. TTTE OMATIA" ILLUSTRATED BEE.
Best Trees for Ornamental Planting on a City's Streets and in Parks
Susjcstiora and Hints as to the Adaptability and Utility of Different .Trees ta. Conditions, of the. Iliddle-Wcst Pictures from Photographs of Typical Trees Found in Omaha
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OT only 1 thera a
N
jrowinn sentiment In
favor of commercial
foreat planting, but
there la a movement
looking toward the establish
ment of parka, the ornamenta
tion of public grounds and the
planting of streets and lanes
that la very ' gratifying. The
City of Lincoln, Neb., Is the
present year making a notable
extension to Its park system.
Suitable grounds have been
acquired and the work of
parking is now under way.
The Village Improvement so
ciety of Beatrice, Neb., In ad
dition to Its already numerous
efforts for clvlo improvement.
Is this spring making a spe
cial rampalgn to Interest the
people In the planting of the
church yards. With the many
Bther cities and towns that
re organizing for systematic
work In the way of orna
mental planting. It would seem
that there is a forward move
ment all along the line. i
.re
Patwre Usefulness. . .
To the end that the planting
may bo as permanent as pos
sible, the hardier and longer
lived trees should be given the
preference. It Is not Intended
In this paper ' to suggost
trees that would be suit
able or adapted for planting
under all conditions. Bolls and
situations vary so much that
no trees could be planted . -with ' safety,
In all. On of the safest guides in
any work of this sort Is to first find
ut what trees thrive naturally In a given
locality and select largely from these,
adding such exotic species as are known'
to be adapted to the situation In hand.
Borne cities, notable Washington and Den
ver at home and Paris abroad, maintain
nurseries where species suitable for plant
ing are propagated. Thus only those
trees whose adaptability has been provoa
are used for general planting. Paris Is
aid to have 80,000 shade trees. To care
for these and to plant new ones the city
appropriates $60,000 a year. Washington
is one of the beautiful cities of the world,
largely on account of the care with which
Its 70,000 or more trees have been selected
and planted.
Among the trees that may be recom
mended for general planting Is white elm.
It has been widely used as a street tree In
eastern cities. New Haven Is known na
tionally as the "Clm City." In "Trees of
Massachusetts," by Emerson, three dis
tinct forms as to shape are noted. The
common vase-shaped type is the one most
suitable for street or avenue planting. In
fact, the elm is especially adapted for the
street, though It Is a splendid tree for
lawns, and parks as well. It should have
Bret place in ornamental planting in N4
braaka. It is hardy, grows rapidly, holds
Us leaves through a long period and Is
one of the roost graceful trees of the
American forest. It is . noted for its
longevity. The famous elm under which
Washington received his commission as
commander In - chief . of the American
forces, though an old tree la 177S, Is still
one of. the sights of Cambridge.
Ilack terry lB Ktiui aa Nebraska.
Hack berry is a tree closely related to
the elm, has a wide distribution in Ne
braska, and la hardier in the drier por
tion than the elm. It has been used con
siderably in western Kansas and Minne
sota, where H Is a favorite as an orna
mental tree. It can be planted with
safety throughout Nebraska.
The oaks are used too sparingly in street
and park planting. Their hardiness, long
life, symmetrical, spreading, rugged habit,
and the variety In the shape of their
leaves, makes them especially desirable
for ornamental planting. The burr, white,
red, scarlet and black oaks may be men
tioned as suitable for this purpose. Red
Oak is the moat mpld in growth, and, like
the scarlet and black oaks. Ha foliage as
sumes a variety of colors in autumn.
Whether by the roadside. In the lawn, or
along the street, the oak is always in
place. x
American linden or be k wood. Is another
valuable tree that should be more widely
planted for ornamental purposes than It la
It commends itself by Its hardiness, 'arge
broad leaves, singular fruiting habit, ;lean
limbs and trunk, and elegant form. It is
hardy in the eastern part of the state.
The Blreb.es Are Grace fa 1.
Borne of the birches are among the most
graceful of our ornamental trees. The
paper birch, or the cut-leaf weeping va
riety, on account of their small foliage,
alender drooping branches and character
istic bark, are especially attractive when
sundlng alone In a yard. Sir Walter Scott
thus describes the pendulous branches of
the European white birch:
Where weeps the birch with sliver bark
And long, disheveled hair.
The rapid growth of the ashes, good
'vrm and clean foliage, commend them for
lawn or street planting. They are, how
ever, among the last of the trees to put
out their leaves in the spring, and among
the first to drop them In the fall. Tenny
son, noting the tardiness with which the
leavus put forth, wrote:
Why llngereth she to clothe her heart
wttu love. V v
Tielayinir. as the tender -h delays.
