CARE OF OLD TREES 131 



the outer side. The rod should be of tough iron 

 or steel, and should exactly fit the hole bored by the 

 augur ; the portions embedded in the wood should 

 be smeared with coal tar before they are pushed 

 through, so as to make the holes as nearly as pos- 

 sible air and water-tight. One end of the rod should 

 be " threaded " sufficiently to allow of the limbs being 

 braced slightly by screwing up the nut, and thus 

 supporting some of their weight. Finally, the bark 

 should be neatly cut away so as to let in each of the 

 iron plates closer to the living wood, for by this 

 means the time required for closing over the plate 

 by new wood is shortened. In this way the weight 

 is borne by the iron plate, which should, by removing 

 sufficient bark, be allowed to fit close in to the 

 wood. New bark will gradually close over and hide 

 the plate, and instead of an ugly collar cutting into 

 the wood, the only evidence of artificial aid is the rod 

 coming from the inner side of the branch. 



Branches or snags that have to be removed should 

 be sawn off quite close to the trunk or larger branch 

 from which they spring. When a stump, even not 

 more than a few inches long, is left, the new bark 

 and wood are unable to close over it, and the wood 

 ultimately decays and acts as a medium for mois- 

 ture and fungoid diseases. The saw should travel 

 from point A to B, as in the sketch. When a stump 

 is left (as would be done by sawing off at C D) decay 

 sets in sooner or later. Although the tree often 

 succeeds in healing over the dead part, it more often 

 fails to do so until the decay has reached the trunk 



