84 



THE TREE DOCTOR 



a line around the trunk of the tree, measure off eight feet and 

 draw a circle sixteen feet in diameter, work under the roots, lift 

 and move the tree into a hole, say eighteen feet in diameter. Do 

 the "Tree men" proceed in that way? Not many of them. If they 

 dig at a distance of three feet from the tree, giving a six-foot root 

 spread, they think they are doing a great thing. But they thus 

 destroy at least ninety per cent, of the "feeders." 



Photo 73 

 Use Small Trees for Planting. 



Photo 70 gives a view of how the work is usually done. 

 Nine-tenths of the large trees that I have seen transplanted are 

 practically grubbed out. A couple years later you can pull them 

 out of the ground in a condition much as the one the group are 

 inspecting. When the "feeders" are left behind, what part of the 

 tree is the first to suffer? The central portion. The chunk of 

 a branch lying on the stand, in Photo 71, shows how it becomes 

 affected. Dead twigs over and through the top tell the story of 

 its sad fate. A tree thus abused, with only a tenth to a fiftieth 

 enough moisture supplied, cannot stand the hot days of July and 