To clothe herself, when ail the woods are
green.
Green aatt may be planted In any part
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61 the'UU. but' whlfe ash 1 "adapted only
to the eastern portion. '
Hardy catalpa Is .a good tree where va
riety is desired. Its unusually broad leaves
and large white flowers give It high orna
mental value. It should be used sparingly
At Work
(Copyright, 3908, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
"ST-nTTAWA, Ont.. April 18. (Special
Ij I Correspondence of The Bee.) The
States and Canada Is being care
fully marked. .A band of sur
veyors, representing both countries. Is go
ing over it, running new lines from the At
lantic to the Pacific and - putting up brass
posts to mark them. I have been upon the
line , several times during my travels In
Canada. At the town of laturter, In British
Columbia,, I found the depot situated on
both sides of the boundary. There was '
a mark drawn diagonally across the plat
' form on one side of whloh was painted in
red an enormous American eagle with the
words United States below It. and on the
other side. Canada and a picture of the
maple leaf. I planted one of my feet on
the eagle and the other on the leaf and
stood for a time astride the division which
separates John Bull's American posses
sions from those of Uncle Sam. Looking
to the south I could,. In my imagination,
see the Rockies rolling onward for thous
ands of miles to our Mexican boundary
and at the north the mountains of Canada
and the snow and Ice of British America
extending almost to the pole.
Brass Boundary Posts.
In company with Mr. C. K. Stone, the
general pasaenger agent of the Great North
ern railroad who was with me, I walked
eastward a few steps to look at one of the
brass posts which had lust been put up to
mark the boundary. The posts are only
a few miles apart and they are being put up
along the whole line, with the exception of
the Great lakes, from the mouth of the
St. Lawrence to Puget sound. As I stood
beside the post It reached to my shoulder.
It is, I Judge, about five feet high, eight
inches thlok at the bottom, tapering to four
inches thick at the top, where it ends in a
little pyramid as sharp as that which caps
the Washington monument. The post is
made of brass or copper plates soldered
together, and so set In a bedding of cement
that it locks like solid metal. Indeed, I
did not know it was hollow until I tapped
It with my knife. One side of this post
bore the word "Canada" in raised letters,
and the opposite side "The United States."
On another face was the inscription:
"Treaty of 1846. Line established ItCT and
1861. Surveyed and . marked 19Jg-1907."
Standing at the post I could look for sev
eral miles east or west through a wide road
which had been cut along each side the
boundary right through the forest. I am.
told that such piarklng has been done all
along the line.
. $
Irua Pi Hare of Vtraoit.
I understand that the boundary posts
along the eastern end of the line are in
bad condition and that they are being re
placed by posts of copper and granite. The
original ones between Quebec and Maine,
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of Uon. They were put up about sixty'
years ago, but the frost and thaws have
heaved up many of them and thrown others
out of perpendicular. Some of those posts
have been moved. The surveyors who hav
been going over the line during the last
y?sr found two of the poets on the northern
arm of Lake Champlala missing. One was
sixty feet away from the line, and it bad
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. CATAIiPA.
In lawn planting, however, and la adapted
only to the eastern portion of the state.
Even here many of the attempts to' grow
catalpa have been failures because the
eastern form or its hybrids have' been
used Instead of the hardy type.. .. The
Marking American-Canadian
probably been carried there by an ice shove
when the water was unusually high. Some
of these posts stood near roads and they
had dropped over Into the gutters. Many
were browned with rust and surrounded
with weeds. The most of these have been
reset or replaced with granite pillars, so
bedded that they will resist the ravages of
time.
Booadary Stores.
There is a customs house at Laurler and
our baggage was examined by the United
States otlicers as soon as we crossed over.:
There are some other towns situated here
and there along the line, and there are In,
some places what are known as boundary
stores, half on one side and half on the
other. Such stores were more common in
the past than now. One-half of a building,
for instance, might be In the province of
Quebec and the other half In the state of
Vermont. . Behind one counter were shelves
of American goods and behind the other
great stores of Canadian warea The cus
tomer paid his money and took his choice,
and the tariff laws were about as little re
garded as are those of Moses In a mining
camp.
Such stores were also desirable resorts
for criminals, who, staudlng on one side
of the room, could snap their Angers at
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THE H0R8B CHESTNUT.
greatest care should be taken to secure crown. It is among the first of the , trees
the true hardy catalpa, as It is worse than to put forth its leaves ' In the spring. Its
useless to plant the other forma large white and pink flowers, which also
The horse chestnut, as the accompanying open In early 'spring, give the tree a very
' illustration will show, Is characterised by striking" appearance. Horse chestnut is
a dense, foliage , and 'a full , symmetrical native to southeastern Europe and was
the officers on the other side and refuse to
be arrested without requisition.
