CHAPTER V 



CONTROL OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DISEASES AND 



TREATMENT OF MECHANICAL INJURIES 



— GENERAL CARE OF TREES 



UST as in all other cases, the ills to which trees 

 are exposed are best met with the prescrip- 

 tion of the old adage: "An ounce of prevention 

 is worth a j)Ound of cure." 

 Just as the physician insists upon sanitary conditions, as 

 a means of preventing disease, so the tree doctor should 

 insist upon securing the most favorable conditions of growth 

 for his charges. These may be achieved by looking after 

 soil conditions, mainly with reference to air and water-sup- 

 ply; by providing a satisfactory amount of light, and, above 

 all, by timely and judicious surgery — pruning, by which the 

 consumption of supplies from the root can be regulated 

 sometimes more easily than the supply in the soil itself. 



These tw^o means, then, regulation of foliage development 

 by pruning and soil impro\'ement, are compensating and 

 should usually go hand in hand. Timely attention to these 

 requirements will prevent many of the troubles to which 

 trees are liable, and, when trouble has come, half the battle 

 is won, if these conditions of favorable nutrition are estab- 

 lished and the tree has been kept in vigor to fight otT the 

 disease. 



We shall devote this chapter, therefore, entirely to the 

 discussion of proper care in soil conditions and in pruning, 



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