THE TREE DOCTOR 221 



ing among them. It will be bordering on the impossible to keep 

 the fire out of the grass, and even if you could, with heavy sod 

 on the roots, it will be years before they will be anything but 

 gnarly runts. The first thing for this country to do is to rec- 

 ognize and then get fully acquainted with the laws that govern 

 the growth of trees, as well as of corn or potatoes; and the main 



Photo 207 

 View in Central Park, New York. 



point in these laws is the production of a heavy root; you get 

 the top as a reward for your work. You cannot produce 

 healthy trees on barren clay, lifeless gravel beds, starved lands, 

 or good land if covered with heavy sod. 



There is not going to be a "wave" or "uprising" among the 

 people to go into tree planting for obvious reasons, among which 

 are these, viz ; There is a great deal of working farms "on 

 shares." Who, that is working "on shares," is going to plant 

 trees? He would rather cut them down ; his business is to "skin 

 the land," he is a land robber, and the one who rents to him is 



