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Show GREAT ADVANTAGE OF TREES Argument That Roads Do Not Dry Out Readily After Rains Does Hold Good Nowadays. The forestry department of Minnesota Minne-sota is said to have aroused an active enthusiasm iu the siate for securing siiaded highways and the department will this year plant 30,ui"j trees along the roadways and plans to add an equal number each successive year. Iu Pennsylvania a 6imiiar movement 1b under way. One objection heretofore to ahade trees by the roadsides has been that the roads did not dry out readily aftei rains, but that mudholes lingered. Since road building according to more modern methods has been so generally adopted, this argument is no lougei good, says';, toe Indianapolis Star, 'ihousanus of miles of cement and asphalt pavement have been laid In states between Florida and Nebraska, and at first objection was maue to tree plauting along such roads on the ground that the tree roots would uplift up-lift or crack the surface. As thie rarely happens in city streets, no good reason is evident why it should be different along country roads, and, In fact, those who have experimented say if the trees are set far enough back no ill result follows. Much would de peud, of course, on the character ol the tree, whether or not it had a tap root or spreading surface roots. An intelligent person would hardly recom mend the planting of a beech tree neai a pavement. It has been realized that cemont and asphalt roads radiate a heat on sum mer days that dirt and gravel roads do not, and that wayside trees, always welcome wel-come to summer travelers not only for 'their cooling shade, but for their softening soft-ening of highway glare, are especially especial-ly desirable with the new pavements. Trees grow slowly and the progress of planting will keep pace only with the public sentiment in its favor, so that at best it will be many years before oar Lincoln and Dixie highways high-ways and our state roads will be the shaded thoroughfares that they may become. The time will doubtless arrive, ar-rive, however, when American country coun-try roads will rival in beauty any city's suburban streets lined with trees. Roads, as they are now, at least in tJis raxMdle West, with its improved farms, the clearing of much forest , i$ " 1 r " v, 1 ! - ' X f ft . 1 Along an Improve nignway in Min ncsota. land in recent years and the banishing banish-ing of the old rail fences, lack much of the picturesqueness of the earlier days, with zigzag fence corners filled with seedling trees, berry bushes and shrubs nod (lowers of many sorts. Those fence corners were wild gardens gar-dens and as much of a joy to the soul of au artist as they were a trial to the thrifty farmer. It was only an occasional farmer, however, who took the time and trouble to keep his fences clear and they remained for many years au undisturbed feature of American country life, a harbor for birds and pestiferous small animals and a disseminator of weed seeds, but a Joy to the eye of the appreciative passing traveler. William Hamilton Gibson, an artist and writer, once eel ebrnted the American fence corner in a book, and Indiana's poet. Benjamin Parker, mourned over the advent of barbed wire as a highway boundary. But trees lining the thoroughfares up and down and across the country will add a charm that every one cou'd enjoy. |