PRUNING 



839 



TREE SURGERY 



In an article of tins character I cannot refrain from warning 

 my readers against the professional ( ?) tree surgeon or butcher. 

 Such are in evidence in every community, urging their services 

 on the unwary at a price not much lower Iliaii that charged by the 

 local horse doctor. I have seen productive orchards ruined by 

 these men whose ruthless slaughter of bearing wood indicated 

 cither their ignorance or a desire that they might make a show. 

 " Verily they have their reward.' 7 At other times they class them- 



FIG. 228. SIDE AND FRONT VIEWS 

 OF A PROPERLY-MADE CUT. THE 

 BULGE AT THE BASE OF THE 

 BRANCH HAS BEEN REMOVED, 

 LEAVING NO STUB. THIS WOUND 

 WOULD HEAL RAPIDLY. 



(Copied from Report of Proceedings of 

 Me Western New York Horticultural 

 Society, 1911.) 



selves as "healers," and at great expense remove decayed wood 

 and pour in, not " oil and wine " as did the good Samaritan, but 

 a mixture of concrete. Only in the case of some choice tree whicii 

 it is desirable to preserve for sentimental reasons is this practice 

 to be recommended, rarely if ever for economic ones. In 

 some cases the money expenses in work of this kind would have 

 "fed .the hungry and clothed the naked." Such tree surgeons 

 belong in the class with those who sell peach trees grafted on oak 

 roots to make them " hardy " and with others who insert a plug 

 of sulphur into the trunk of a tree at two dollars per iu order to 

 render it free evermore from the depredations of insects. All of 



