TREE-PLANTING IN LEVIN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 May 1910, Page 2

TREE-PLANTING IN LEVIN.

IJOW TUB TOWN MAY BE J3EAUT IKIED. In not a few towns and cities in Mew Zealand arboriculture- is being paid increasing attention to, and in many places where the 100. if 1 authority has encouraged .'I-ho planting of trees in public roads >a most pleasing transformation has taken plax-e. .Levin has made an effort in the direction, but it has been a small one. It is said, that the .Knglish country town is/the prettiest in Europe. It may be only a village, it may be a. ■town of considerable dimensions, surrounded by a diversified country of rich pasture bind and womlei lanes and dells, but it <s sure to possess its avenue of shady trees along the principal roads. Almost every town has its graceful boulevards. Cheltenham, one of England's loveliest spas, has a magnilicenlfc avenue of limes running right through .a town which is surrounded with charmingly wooded country. Southport in the north—a- town slightly larger than "Well ing ton-- has earned out a great planting scheme, and, has an avenue of mixed trees in Lord street over two miles long and :i hundred yards broad. \Yha-fc would London he in the heat of summer without its miles ol foliage on Thames Embankment? The-'se-illustrations are merely typical of what h-:is bo.cn done in tho great cities, and in the villages of the Old Country. The Genua ns appreciated tho advantages o-f arboriculture when they transforms! Berlin, by planting the Unt.er den Lindvii, iand. thus form , . , :! what is generally regarded by travellers .as 'the- noblest promenade in Europe. Troo cultivation is seen in its widest, and most liberal farm in France, mid only those who bare passed along the shadv and leafy streets of Paris and behold Iho panorama, that unfoldc, itself from the Arc do Trionipho. where the sweeping boulevards gently slope to the banks of the Seine, can have limy conception of what arboriculture has done to transform ; 'nto the beautiful a. busv centre of a. European onnilal. To the writer's mind iho ma.josi ic swoon nf boulevards from the Arc de Trhmpho is one, of the fmo4 shrlits of Knropo. nnd it has morelv I» '^-f=n brought by trc(> pin nii n<?. instaiK-os might ho multiplied bv Hie score, where arboriculture his done so much to transform a town or city, and in 'ni mm or timn to afford GRATEFFL KIfELTF.R from ithe lieat. One of 4lie greatest Iteauties of Engli.sli scenery i.<; tho deciduous trees in. spring. Tho fresh, green I wives bursting forth giro thorn a. beauty *all their own, and in midsummer they afford grateful protection from the sun's rays, There is one tree .that is a very great favourite in England, and. there is no doubt it would thrive in the North or South .Island. That troo is the lime. There is uo plant tha.t casts .such a grateful shade .a.s this. It grows extensively in the .suburbs of London, and. does much to add to the attractiveness of the localities. Talking in i-oniic-ction with the f|iie.stiou of tree planting in the district with Mr \Y. If. Taylor, orchard overseer of the Kxperi mental Farm at W'eraroa yesterday, a, "Chronicle" representative asked him what lie thought of the horse chestnut, as a tree suitable for planting on tin* reads in Now Zealand. Mr Taylor pointed, out that it was being grown at Masterton and was suiiing its purpose remarkably well. Thorn are lew more handsome tre.es than this, ajid when .tiiey arc in blossom they present .a glorious scene. People come from .all purls of tho I'liilivi Kingdom in summer time to see the avenues of horse chestnuts at Finsliey I'ark, Hampton Court. Londui. This tree is admirably adapted for road.sido treatment. It is massive yet compact, .and affords ample protection from the sun. The silver birch, Mr Taylor names as a good sample of nuukide tree. .It i.s a, graceful plant and grows largely ■about Dunedin. It looks exeoed'ingjy pretty in spring and summer, and in winter when it is stripped of its leaves there is something fascinating about its silvery stem. The cost o7 planting tho principle- roads in Levin would be a mere bagatelle, especially if limes set. Twen-ty-five shillings would buy a hundred plants, each four or five feet high, and .they have :>n advantage in tha fact that they require to be planted ■■-omn distance apart from one another. Their roots, unlike those of the ash, would nob embarrass the pipes, and within a few vears they would make .che streets' of Levin beautifully shady and reposeful. That tree planting will be taken up in thoiifit distant, futuro in the town •inured, in ihy light of what ha.s been, done, already, and those acts are catalogued and suggestions thrown out, in th.? hrjpo thiit they may not .altogether prove iniu.sefiil to thnvi* win ■administer the district so well.