lo Sept., 1908.] Effect of Pollarding Oak Trees. 543 



EFFECT OF "POLLARDING" OAK TREES. 



/. JoJmstone, Officer In Charge of State Plantations. 



Recently I inspected the deciduous trees growing in Sturt-street, 

 Ballarat. I found them badly infested with scale. Spraying and painting 

 experiments had been tried, but proved unsatisfactory. Some of the trees 

 were pollarded a few years ago and the limb stumps ha\e produced a dense 

 young growth ; on some of this growth I found scale. As the scale is fond 

 of young wood growth it is only a matter of time when this newly-formed 

 head growth will be as bad as the trees were before they were headed back. 



Most of the oaks that adorn this street are' of a fair age, and possess 

 sturdy trunks and spreading branches. Some of the umbrageous specimens 

 exhibit in their head growth the much-admired gnarled storm-beaten appear- 

 ance — a charm that adds to the beauty of the statuary decorations. De- 

 prive the stems of such limbs worked out by Artist Nature and the cheer- 

 fulness and variety of the street life will be lost and the " stumped " stems 

 will become cripples and artificial dwarfs. 



Sun-shade trees are too often neglected until they have attained their 

 utmost limits and passed beyond the science of the judicious pruning which 

 is in harmony with nature's laws. There are people who believe that trees 

 ■cannot grow properly unless thev are controlled by constant butchery. This 

 is against the laws that govern vegetable growth. When operating on shade- 

 production trees to make them suit their allotted growing space, care and 

 judgment should be exercised, based upon cause and effect — two principles 

 which should be founded upon an artistic recognition of what the tree is 

 to be in the distant future. 



Healthy oaks can be " pollarded " when young and full of sapwood. 

 In the forests to make well figured grain, polling is done — that is, the tops 

 of the young trees are cut off. This causes the fibres to twist in their efforts 

 to send out a new growth. From these twists we obtain our well-figured 

 and highly ornamental oak timber. "Pollarding" or "stumping" the 

 oaks in Sturt-street, where conditions are different, should not be done. In 

 these trees the formation of heart wood has long since commenced, and is 

 now a fair thickness both in stem and limbs. By the removal of such limbs 

 the sap flow w-ould be disarranged, and the action of the root growth 

 seriously checked, hence the death of the fibrous roots^ — the servants of the 

 leaves. By exposure of the inner wood on the stump ends a way is made 

 for germs of rot that are ever in the atmosphere to enter and soon fungoid 

 ■diseases would follow. Though these diseases would be active the 

 effects would be invisible for a long time. 



It should always be remembered that all shoots are connected with the 

 roots. Removing the head growth sickens the roots and weakens the vege- 

 tative powers of the tree, and the heart-wood becomes brown by decay. 

 Such timber — if taken in time — is valuable and much sought after for 

 cabinet work, but if allowed to stand, as it should be in Sturt-street, it 

 would soon be turned into a breeding place for white ants. 



I fail to scfe what can be gained by removing the head growth as the 

 stem stimips wdll send out a young growth that will in a few years' time 

 afford better food for the scale than would the older ones if left on. If 

 the old head growth is allowed to remain, an active man could do good 

 work by regulating the growth and removing undesirable twigs and 

 branches, and at the same time spraying with kerosene, &c., when required. 



I have seen young oak trees which four vears ago were covered with 

 scale and to-dav are free from it. If trees are kept healthy, when 



