The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-10
A Ud.QJE TREE STATUTE

New Jersey Protects Street Shade
 Trees-Newark Has Planted Over
 100 Miles of Streets-Thirty
 Towns Have Shade Tree
 Commissions.
 (Carl Bannwart. Secretary of the Newark, N. J., Shade Tree COmmissiOn.)
 (Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 | New Jersey by her shade tree stat ute converted the rocky pioneer trail of the three planter into a graded, progress-fostering roadway. For whereas without this law the advance of three planting and protection was slow, tOrtuOus and inadequate, the municipalities ot this state now bId ta1r to excel in the ease with which extensive plantings may be almost automatically projected, completed, paid for and maintained.
 The law provides for Shade Tree commission of three freehOlders who shall serve without compensation, and who shall have the exclusive and absolute control and power to plant, set out, maintain, protect and care for shade trees in any of the public highways Of it's municipality. A later statute gives the same commis- sion exclusive control of the public parks.
 The street trees which were no- hody's partic ular care are now com milted to the custody of three lead ing citizens adequately empowered, whose zeal, civic patriotism, love of trees and administrative ability are concentrated on maintaining and pro- noting the welfare of the trees If thelr home city. The advantages of this arrangement are not only ob- Vious in prospect but have been dem on-trated in Newark and elsewhere.
 The status of street trees is raised for they stand forth now before all the people as the special wards of special municipal department spec ially created to protect them. The fine stately old street trees which have come down to us from the ia th- CTS, but which have so long been strangers to considerate treatment, at last are coming into their own. Not only does Commission protect them; a Public Sentiment which is con- stantly enlarglng co-operates.
 The Commi sslon is not only War; den Of the older trees but also Plant CT of the new! Here in Newark, where the law has been in force six | hundred and two miles of streets have been set out. Picture this! One hundred and two miles of new plant ings, adorning the streets, gladden. i ing the eye, cooling and purifying the air.. and enhancing the city's beatty and wealth. There they stand and grow, increasing in stature and fulfilling the promise of their saplirg $ days. Of course this increase in growth and beauty is not the result merely of time and elements" for a tree commission is required to sys- liZe and otherwise nurture its young.
 An innovation is the authority of Shade Tree Commission 10 assess ! the cost of new plantings against the property in front of which they are set out, This becomes a lien. The money from this source is reinvested in other plantings. Only the1 actual cost of the tree. guard, stake and labor is so taxed. The average as sesament last year was s2.s3 This If the tree dies it is replaced under the guaranteee without extra charge to the property.
 The Commission is required to give public Notice of Intention" to plant certain. streets or portions of streets through lone or more of the news ! papers of the municipality" After ,, "a hearing to all persons who appear in relation to such contemplated inl- provements," the streets to be plant I ed are finally determined. Instrur- tions are then given to go ahead,- and the seasons planting is begun. | Planting pits are dug at distances l of thirty-three feet. Where the stde- walk IS cut pains are taken to have the walk in good conditions. From each pit fifty-six cubic feet of earth is re- moved and replaced with good soil Eenriched with fertilizer. When the new soil has settled the tree is set in place with wire guard topped with a rubber collar and stake to hold | it steady until it has got it's own firm grip on Mother Earth. The trees for each street are all of one specimen and of equal size. With forty clear days in both Spring and Fall. the two planting seasons, and setting out fifty a day, the years "output" will be four thousand more | trees to adorn twelve more miles of streets and to begin the transforming of commonplace thoroughfares into park-like highways overarched with waving trees uniform in species ard size.
 The bu shows the property owner that the cost assessed against him for the excavating, the subsoilins. the tree. the guard, the stake and could have to pay nursery for the tree alone. This saving to the prop erty owner, made possible by the wholesale nature of the operations, will explain how the Commission can advertise thirty miles of streets nr 2 not find one owner opposed.
 1 The Shade Tree Statute does not become operative until the govern ing body'' of municipality author izes the appointment of a Commis- sion. Over thirty cities and towns of New Jersey differing in population from 3S7,000. to 1000, have elected to place their trees in the care of a Commission. In all these commuui- | ties the problem of the care, increase and protection of street trees is be- l ing studied by these local conservers of the city's tree assets. To appoint a Commission is to set in motion A legal mechanism toward adequate i municipal control.
 This is the story of six years pro- 1 gress in New Jersey, the pioneer years of preparatory work. It is far l to expect cumulative progress in su- 1 pervising street trees and preventin. every form of destructive agency during the next five years. Through i MT. J. Horace McFarland's inita- ! tive. similar statute is operative m l Pennsylvania. Buffalo and Chicago, and the country wide exchange lis. of the Newark Commission demon strate how general is the interest in | AI~ ~S r