edited by football contests. The
trees are dying as the result OF neg
lect and soon the picturesque streets
may be as bald as an alumnus OF the
class of SO. It Is estimated that elm
beetles and other insects have de-
stroyed half of the city's 10000 trees,
and, figuring the value of tree at
$50, there is total loss of $1,000, 900.
But no monetary calculation can rep
resent the damage to beauty, and the
replacement of the stately foliage can
not be accomplished in a few years, or
even generations.
An association of citizens, headed
by Prof. Henry Graves Of the Yale
School of Forestry, has begun move
ment to save the trees which remain.
Last fall the trees were sprayed, and
then hundreds of fine specimens were
killed. Prof Graves and the citizens
behind him are trying to have the
care OF the trees placed in the hands
of a competent park commission.
Next to the university itself the
trees of New Haven have been the
city's chief glory since the town was
founded, in 1886. Trees were planted
around the central green at once, and
in 1850 Jared Elliott warned the colon
lists that the trees must be protected
from savage beasts" The elms which
have lined the green and the central
ing to the Chronicles of New Haven
Green" by Henry T. Blake.
Prof Franklin Bowditch Dexter of
Yale points out in his paper, New
Haven in 1884," that Elm street took
its name from the patriarchial trees
planted in front of the house of Rev.
DIR. Pierpont, which remained till a
| few years ago. Rev. DR.. Leonard Ba-
con, one of the most famous pastors
in the history of the Center church of
New Haven, thus told of the planting
of the first tree in front of the Pier
pont residences:
''As the people were bringing in
their free-will offerings of one kind
and another to complete and furnish
the building, one man Ga poor parish
Toner, William Cooper by name), de-
string to do something for the object
and having nothing else to offer,
brought on his shoulder from the
farms two elm saplings and planted
them before the door of the minister's
house. Some 40 years afterward
(1726) Jonathan Edwards, then soon
to take rank in the intellectual world
with Locke and Liebnitz, spoke words
of mingled love and piety in the ear of
Sarah Pierpont under their shade"
Mr.. Blake's Chronicles" show that
a systematic planting of trees through
out the city took place in 1859. Prof
Dexter thinks that the large button
wood tree which has stood in front of
the First Methodist church in Elm
street is probably a relic of that ia
nous planting. This tree has sue
cumbed to recent neglect and is now
dead Prof. Dexter says that $3.50
cottonwood and elm trees were set
out in 1859 around the green"
Rev. Samuel Peters says in his
General History of Connecticut"
written In 1881 in London, that New
Haven was the most beautiful town in
New England, II not in America. He
eulogized the trees of the town, but
descendants of the dissenters who
founded New Haven record that New
Haven was far less favorably i'm
pressed with the old Tory parsen than
Rev. Mr. Peters was with New Ha-
ven. Rev. Manasseh Cutler wrote in
a similar vein of his visit to New Ha-
ven in 1887. He said that the trees
were large, and added much to the
towns beauty" He made special men,
ton Of the long rows across the CEN
ter OF the green.
The Incorporation of the city In
1884 gave impetus to planting move
ment in connection with the beautify-
ing of the city, although when the
British invaded II in 1879 their gen.
eral, Garth. looked at the trees and
wrote home that "the town is too
pretty to burn" The great planting
of New Haven trees, however, was