In this regard, as in many other matters of genuine
public concern, our cities have relied principally upon



The Streets of the City 259

private enterprise. Property owners have been per-
mitted to plant trees in their yards or along their side-
walks at random, with more or less satisfactory results,
and they have also been permitted to cut down trees
along their property at will. Within recent years, how-
ever, the idea of public control has grown in favor, and
a number of cities have created special departments to
supervise the planting and care of trees. New Jersey
led the way, in 1893, by passing a law dealing with shade
trees in cities and authorizing mimicipalities to create
commissions to take charge of the whole matter. In
1904 and 1908, Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively fol-
lowed the example of New Jersey. Two years later
Massachusetts extended an old tree warden act in such
a manner as to provide a special tree authority for prac-
tically every city and town.
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey laws are optional
and go into effect only when adopted by a city. Wilkes-
barre placed the matter in the hands of the local park
commission, giving it the power to supervise all shade
trees except those in private grounds. Within less than
two years nearly a thousand trees had been planted on
seven barren streets and forty-five additional streets had
been plotted for three thousand more trees. This was
a practical demonstration of the fact that a city may be
transformed in a short time by an enterprising tree
commission.
