424 



Canadian Forcstr]) Journal, October, 1919 



DYNAMITING TREES TO SAVE THEM 



Central Park, New York, is losing its trees. 

 They have been dying off by thousands. The 

 reason is now known to be the inabihty of the 

 roots to penetrate the hard clay subsoil. The 

 trees under these circumstances grow until they 

 are too large to thrive on what water and nutri- 

 ment they can get above the subsoil, and then 

 they will wither and die. The available soil in 

 Central Park is two and a half to five feet 

 deep, and trees can grow in it to a diameter 

 of two and a half to three feet. Beyond this 

 they need deeper rootage, and this is denied 

 them by the impenetrable clay. This clay it 

 is now proposed to break up with charges of 

 dynamite, so that the roots can get through it. 

 Blasting of this kind, according to City For- 

 ester J. S. Kaplan, has been successfully used 

 in breaking up bed-rock for orchards, and 

 there is no reason why it should not succeed 

 with hard clay, as in the present instance. 

 Says the New York Times: 



"Park Commissioner Francis D. Gallatin an- 

 nounced recently that the inability of tree- 

 roots to penetrate the hard clay subsoil had 

 been discovered to be the real cause of the 

 death by thousands of all species of trees in 

 the park and that this fall an attempt would 

 be made to save the trees by dynamiting to 

 shatter the clay and to allow the roots to pene- 

 trate deeper. 



"After a great many theories had been put 

 forward to account for the deaths of the trees 

 by hundreds in recent years, the real explana- 

 tion. Commissioner Gallatin said, was found 

 when a new device for pulling trees and stumps, 

 which was evolved during the war, was used in 

 Central Park. This invention was a stump- 

 puller, operated by hand, which lifted the tree 

 and the soil attached to its roots out of the 

 ground intact. The pulling of dead trees and 

 stumps by this method began in January. It 

 was found that the roots extended from two 

 and a half to five feet deep and were then 

 stopped short by the hard clay. 



"When this condition was found uniformly, 

 as hundreds of trees were pulled during the 

 spring and summer. City Forester J. S. Kaplan 

 came to the conclusion that the trees were 

 dying because their roots did not go deep 

 enough to take in a sufficient amount of water 

 to keep alive trees of their size, and that the 

 droughts and frosts of the last few years had 

 been deadly to trees whose vitality was already 

 impaired. 



"The plan adopted by Commissioner Gallatin 

 is that of setting aside a section of the southern 

 part of the plot of about five acres with from 

 thirty to thirty-five trees. . . . Holes will 

 be bored with soil-augers to a depth of from 

 four to five feet just under the outer foliage of 

 the trees and small charges of dynamite set off. 

 One blast will be used for small trees and two 

 or more for the larger ones. It will require 

 two or three years of observation thereafter to 

 measure the success of this plan." 



CLOTHING FROM FOREST TREES 



Several Regions of the Earth 

 Material 



Yield Dress 



One of the strangest of myths is that which 

 concerns the "deadly upas tree" of Java, whose 

 poisonous exhalations were formerly alleged to 

 kill any man or animal that ventured into its 

 neighborhood. 



Doubtless it had its origin in some traveller's 

 tale, for the tree in question — rather widely dis- 

 tributed in southern and southeastern Asia - 

 has no terrors for the natives of those countries 

 who, on the contrary, find it extremely useful. 



It is the only kind of tree in the world that 

 produces ready-made clothing. The inner bark 

 is a natural cloth, only requiring the removal 

 of the soft cellular stuff from between the woven 

 fibres in order to render it available for use. A 

 cylindrical section of it from a small branch 

 will furnish a leg for a pair of trousers or an 

 arm for a coat, while from the bigger branch 

 the body of the garment is obtained. 



In tropical South America the inner bark of 

 another species of tree yields an excellent cloth, 

 the fibres of which are interwoven much as if 

 the fabric came from a loom. All that is neces- 

 sary IS to wash and beat out the cellular stuff 

 from the interstices and, when dried, it is light, 

 flexible and altogether suitable for making up 

 into garments. 



The famous "tapa" cloth of Polynesia is 

 made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry. 

 When of the finest quality it is bleached to 

 snowy whiteness and fine as muslin. 



In tropical Africa the inner bark of a legum- 

 inous tree is utilized in the same way. Indeed, 

 it is surprising to learn how widely tree barks 

 are employed as materials for clothing the 

 world over. And in the West Indies grows the 

 "lace-bark tree," which yields a delicate tissue 

 so like lace that many articles of feminine 

 adornment are made from it. 



