New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-13
Bv Susie Sexton
THEREAFTER it should be Father Bur
II bank Knickerbocker.

bank Knickerbocker.
- II That old gentleman, in the anti-
ouated costume has set about the complicated
task of doing to New York's countenance all
that the California magician ever accomplished
in vegetable legerdemain. When the meta
morphosis has been wrought the dusty lanes
and asphalt wastes of Americas greatest city
promise to blossom out with verdure that will
rival the garden spots of the world.
The Commissioner of Parks has undertaken
the lob. And he modestly believes that his sys
tematic plan to apply the most modern methods
in restoring the city's trees will give New
York's irregular skyline a new significance. As
his first step in Burbanking the Gotham land
scape. Commissioner Ward has established
health department for trees. In charge of it
has been placed an arboriculturist with an in
ternatonal reputation, J. J. LevisOn, City For
ester for Manhattan and Richmond.
There may be imaginative persons who think
that all foreSters are picturesque Western char
acters Of hair-trigger propensities, who spend
most of their time in the saddle fighting forest
fires. These individuals have only to visit the
Park Commissioners Office on the tenth floor of
the Municipal Building. New York City, to dis
cover their error. Forest fires, it seems, Turk
menacingly in Central Park as well as in the
Sierras. But it is not with them that the City
Forester is chiefly concerned. Clinics for
shrubs, field hospitals for forests, and strict
quarantine for plant plaques will be his para
mount interests during the next two years.
City jewellers. who divide their days between
rushing subway trains and crowded apartment
houses, will be surprised to learn that Manhat-
tan's trees are ito be a carefully guarded
against epidemics as It's school children. But
it is a fact, nevertheless. A rigid quarantine
system for sick trees and shrubs has been in
sttuted in each Of the city's improved wooded
areas. The warning sign of death-a broad
band Of white paint was placed on all infested
trees last fall. During the winter months
while the devastating insects were still con
cealed within them they cut down and
moved. That is one Of the reasons why, in this
spring Of 1917, life in New York to insects has
been more battling than ever before in the his
tory Of the city.
In his capacity of park physician the for
ester believes implicitly in that ounce Of pre-
vention which is worth pound of cure. In
sccts which cause large mortality rate in the
realm of plant life usually emerge from winter
quarters TO begin their deadly work in May
During the summer. consequently, it is prac-
tically useless to cut down trees. If removed
in the winter, however the marauders may be
trapped and burned without difficulty.
No epidemic, for instance, ever claimed
more appalling list of victims than the hickory
bark beetle Hundreds of thousands of hckores
throughout Long Island and Manhattan have
been victims of this plague during recent years.
As early as 1905 the hickory bark beetle began
its work Of destruction in the Brooklyn parks.
There was, up to this time, evidence of their
presence in outside territory. Coming from
Washington to take up his work as arboricult-
urist in the Brooklyn park system, Mr.. Levi
son was the first to begin fighting the pest in a
practical manner.
Marking all infested wood, removing and
burning II before the beetles had an opportu-
nifty to emerge in the spring, brought the NOR
tally list among the hickories in Prospect Park
down from six hundred annually TO a minimum
Of one in four years. Meanwhile, the pest
spread 10 other districts, destroying thousands
of splendid specimens. In the Manhattan parks
hundreds Of dead hckories and all hopelessy
infested ones were marked for removal only
recently thus starting the same campaign as
in Brooklyn.
That omnivorous plant enemy, the caterpillar
or tussock moth, is also TO be brought face 70
face with the high cost of living in New York