llS^DtANA lIOKTlCn.TUUAL SOCIKTV. 



411 



move tlic liuil) so Ui.-il the new j;io\vtb will have as little to cover up as 

 possible. Make the woiiiul smooth and do as little, iujury as possible to 

 the bark around the wound. If it can be avoided do uot loosen the bark 

 where the cut is made. It is desirable to have the wound healed in one 

 season or at most two. The longer time required for the new wood to 

 cover the place where the limb has been cut off the more is the danger 

 from the operation. Suit the time of the cutting so that there will be as 

 little time as possible betwv>en the removal and the Ijeginning of the new 

 growth. Never leave a stump. If the limb removed is no larger than 

 your finger i\nd a stump is left of only a half inch it will hardly heal over 

 in one season. If cut oft" close it will cover up very quickly. If a stump is 

 left two, three or four inches it is impossible for it ever to be covered. 

 The new growth will pile up about its base in the effort to get over it. 

 After two, three or longer years the stump will rot and drop off. By that 

 time it will be lucky if yoii do not have a streak of decayed wood run- 

 ning down into the body of the tree and damage done that can not be 

 repaired. The question of drainage must often determine what limbs to 

 j-emove. If the limbs are very small this is not of so much importance. 

 If cut off carefully and smoothly they will heal over before any damage 

 can be done to the exposed wood by water. If the limbs are of consider- 

 able size and the wound looks upward the horticulturist must be prepared 

 to watch it through two or three seasons and until the wound is com- 

 pletely closed. It is better not to remove such large limbs unless the 

 wound will lokk -downward, and even then, if mo;e than one season is 

 required for it to close up, it ought not to be neglected, but should l)e 

 examined frequently to see that insects do not make a home in it and 

 prevent by their presence the healing process. INIost of these insects are 

 innocent, and will not molest or injure a tree at all unless their presence 

 is invited by some wound. 



Now and then we have a hubbub about some imported insect that is 

 said to be about to kill all our shade trees. Two or three summers ago 

 I passed a fine residence in this city one day where there had been three 

 years before five or six as fine maple trees as could be found anywhere. 

 I had noticed the mutilation two summers before of every tree. The 

 whole top had been gone over and ever limb cut off about ten or twelve 

 feet from the body of the tree. We were in the midst of one of the 

 hubbubs. The owner was out in his yard looking up into the trees that 

 now showed very plainly that they were on the road to death. He called 

 my attention to a few white spots on the leaves and limbs and was much 

 distressed that his trees were l)eing killed by the "scale." 



Shade trees are the beauty and the comfort of our cities and towns 

 and a most important element in the preservation of the public health. 

 If this society can do anything to educate the pul^lic along this line it 

 ought to do it. It is almost alarming when a man of social standing and 

 social culture like the one to which I have referred is almost panic- 



