THE CARE OF TREES 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



HIS book is not a sentimental effusion on the 

 beauty and need of trees, but a compilation 

 of information such as the owner of trees 

 may be in search of. 

 Throughout our entire continent, especially in its more 

 settled parts, and most of all in its cities, there has never 

 before been such widespread interest as is now manifested 

 in trees and tree-planting for shade and ornament. Al- 

 though this kind of tree-planting has been quite assiduously 

 practised in past generations, and although as a result we 

 are the heirs of stately elms and oaks and maples, the neces- 

 sity of greater care for this inheritance has only of late been 

 fully reahzed. As a consequence, the "Tree Warden" and 

 "City Forester" have become recognized institutions, and 

 the statutes of several states for the protection of planted 

 trees bear testimony to the popular sentiment, and to the 

 conception that the care of public shade trees is a public duty. 

 Although with this awakened interest there has come 

 forward a large amount of information regarding the care 

 of trees, in the form of bulletins and essays, these generally 

 confine themselves to some particular phase of the subject; 

 a collective and more comprehensive manual, so far as the 

 writer knows, is still lacking. It is to supply this gap that 



