Hills stand close on both sides of Cortland and the Tioughnioga runs down the middle, and the shade over the downtown streets comes from maples older than most of the storefronts. Cortland Tree Service keeps those crowns in order — lifting limbs off sidewalks and porch roofs, pruning back the growth that reaches the wires, taking out what has gone hollow behind the bark. Snow piles deep and wet in this valley, and a fork that hasn't been thinned will split under it; that is what the winter trimming is for. After a storm the cleanup is the day's whole promise: brush gone, walk cleared, the lawn raked out to the curb. Come spring the block leafs in even, which is the quiet proof of the work.