Get that oak an accountant

摘要

If trees had cocktail parties, the 40-year Gallery pear that grows on Rivington Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, could certainly hold its own. It might introduce itself by its formal name, Pyrus calleryana. and brag about its trunk diameter (25.4 inches), its height (24 feet) and its impressive shade canopy (1,746 square feet). If the tacky "How much do you make?" question came up, the pear tree could document its net worth at 1,192 dollar, and say that some of its earnings come from the527.67 grams of pollutants it saves from human lungs every year, a value to society that economists put at 2.59 dollar. These figures would surely send the out-of-town trees fishing forlornly for the acorns in their martinis.