WHAT ABOUT TREE SURGERY? 



BY J. HORACE McFARLAND 



IKEES are marvels of natural engineering-. When 

 I see a tall tulip or a great elm sustaining a gale 

 g^^g cif wind; when the small hoy conies into view 

 hitching himself out to the perilous end of a cherry 

 branch ; when a saucy robin scolds me from the very tip 

 of a twig on which he has just alighted, I think again of 

 the wonder of the woody structure that can carry so 

 much of an overload, do and be so many things in flower, 

 fruit and timber production, and yet be a most beautiful 

 object in its adornment of the surrounding landscape. 



I have several times tried out the breaking strain of 

 little tree twigs, brought to the ground by progressive 

 ice-storms. From twelve to sixteen times its own weight 

 of ice encased the twig before it broke away, and then 

 the break occurred by reason of wind pressure, not of 

 overweight. Few engineers jirovide such a factor of 

 safety as is found when a certain twelve-foot cedar at 

 my garden gate bows its tips in a graceful semi-circle 

 until the topmost twig touches the snow under the in- 

 fluence of the weight of slush with which it is laden. 



KLA|i\ M.Ik ItlK FlLLI.Xi: 

 Tree on the State Capitol grounds at Albany, N. Y., 

 with decayed portions removed and ready to be filled 

 by an expert tree surgeon working for the New York 

 State Conservation Commission. 



When I see a scene of 

 this nature and realize that 

 the tree is going to straight- 

 en up and become upright 

 again after its winter trials 

 are over, again the wonder 

 assails me ; wonder whether 

 any human engineer would 

 even think of designing a 

 structure to stand such a 

 strain ! And, if he did ven- 

 ture, how would the engi- 

 neer's tree look, in com- 

 parison with God's cedar. 



Even disease is sus- 

 tained by trees with resist- 

 ance and foi'titude not pos- 

 sible to man-made construc- 

 tion. When, after what 

 must have been at least 

 two generations of progres- 

 sive decay, the great oak 

 succumbs and is broken, it 

 is seen that for many years 

 the tree has existed, made 

 leaves and acorns, and has 

 done its beneficent work on 

 a mere shell and remainder 

 of its once sturdy trunk. 

 The man-made column of 

 Bessemer steel, once it has 

 begun to rust, simply dis- 

 a])pears in a few years. 



r)nce a certain horse- 

 cliestiiut a t 111 y h o m e 

 showed a "s])lit" at the 

 fork of its two main 

 branches. When investi- 

 gated, the split developed 

 into a mass of rotten wood. 



TlIK WORK PARTLY COMPLETED 

 The filling of the lower cavities of the tree with 

 concrete has been completed and the method by 

 whiclt the operator is filling the upper cavities is 

 indicated by the photograph. 



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