POPLARS AND WILLOWS.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4406, 16 February 1883, Page 3

POPLARS AND WILLOWS.

: (fTo the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sin, —It seems the Borough Council are at length becoming aware of the damage these trees are doing, end have authorised the Foreman of Works to cut the roots that are injuring the watertables in Mackay and Mary streets. I fear this' is an experiment of doubtful utility, as, besides the possibility of the -tree toppling over if the roots are cut on one side, every root so severed will send up oae or more suckers, and s^ increase rather than diminish the evil. Nor do I k.jew what better remedy to surest, unless it be to remove the trees altogether; though even then the roots would be le."t to fill the streets and drains with an army of suckers. This applies more especially to poplars, 10 unfortunately numerous in our streets. Cutting the willow roots may be successful, as they do not tend up suckers; though even with them the benefit will not be tery great, as the severed roots will retain their vitality for some time, probably till the tree has had time to replace them with others. The damage ana expense caused by planting willows along such water courses as the Queen of Beauty flume in Cochrane street is sufficiently obvious when every now and then it takes two men a couple of days taking off the tops of the culverts a«d clearing away the willow roots, that would otherwise completely, obstruct the flow of the water. How often this performance has been gone through I do not know, probably not less than twice a year, entailing a heavy drain on the Borough rates.. £2 per tree per annum would barely cover the cost of wages and injury to the tops, of culverts. Are the trees worth this outlay? Would it not be better to destroy them at once. That amount of rates could surely be more profitably expended. In such narrow streets as ours, the planting of trees, even of willows and poplars, is of questionable advantage. It will not take many years for the branches to meet across the street, and to- touch each other in the rows, then by • greatly impediug the circulation of the atmosphere: there is, too, the choking up ot the drains and water, co»rse* by .t'je fall of. leaves in the autumn, and the injury caused by'the roots and suckers ;' and the almost total destruction of -the gardens and flower borders, when the roots of these voracious trees shall have found, their way under the footpath into the gardens. All things considered,' these poplars and willows are a nuisance, and should "never have been planted. : How best to get rid of them is a problem I mast leave to wiser heads than miDe to. splve.~l am, &o. t .'.-: -'!,"•.',"'' . . Jno. W. Hall.