" How the Boeadary Is Defended.
It Is said that Europe Is like an armed
camp. Its every country haa fortifications
at the places where it ceuid most easily
be attacked by its neighbors and enormous
military establishments are kept np with
a view 4o pesslale ware. The ime ef three
thousand miles or mere between Canada
and the United States la praeUaaUtr rree
from mllltasy defeasea There Is a great
fort at Ouobec with old guns and a few
spldlers. There Is i. coalrng station at
Esquimau m British Columbia, whish antfl
last year waa garrisoned by British troops,
but which Is now held entirely by Cana
dians. The British, in fact, have with
drawn their forces from Canada and from
now on the Canadians will handle their
own military establishments throughout. .
Indeed. Canada has practically no defenses
along the land boundry to speak of and It
Is the same with the United States. Ac
cording to our treaty neither nation can
keep more than one naval vessel on the
great lakes and this Is more for police
duties than for. national protection. Neither
country is afraid of the other, neither
keeps a large military force and the re
lations which now prevail and have always
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AVTCHICAW OONSn-ATTC AT KELSON, B, &. NOT FAB
ttuJU TJ&B bOU'KDAJiT.
BOOT MAPLB.
prevailed between the two lead to the be
lief that we will always have International
peace.
Bit of Cnwrltteo History.
Speaking of the possibility of war be
tween the United States and Canada, I
heard an official secret the other night as
te the position taken by the Canadian
Pacific railroad when Cleveland issued his
offensive Venesuelan proclamation. - At
that time the feeling against the United
States en the part of Oreat Britain was
suoh that a war ' seemed imminent. The
oilclals of the Canadian Paclno railroad
realized this and they had their agents
lq London and Washington Instructed that
they should telegraph any change of
conditions. They realised that if a war
should be declared by Oreat Britain against
the United States one of our first acts
Would be to send an army across the
boundry to capture the Canadian Paclflo
railroad and they wanted to save the
property.
They were waiting anxiously when they
received cipher telegrams from both Lon
don and Washington that war was inevit
able. Thereupon a meeting of the high
officials of the road was secretly called.
The matter was dlsoussed and It waa de
cided that Canada could not possibly de-
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BURR OAS.
Introduced Into the United States In 1741
It has been widely used as a shade tree
in the eastern and central states; but it
should be used sparingly in the west, and
then only In fertile soli with good moisture
conditions. The coffee tree is another hand-.
Boundary
fend the western branches of the railroad
and that should the Americans come the
officers should be instructed to hand over
the line at once under protest. They de
cided to do this In order that there might
be no destruction of the property. Oreat
Britain, however, preferred to pocket the
affront of Cleveland's proclamation and the
danger of war disappeared. The secret
meeting has been kept quiet until this day,
but my Informant, a man high la the
offices of the dominion government, tells
me that there Is no doubt as to the truth
of this story.
Where the Line Goes.
Our boundary with Canada winds In and
out at all sorts of angles for the first
1,000 miles or so from the Atlantic. It
begins at the ocean and crooks and turns
around Maine, keeping pretty well away
from the St. Lawrence until it touches
that river at ths . northwestern edge of
New York. It runs with the river to
Lake Ontario and then winds its way
through the middle of the Oreat lakes .
until It reaches the land again at the
northeastern end of Minnesota on Lake
Superior. From here it winds a little
through . the Rainy river country to the
Lake of the Woods and then takes an
almost straight shoot across the prairlos
and the Rockies to Puget sound. We
almost had a fight at one time over Puget
sound, the British claiming the island of
San Juan, which was afterward, by arbi
tration, awarded to us. Just how long
the whole boundary lino Is I do not know,
but it must be considerably more than
1,000 miles.
$
Sning-gUac aad Cattle Rustling,
Two of the great offenses committed on
both sides of tho boundary in the wott
are smuggling and cattle rustling. Thi
pastures of Canada are better than thone
of the United States and the American
ranchmen frequently drive their stock
across the boundary to feed on Canada's
gross. Such depredations are carefully
watched by the mounted police. They
patrol the International line weekly and
arrest such cowboys as have their stock
on the wrong side. They say that all
stock that comes into Canada pays duty
and they carefully examine all cattle
brought in for tuberculosis, Texas fever
and other disuases.
In the past there was a great deal of
smuggling of Chinese ' through Canada
into the United States, and some of this
goes on today. There are numerous trails
through the mountains of British Colum
bia, and if the Chinese can escape paying
the duty which Is now charged by Canada
on each celestial immigrant they are
liable to And thei: way into our country.
