Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-10

| In regard to trees. Trees are the auto.
mobiles, the steam yachts Of plants
Almost every home owner feels able tC
buy q few shrubs and perennial plants
but If one may judge from the treeless
| grounds to be seen everywhere, few
owners feel quite up 10 the purchase OF
full-fiedged trees.
We know q man, owner of a fine
property, who has but one regret today
| that he did not plant two trees n
front of his house seven years ago.
He could achieve the same result, OF
better, by loosening up. as the phrase is
for two big ones now, considering that
he had merely prorated the cost over
the seven years.
But he is held back by an inferiority
complex spending inferiority, At YOU
will. He has never got the idea that
he has any right to pay $500 for q
pair Of trees, and until he does gel
the idea he will never buy them.
AS the home planting idea, which
the past 10 years, further spreads
among the people. as whole, no doubt
more and more home owners will come
to the point where they will regard
trees as a necessity.
When they do, Of course, the price
of big trees will 90 down. It must be
remembered that tree does not neces-
sarily have to be q giant to come within
the classification big" It must have
enough trunk diameter to look like q
tree, not sapling, and enough leaves
ure up, to a certain extent, to the
house near which it is planted.
X 4 X
| gard to the house is a problem all by
itself. No doubt there is something ex-
tremely cozy-looking in a house tucked
Immediately against a tree, but the
overhanging branches tend to cut down
the chimney draft, offer more fire
hazard, in case Of lightning, and in
other ways prove detriment.
Trees placed at least 20 feet from a
house offer better background values
and throw even better shade. Their
picturesque or honey" effect is the
one thing desired above all; to secure
this, trees in front of a house ought
to be to one side, rather than directly
In front, In order to frame the house
Thus two trees, one to either side
offer the maximum effect, In the
frontal approach.
Large trees to the rear give back
ground effect to be secured In no other
way. Even here the center Of lawns
are best left clear, and the trees kept
to the sides, unless they are at the eX-
treme back limits Of the lot, where they
preferably may be in the center.
| Il X
Wherever placed, however, a tree Is
most desirable adjunct to a home
lot, and the home owner should &c
extremely slow in removing any. By
reason Of their mighty structure, trees
are more closely and tightly related
II one may put it that way, with
Mother Earth, and they nightly re-
sent being torn from her broad bosom
But the thing can be done, with as
perhaps reasonable expectation of sue
cess as attends any other transplant
ing operation. Only it will cost a great
deal more, and cannot be done by anna
teurs.
Men have waxed properly sentimental
over trees (see Kilmer,s beautiful
poem), and indignant ("Woodman
spare that tree!'D. Bryant called the
forest Gods first temple" and other
poets have sung their beauty and mai
esty. 1t remains for the average hui
man being, especially the city dweller
who is mostly cut OF from forests, to
love and take care Of such trees as
come his way, remembering always that
! they are the most colossal of living
things, and the longest lived.