1913.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 73 



SHADE-TREE TROUBLES. 



G. E. STONE. 



Stagiiead and Root Injury. 



Many trees since the year 1904 have been showing a charac- 

 teristic trouble called " staghead." This was particularly no- 

 ticeable in different degrees of severity on the red maple {Acer 

 ruhrum) during the summer of 1904, caused by winter killing 

 of roots, etc. In some cases the injury took the form of a 

 scant production of foliage at the top, while in others most of 

 the foliage at the top would not grow to more than one-fourth 

 its natural size (Fig. 1) ; and in still other cases, and by far the 

 most common, the top of the tree died outright (Fig. 2). In 

 the cases where the foliage was merely thin the trees recovered 

 the following season and have remained in a normal condition 

 since. In others, the foliage at the top would become contin- 

 ually more scant and more limbs affected, until eventually the 

 whole tree would die. Owing to a defective root system a very 

 large number of maples were affected in this way. 



During the past two years a large number of trees in the 

 northeastern part of the United States have shown this staghead 

 effect. The trouble appears to have come from the root system, 

 but whether due to winter injury or to the extreme drought 

 which has been common the last five or six years, or to both, is 

 not known at the present time. There are many varieties of 

 shade trees affected in this way at the present time, and this 

 means their ultimate destruction, since those that do not die 

 outright will never recover their tops, and are therefore worth- 

 less as specimens of shade trees. This dying back is particu- 

 larly noticeable on elms, which appear to haA^e been affected at 

 the roots for possibly eight years (Figs. 3 and 4). Owing to 

 the different habits of branching, — the rock maple possessing 

 one main leader, while the elm has a number, — their manner 