Opium' smuggling is another crime fre
quently perpetrated. The opium is said
to be prepared at Victoria and carried
across in small packages. The duty is
very high and it does not take many
pounds to bring a profit to the smuggler
of 1 1.000. Our customs offloers are on the
watch against such criminals and the
Canadian government does all It can to
help them. There are custom houses at
all boundary points, and the American
consul is stationed at almost every town
of slut
' Nevertheless there is a great deal of
(Continued an
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BLACK OAK.
some tree that may be added
for variety. While doing best
In the molster regions. It is es
pecially valuable in the drier
localities, where many other
trees would not thrive. It Is
said to have derived Its name
from the tact that the early
settlers in Kentucky, where
It occurs in abundance, made
a drink from the beans or
seed, which resembles coffee
in taste.
Russian wild olive and moun
tain ash are two other excel
lent trees to add to give the
planting soul and character..
They should always be planted
in the open. The former Is
particularly attractive on ac
count of its silvery, white foli
age and Its pleasing fragrance
when In flower, while the con
spicuous red-colored fruit of
the latter renders it highly or
namental In autumn.
Where rapid-growing trees
aro desired, silver maple, Car
olina poplar and various spe
cies of the willow may be rec
ommended. Either maple or
Carolina poplar is suitable as
a street tree, while willow
should stand alone, and when
planted It develops a hand
some form, as the Illustration
shows. Some ef the weeping
forms, like the Thurlow weep
ing willow, are used exten
sively. It la always an ex-
J
cellent plan to plant with ths
rapid - growing, short - lived
trees, some of the slower
, growing, more permanent
types, ' such as elm, oak or basswood.
The... slower growing species of maple,
such as the sugar or hard and Norway,
have been little used In Nebraska. Indeed,
the adaptability here has not been fully
determined; but they will In all probabil
ity succeed In the eastern portion. Their
symmetrical form and dense, rich foliage,
render them highly ornamental. These two
trees resemble each other very closely, but
Norway may be readily distinguished by
a milky fluid which exudes after a bbd is
broken from the stem, a character whloh,
sugar maple does not exhibit. Both take
on brilliant autumnal colors. The Norway,
maple Is an Introduced tree from Europe.
Sugar maple Is native to eastern United
States, though It does not ocour naturally
In Nebraska. It is associated In our minds
with the maple sugar Industry. The
Schwedler maple, . a variety of Norway
maple, is unusually attractive because ojC
Its purplish colored leaves. It should be
planted alone and never more than one ox
two should be placed In the same lawn.
Only the deciduous trees have been men
tloned thus far, A limited Use of ever
greens may be recommended, however, aa
an intermingling of evergreen and broad
leaved trees produoe a desirable effect.
Some of the evergreen most commonly
used are white, Scotch and bull pines, red
cedar, Douglas spruce and Colorado blua
spruce. The latter, on account of Its sym
metrical form and beautiful blue foliage.
Is widely planted as an ornamental tree.
No attempt has been made to exhaust
the list of trees suitable for ornamental
planting. The list could be considerably
extended, and yet It should be appreciated
that when It comes to the matter ot
planting on a particular slU la a given
locality the selection ot trees stould be)
made with great care.
Hlats am Street Pla-tila.
The planting on a given streot should
consist of a single species, at least for
considerable distance, as In this way the
unpleasant appearance of the street caused
by trees of varying slse and form will
be avoided. On this account, the street
planting should be under the control of a
board or commission of some sort that
should have the power to select the trees
for the different streets, thus securing
uniformity as to species so far aa each,
individual street Is concerned. Is there any
more reason why the city government
should not plant and care for the street
trees than that it should put down and
control the street paving T Nothing adds
quite so much to the attractiveness of a
street as to see It planted uniformly to a
single species. Variety can be secured
by planting different streets to different
trees. The selection of trees for law a
planting could still be left to the property,
owners.
The slse of stock to plant Is 'important.
The tendency In ornamental planting la
to select trees that' are too large. Small
stock will recover much more promptly
from the effect of transplanting, will grow
more rapidly, and will usually develop
into more shapely trees. Deciduous trees
should seldom be over two Inches In diame
ter at the ground to make transplanting
safe, and evergreens should be much,
smaller.
Another common mistake In ornamental
planting is in placing the trees too doe
together. The spacing can be closer ta
the prairie country than In potential forest
regions, because our trees do not attain
to the slse that they do there, but evem
here the spacing should seldom be less)
than thirty feet, while forty feet is &
good average, and frequently fifty feet
would be better, since shade trees must
not be crowded If they are to develop lota
well rounded, shapely form.
FRANK A. MXfXdCR,
Professor of Forestry, Unrrenaty at Men