As this is the usual time of the year for planting, pruning, and
removing forest trees and shrubs, it is a fit time for considering the
influence which trees exert on the sanitary surroundings of dwelling
places. The recent parliamentary report on forestry shows that trees
are now of little commercial value in this country. And we may
conclude, therefore, that they are chiefly grown for picturesque
effect, and for the shelter from the sun and winds which they afford.
The relation of forests to rainfall has been studied by
meteorologists, but little attention has been given by medical
climatologists to the share which trees take in determining local
variations of climate and the sanitary condition of dwellings,
notwithstanding they play as important a part as differences of soil,
of which so much is said and written nowadays. This remark does not
apply to large towns, where trees grow with difficulty and are
comparatively few in number, and where they afford a grateful relief
to the eye, shade from the sun, and to a very slight extent temper the
too dry atmosphere, but to suburban and country districts, where it is
the custom to bury houses in masses of foliage--a condition of things
which is deemed the chief attraction, and often a necessary
accompaniment, of country life.
Trees of all kinds exercise a cooling and moistening influence on the
atmosphere and soil in which they grow. The extent of these conditions
depends on the number of trees and whether they stand alone, in belts,
or in forests; on their size, whether tall trees with branchless stems
or thickets of underwood: on their species, whether deciduous or
evergreen; and on the season of the year. The cooling of the air and
soil is due to the evaporation of water by the leaves, which is
chiefly drawn from the subsoil--not the surface--by the roots, and to
the exclusion of the sun's rays from the ground, trees themselves
being little susceptible of receiving and radiating heat. The moisture
of the atmosphere and ground about trees is due to the collection by
the leaves and branches of a considerable portion of the rainfall, the
condensation of aqueous vapor by the leaves, and the obstruction
offered by the foliage to evaporation from the ground beneath the
trees.
The experiments of M. Fautrat show that the leafage of leaf bearing
trees intercepts one-third, and that of pine trees the half, of the
rainfall, which is afterward returned to the atmosphere by
evaporation. On the other hand, these same leaves and branches
restrain the evaporation of the water which reaches the ground, and
that evaporation is nearly four times less under a mass of foliage in
a forest, and two and one-third times under a mass of pines, than in
the open. Moreover, trees prevent the circulation of the air by
lateral wind currents and produce stagnation. Hence, as Mr. E.J.
Symons has truly observed, "a lovely spot embowered in trees and
embraced by hills is usually characterized by a damp, misty, cold, and
stagnant atmosphere," a condition of climate which is obviously
unfavorable to good health and especially favorable to the development
of consumption and rheumatism, our two most prevalent diseases.
Now, if we examine the surroundings of many of our suburban villas and
country houses of the better sort, we shall find them embowered in
trees, and subject to all the insanitary climatic conditions just
mentioned. The custom almost everywhere prevails of blocking out of
view other houses, roads, etc., by belts of trees, often planted on
raised mounds of earth, and surrounded by high close walls or palings,
from a foolish ambition of seeming to live "quite in the country."
This is a most unwise proceeding from a sanitary point of view, and
should be protested against as strongly by medical men as defective
drainage and bad water supply. Many houses stand under the very drip
and shadow of trees, and "the grounds" of others are inclosed by dense
belts of trees and shrubs, which convert them into veritable
reservoirs of damp, stagnant air, often loaded with the effluvia of
decaying leaves and other garden refuse, a condition of atmosphere
very injurious to health, and answerable for much of the neuralgia of
a malarious kind, of which we have heard so much lately. A very slight
belt of trees suffices to obstruct the lateral circulation of the air,
and if the sun be also excluded the natural upward currents are also
prevented.
As far back as 1695 Lancisi recognized the influence of slight belts
of trees in preventing the spread of malaria in Rome, and the cold,
damp, stagnant air of spaces inclosed by trees is easily demonstrated
by the wet and dry bulb thermometer, or even by the ordinary
sensations of the body. A dry garden, on gravel, of three acres in
extent in Surrey, surrounded by trees, is generally three or four
degrees colder than the open common beyond the trees; and a large pond
in a pine wood twenty miles from London afforded skating for ninety
consecutive days in the winter of 1885-86, while during the greater
part of the time the lakes in the London parks were free from ice.
The speculative builder has more sins to answer for than the faulty
construction of houses. He generally begins his operations by cutting
down all the fine old trees which occupy the ground, and which from
their size and isolation are more beautiful than young ones and are
little likely to be injurious to health, and ends them by raising
mounds and sticking into them dense belts of quick-growing trees like
poplars to hide as speedily as possible the desolation of bricks and
mortar he has created. It is this senseless outdoor work of the
builder and his nurseryman which stands most in need of revision from
time to time in suburban residences, but which rarely receives it from
a silly notion, amounting to tree worship, which prohibits the cutting
down of trees, no matter how injudicious may have been the planting of
them in the first instance from a sanitary or picturesque point of
view.
The following hints for planting and removing trees may be useful to
those persons who have given little attention to the subject. A tree
should not stand so near a house that, if it were to fall, it would
fall on the house; or, in other words, the root should be as far from
the house as the height of the tree. Belts of trees may be planted on
the north and east aspects of houses, but on the east side the trees
should not be so near, nor so high, as to keep the morning sun from
the bedroom windows in the shorter days of the year. On the south and
west aspects of houses isolated trees only should be permitted, so
that there may be free access of the sunshine and the west winds to
the house and grounds.
High walls and palings on these aspects are also objectionable, and
should be replaced by fences, or better still open palings, especially
about houses which are occupied during the fall of the leaf, and in
the winter. Trees for planting near houses should be chosen in the
following order: Conifers, birch, acacia, beech, oak, elm, lime, and
poplar. Pine trees are the best of all trees for this purpose, as they
collect the greatest amount of rainfall and permit the freest
evaporation from the ground, while their branchless stems offer the
least resistance to the lateral circulation of the air.
Acacias, oaks, and birches are late to burst into leaf, and therefore
allow the ground to be warmed by the sun's rays in the early spring.
The elm, lime, and chestnut are the least desirable kinds of trees to
plant near houses, although they are the most common. They come into
leaf early and cast their leaves early, so that they exclude the
spring sun and do not afford much shade in the hot autumn months,
when it is most required. The lime and the elm are, however, beautiful
trees, and will doubtless on this account often be tolerated nearer
houses than is desirable from a purely sanitary point of view.
Trees are often useful guides to the selection of residences. Numerous
trees with rich foliage and a rank undergrowth of ferns or moss
indicate a damp, stagnant atmosphere; while abundance of flowers and
fruit imply a dry, sunny climate. Children will be healthiest where
most flowers grow, and old people will live longest where our common
fruits ripen best, as these conditions of vegetation indicate a
climate which is least favorable to bronchitis and rheumatism. Pines
and their companions, the birches, indicate a dry, rocky, sandy, or
gravel soil; beeches, a dryish, chalky, or gravel soil; elms and
limes, a rich and somewhat damp soil; oaks and ashes, a heavy clay
soil; and poplars and willows, a low, damp, or marshy soil. Many of
these are found growing together, and it is only when one species
predominates in number and vigor that it is truly characteristic of
the soil and that portion of the atmosphere in connection with it.