TREE-PLANTING FOR AMATEURS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] was very interested in Mr. R. C. K. Ensor's articles in your issues of January 3rd and 10th on the choice and placing of trees. Some few years back our local Council informed us that they would shortly make up- and take over our road. About a dozen neighbours called a meeting among themselves, and it was proposed that we should have what trees we liked,
and not let the Council plant what they wished—as all over the district they have planted unsightly plane trees ; which grow very rapidly, and are in *inter time an eyesore, owing to their need of vigorous cutting back.
We all clubbed together and bought silver birches and had them planted. Now the road is one of the prettiest in the district. It would take a day's march to find its equal. In the summer the road is almost a fairy land with light shining through the frail branches and small leaves ; while in winter the bare, slender branches seem to float in the air, and look extremely graceful. In fact, they are a delight to the eye all the year round.
Even the pretty almond trees which have been planted in a North London suburb cannot be compared with our silver birches, for their beauty is soon over after the blossom fades.
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