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Doctoring Sick Trees 



Editor's Note 



Even lumbermen, whose reputations lie chiefly as destroyers of the forest, are deeply interested in the preserva- 

 tion and maintenance of trees in the parks, along the boulevards and streets, and on their own home properties. 

 This story of "Doctoring Sick Trees" should appeal to every one, as it comes from an authoritative source. Dr. 

 Frank Johnson, who.'ie methods of tree doctorins or tree dentistry are here quoted, is one of the most notable tree 

 lovers in the United States. He has devoted every spare daylight moment for years of his life in studying tree 

 diseases and their cure. He is a resident of the beautiful Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, and Is honored by that 

 village with the unique public office of village forester. What he doesn't know on the subject of tree doctoring 

 isn't worth knowing. 



It is a common boast of the suburbanite that the city holds no 

 trees like those on his ovrn front lawn. We have all heard him 

 explain that it was to enjoy the beautiful green foliage of the 

 country that he moved out of the busy, smoky metropolis. The 

 pride of Evanston and Oak Park, Chicago's two main suburbs, 

 is their stately tree-edged avenues. Residents there see that 

 and carefully. They point them 

 the trees are pruned regularly 

 out with pride to all visitors, say- 

 ing: "We wouldn't have any- 

 thing happen to them for 

 worlds!" And yet these same 

 people have laid and are still lay- 

 ing their cement sidewalks so 

 close to their cherished trees that 

 they are systematically and scien- 

 tifically killing them by a process 

 of chopping short the roots that 

 should extend proportionately as 

 wide around the trunk as the 

 spread of its branches, which 

 there overhang the walks. So 

 their trees are dying — are being 

 destroyed, and Mr. Suburbs is led 

 to exclaim wrathfully against the 

 boring insects, the caterpillars, 

 fungoid growths and the sewer- 

 age. He looks about him for a 

 remedy for the evils to which he 

 attributes the trees' decay, and 

 he proceeds to bandage the 

 "punk" spots and wounds with 

 burlap or cloth, thereby creating 

 ideal conditions beneath the 

 bandage for the development of 

 the very fungus spores which he 

 is seeking to combat. It never oc- 

 curs to him that he, in his craze 

 for a tree-shaded walk, is him- 

 self responsible for their dying. 



Governmental and civil author- 

 ities also boast of their efforts 

 to preserve the fine old trees in 

 the cities. They go about in it 

 almost the same way Mr. Suburbs 

 does. In Cambridge, Mass., stands 



the elm under which George Washington in 1770 took coiuniand of 

 the Continental army. The authorities erected an iron paling 

 around this tree, placed a stone slab near by explaining its 

 historical significance, and maintain a policeman constantly on 

 guard beside it. And yet they permitted the local telephone 

 company to run its wires so close to the imposing old landmark that 

 two of its largest branches had to be sacrificed in order to prevent 

 interference with the wires. The wound thus made has undermined 

 the vitality of the -whole tree and caused it to fall a prey to 

 destructive agents totally beyond the restraint of the guard. 

 Nature must laugh ironically at such fatuity on the part of these 

 "tree preservers." 



The lack of scientific understanding of tree ailments is far 

 more often the cause of decay than insects or parasitic growths 



—36— 



WASUINGTU.N ELM, CAMBRIDGE. MASS. 

 Showing Wanton and Inexcusable Damage to Historic Tree 



ever could be. In fact, these agents of destruction appear only 

 after the actual decay has set in. They never are the primary 

 reason for it. The physical construction of the boring worms is 

 such as to make it utterly impossible for them to attack live wood. 

 They arc only able to dig their way forward through the "saw- 

 dust" of a wound cavity. .A.s this diseased portion soon morti- 

 fies the eiltire tree, the borers are 

 enabled to worm further into the 

 ratten wood at will, and flat fun- 

 goid growths ("punks") spread 

 over a larger area. Destruction 

 is inevitable then unless the tree 

 wound is scientifically cauterized 

 and dressed. 



A tree wound generally takes 

 the form of a cavity in which 

 "punks" produce a kind of saw- 

 dust, and up into which a gummy 

 excretion oozes through the fibro- 

 vaseular bundles that compose 

 the tree structure. This hole, 

 when neglected, speedily becomes 

 the abode of boring grubs or 

 beetles that, vampire-like, pro- 

 ceed to suck the up-flowing sap, 

 which is the life-blood of the tree. 

 All the sustenance of light, air, 

 room and a moist, nutritious soil 

 will not save it then. Injurious 

 insect spores develop rapidly 

 under these conditions and in a 

 very short time irreparable in 

 jury results to the tree. 



The scientific treatment of tree 

 diseases is a comparatively new 

 study, the importance of which 

 can hardy be exaggerated. "Tree 

 doctors" are the result — men 

 whose sympathy and love for 

 trees is board and heartfelt and 

 who, like Nature, upon whom 

 they operate, do their best work 

 slowly. Their methods of treating 

 tree ailments are essentially the 

 same, though they may differ in 

 some of the minor details. 

 It is the conviction of Dr. Frank .lohnson of Glen Ellyn, whose 

 success as a "tree doctor" has been really remarkable, that the 

 best tre« doctor must personally attend to the business, and not 

 l.e merely a superficial director of the work. "One cannot teach 

 surgery by correspondence school methods," he said, "and one 

 can no more perform an operation upon a sick tree by keeping 

 his kid gloves and coat on, while ignorant underlings fry blindly 

 to follow his directions." 



Trees at their be-st require certain quantities of light, air, heat 

 and specific soil conditions. In diagnosing their ailments it must 

 first be ascertained whether or not these conditions are normal. 

 When trees arc transplanted it often happens that certain of their 

 roots are, for one reason or another, dead, and it is an astonish- 

 ingly common practice to rejilant them, leaving on these lifeless 



