Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1914 — Home Town Helps [ARTICLE]

Home Town Helps

TREES HELP PUBLIC HEALTH

Besides Purifying the Air, They Help to Make Cooler Summers and Warmer Winters.

Men and animals have good reason for their fondness for trees. It Is not only because the trees add so much to the beauty of our streets, or because the attractiveness of rivers and lakes and even of the seashore depends largely upon the trees that we look upon them as silent friends. They help us in a more material way than with their beauty, great as that help may be. They add to our physical comfort and to our health.

Parris T. Farwell, in his “Village improvement,” urges the necessity of planting and caring for trees for the sakeofthe city’s or village’s beauty and healthfulness. The side of the street having the most trees is the popular side in summer. That is because it is the coolest by about 20 degrees, Mr. Farwell tells us, for “a full grown tree sends out 187 gallons of water through its leaves into the air.” Shading - the ground also serves to moderate the heat. And the air around the trees is more pure. “The foliage takes in carbonic acid gas, which is poisonous to us, and gives out oxygen, which is healthful, Indeed, indispensable to us.” Medical authorities recognize that trees promote the healthfulness of a community.

The tempering effect of trees on the climate Is not confined to summer. In winter they actaally 'radiate heat, ft addition to their benefits as windbreaks when planted In clumps and groves.

That It pays to have trees In the town and city and on the farmstead Is shown by the fact that real estate on shaded streets and that on which trees are growing sells for a better price. No little of the welfare and prosperity of town, city or country depends upon its trees, “and there is a direct connection between the attractiveness of the village or of the home on the farm, and the love of the citizens for their village or of the children on the farm for their home.’*