Found: LOOKING FOR OLD ONTARIO

It is worth quoting from our missing book by Thomas F. McIlwraith *

"Roadside trees are as much a human-made element of rural Ontario as the ditch in front, the fence beneath, or the farmstead behind.  They give articulation to a landscape where the next-highest field feature may be the fence post.  Roadside trees are not remnants of clearing but were consciously reintroduced after that era [the culvert/ditches initiative] amid the widespread belief that trees 'for shade and ornament' contributed to the virtue of country life.  Poets were aroused by the frightening prospect of a treeless landscape, and Arbor Day plantings became regular spring events at country schools late in the nineteenth century."

Turnbull Road

Trees contribute to "the virtue of country life."

Tomorrow: [If we can hang onto the book...] The value of trees and local efforts to educate.
Photos:  Haldimand County

* University of Toronto Press Incorporated 1997.