Evening star., 1925-08-22

the estima tes for the municipal gov.
ernment, In particular, will be cha
grined or amused at the small appro-
priation, according to his tempera-
ment.
1 imagine Congress, In this respect,
Is something like the neighbor who
hangs over the back fence and says,
You have a lot of luck with flow
ers."
You feel like turning upon that good
neighbor and replying. Luck. moth.
ing! l have put so many dollars
worth of grass seed on that lawn, put
so many more dollars Of fertilizer on
II, put hours and hours of work on II,
and great deal Of high.class labor on
the whole yard. to say nothing of u.s.
ing a maximum quantity of brains.
Don't call 1t luck. 1t Is everything
else but luck"
When one considers the time, money
and work that may profitably be put
upon a small back yard garden he
wonders how on earth Mr.. Lanham
manages to do as much for the trees
of Washington as he does with the
money he has at his command.
Such a park as Lafayette Square.
for instance, ought to be equipped
with an automatic sprinkler system, IL
feasible, in order that dry spells would
not put the grass in such shape as II
was during July.
Lacking an automatic system, ade-
quate water could be placed on the
grass in the morning hours by the in
dustrious labors of plenty Of men with
plenty of hose.
1t would take money-but 1t would
be worth it.
The trouble is that most people take
our parks and trees too much for
granted. There they are. they have
always been there, and we guess they
always Will!
Plenty Of money would enable the
parks and trees to get the full water
ings they need during Summer, as
we'll as provide for other care.
The average person seldom stops to
consider the adverse conditions under
which trees grow In a large city. In
stead of having plenty of room, trees
are cramped in between asphalt areas.
and their leaves constantly subjected
to gassing from automobiles and otn-
er sources. Their roots struggle In
confined spaces. and their smoke.coat'
ed leaves do their best to drink In the
needed sun.
Little or no natural humus Is fur-
nished city trees, and as Tor any
specific attempt to fertilize them. l
would not say it is not
Despite these adverse conditions,
our trees look amazingly green
throughout the entire city, much bet
ter than the grass in the parks, espe-
cially the downtown parks.
Perhaps this is due, to some extent,
to activities in spraying. II 1t were
not far this annual battle conducted
by man against the bugs" In the
trees there would be precious few
arboreal beauties in the National
Capital today.
A victorious warfare has been waged
with the bugs over a period OF years
so that today our trees are In better
condition than ever in this respect
This work, however, could well be
increased, being such a vital one. as
we'll as attendance to the various
tree diseases. more paintings, etc.
AS Mr.. Lanham points out In his
report, there is little use in planting
new trees If the older ones must be
neglected to do 1t.
If some blight should suddenly de
prive Washington of all its trees and
all its grass, many who are now in
different would awake to the value
of these factors.
Truly, without our green grass and
our green trees, Washington would
not be Washington.
Putting greens of our golf courses
are watered thoroughly at least twice
a day. Such care as this ought TO
be extended to all our city parks and
similar attention given all our trees
1t takes money-but what doesn't?