Class of iy:!S. Duvcy Institute of Tree Surgery. Thoroui;h scii-ntiiic cducalion, /■/».? 

 practical skill trained into them, makes these young athletes master Tree Surgeo)is 



A Million Dollar Business in 



Saving Trees 



By Martin L. Davey, General Manager 



THE business of The I)ave\ Tree Expert 

 Company is now running at the rate 

 of one tnillion dollars for 1922. It has 

 taken more than twenty years of steady 

 building to reach this volume. The Davey 

 Company sells nothing but service — the service 

 of carefully selected, highly trained, scientifi- 

 cally educated Tree Surgeons, who save trees 

 without guessing or experiment, when they can 

 be saved. This service is available almost 

 everywhere in the eastern half of the Unitcil 

 States. Nearly 6fteen thousand clients have 

 been served up to this time, many of them 

 regularly. 



Lieut. Colonel Frank K. Hyatt, treasurer of 

 the Pennsylvania Military Academy, in a letter 

 ■written to The Davey Tree Expert Company, 

 December 2. 1921, said: 



"Three of your men are performing tree 

 surgery at the college and while I had only 

 engaged them for two days, their work was 

 of such character that I was compelled to 

 hold them longer. In fact, they will prob- 

 - ably we with us four or five days. 



"They seem to have thorough knowledge 

 of their work and the foreman in charge is 

 a very unusual man. It gives me pleasure 

 to congratulate you en the character of 

 work which your employees are doing." 

 This letter is typical of many hundreds of 

 voluntary letters of commendation received by 

 the Davey Company from its clients. They 

 come regularly from every section served by 

 Davey Tree .Surgeons. It is significant that 

 nearly every letter emphasizes the high-type 

 men, their apparent skill and ability to do their 

 work with accuracy and thoroughness and 

 speed, but more particularly the fact that they 

 are diliycnl and zealous worker*^. 



The evolution of Davey Tree Surgery 

 compared to the automobile 

 T do not presume to say that every last clieit 

 is 100% satisfied. That would be tco much to 

 expect from a human organization. But more 

 than 95% of the clients are fully pleased with 

 both the work and the service. Nor would I 

 claim that the Davey organization has always 

 been as good as it is today, nor that the meth- 

 ods empbyed have always been as remarkably 

 good and successful as they are now. 



Davey Tree Surgery has been before the pub- 

 lic nearly as long as the automobile, and its de- 

 velopment has been almost jiarallcl. You will 

 easily recall the auloniobilc of fifteen f)r twenty 

 years ago. You recall hrw often it broke down, 

 iow many times it was laid up by the roadside? 



You remember its imperfect mechanism, its poor 

 lighting, the hard job of cranking? Well, the 

 fundamental principles of the automobile were 

 the same then as now. The wonderful advance 

 has been made in the refinements and the me- 

 chanical improvements. Then think of the really 

 marvelous piece of machinery that ycu buy in 

 the mcdern automobile! 



Just so with Davey Tree Surgery. Tiie 

 fundamental principles were the same fifteen or 

 twenty years ago as today. It was then rela- 

 tively crude and imperfect. But honest effort 

 and a determined purpose have produced refine- 

 ments and mechanical improvements and scien- 

 tific accuracy that are both marvelous and in- 

 spiring. 



Only two or three men out of a hundred 

 applicants are finally accepted 



However, it is the human element of the 

 Davey organization that I wish to describe. The 

 high-type men, their surprising efficiency, their 

 zeal and skill and knowledge are the result of 

 something back behind. That something is a 

 policy that could produce no other result. 



From time to time we need additional men. 

 We run advertisements in the cities within a 

 reasonal.'le distance of our headquarters, giving 

 our specifications. Many replies are received. 

 An information blank is sent to each applic.tnt, 

 in which he must give his life history. If a 

 hundred information blanks are returned, our 

 experience has shown that not more than fifty 

 seem to meet our raiuirements. The others are 

 cast aside. 



We then .send our representatives to these 

 cities and notify the fifty to report at a certain 

 hotel for personal interviews. Out of the fifty 

 men thus interviewed, we select not more than 

 five who seem to be the right kind. 



A regular training field where practical 

 training is given to every man 



These five are brought into Kent (Ohio) for 

 practical training, where we maintain a regular 

 training field. These five are put through a 

 llurough course of |ir.ictical training for sev- 

 eral weeks, at the end of which we sek-ct not 

 m-rc than two or three as ii"alified and made 

 of the right stuff. 



Thus, nut of an original hundred definite ap- 

 plicants, wc get not more than two or three. 

 The process of selection. th( ugh it is severe, 

 works wonders and gives us unusual men for 

 Ihc very important work which we do. 



Those who finally pass are sent out into the 

 field, always under the directi.m of master Tree 



194 



Surgfcns. They simply grtw into the work and 

 acquire almost intuitive skill. 



A chief expert travels regularly from 

 squad to squad 



Then, we have a chief expert who spends all 

 of his time traveling from squad to squad to 

 check up on all the details of the work and the 

 merit of each individual — to see that our hi,:h 

 standard is consistently maintained. Occasion- 

 ally he tells us that a certain man is not our 

 kind and should not be in the Davey organiza- 

 tion. That man is promptly dismissed. Very 

 often he tells us that .certain men are doing 

 especially fine work and recommends advance- 

 ment. Such men are promptly advanced. 



So the really good men remain with us — and 

 they like their jobs mighty well. Naturally 

 enough, they give superior service. 



Constant supervision by local representatives 



In addition to this, a number of squads are 

 under the constant supervision of each local 

 representative, of whom we have nearly thirty 

 whose highest self-interest requires watchful 

 care of the interests of each client, to see that 

 be gets the maximum service. 



More tb,aii this, we require periodic reports en 

 every man in our field force. Our local repre- 

 sentatives give detaHed monthly reports on the 

 foremen under their supervision. Each foreman 

 gives a monthly report in great detail concern- 

 ing each man in his squad. Every bit of infor- 

 mation from every source about each individual 

 goes into his personal service record. And 

 everyone knows that his service record is com- 

 plete and strives to keep it good. 



The only place in the world where the science 

 of Tree Surgery is taught 



When a man in the field fi.rce has reachcil a 

 proper state of develoimient, he is brought into 

 Kent to attend our resident school. This course 

 covers two years — four inonlbs each year. We 

 maintain a regular schoc 1 with complete library 

 and laboratory equiitment and a corps of in- 

 structors with fine scientific training from va- 

 rious colleges and universities, plus .special 

 training in the Davey organization. There is 

 no other school in the world that traclics 

 Tree Surgery, so we maintain the Davey In- 

 stitute of Tree Surgery as a matter of prac- 

 tical necessity. 



In this school we teach only those things re- 

 quired to make re.il Tree Surgeons— nothing 

 superfluous or unnecessary. The course includes 

 Botany and Dendrology, Pathology and Eulo- 

 mnlogy. Soils and the Feeding of Trees, Spray- 



