22 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 397 



Figure 13. The earliest successful crotch bracing in the United States on the campus of Mass- 

 achusetts State College, showing the now discarded practice of wrapping braced limbs with chains 

 as well as the method of sinking end of brace in branch. In modern tree work the use of rigid 

 bars in higher parts of the tree for direct strengthening of crotches is an improvement over the 

 earlier method, but the principle of multiple bracing and the sinking of braces in the wood to avoid 

 girdling are the same. The work in the tree pictured survived all tests perhaps too well, for the 

 full crown of the tree remained intact permanently, but the tree was uprooted in the hurricane 

 of 1938. Photograph furnished by the late Dr. George E. Stone, under whose direction the tree 

 operations were completed 



