ORNAMENTAL AND SHADE TREES 



295 



Of sprayers there are countless numbers, many of 

 them good, honest workers, but unfortunately some that 

 are unscrupulous and will do anything to get money 

 without giving adequate returns. In one case that comes 

 to my mind, I was on an estate with some of the State 

 inspectors, a spraying contractor was working there and 

 came to the owner, with whom we were engaged in con- 

 versation at the time, stating that he had sprayed all th; 

 maples and elms, and wanted to know whether he should 

 spray the rest of the trees on the place. This privilege, 

 however, was denied him by the owner who had, in the 

 meantime, gotten some information from us. This 

 occurred late in August. There were no pests worth 

 mentioning on any of the trees, at least none that could 

 be controlled by spraying at that season of the year. 

 The owner had found out from us that he was wasting 

 his money, and I believe that the spraying contractor 

 knew it, too, because when I met him later on at the 

 railway station he accused me of trying to take his busi- 

 ness away from him. "Butting in," he called it. and 

 when I pointed out to him the error of his ways, he 

 excused himself with the words, "Aw, that fellow has got 

 so much money he won't miss a little of it !" In addi- 

 tion to which he intimated that he would make it worth 

 my while not to interfere with him on other places. 



Then there is the individual who makes a specialty of 

 rilling up hollow trees, rarely using precautions to prevent 

 further decay, and nearly always willing to operate on 

 trees so old and decrepit that their death is only a 

 question of a short time. The worst case of this I ever 

 saw was on the estate of a prominent New York archi- 

 tect, near White Plains. Here a great many hollow 

 trees, mostly apple trees, had been filled up with loose 

 stones, and the openings covered over with a sheet of 

 paraffin. Needless to say there had been no cleaning or 

 disinfecting, and later on when proper work was finally 

 undertaken on some of the best of these trees, the owner 

 was put to the expense of removing the loose stone filling. 

 Vet this man had been able to collect ten or fifteen dollars 

 a day for his services. 



These are all cases in which the operators were igno- 

 rant men, but I am sorry to say that there are among the 

 tree fakers many men who know better, and some of the 

 largest advertisers are among the. These will undertake 

 work on old and worthless trees that cannot live, charg- 

 ing outrageous prices for useless work. When the 

 chestnut tree blight was at its worst, I received a letter 

 from a man high in the world of art and letters. You all 

 know him. In this letter he stated that he could cure 

 chestnut blight by the simple means of introducing iron 

 into the sap of the tree, and to prove his theory stated 

 that oaks contained iron which chestnuts lacked, and that 

 oaks were therefore immune. 



Another one, a physician, got out pamphlets advertis- 

 ing a "tree serum," though that is not exactly what he 

 called it. This substance to quote from his circular "was 

 introduced into the sap of the tree, and experiments 

 have shown that it is a cure for elm blight, hickory borers, 

 as well as fruit tree blight, and San Jose scale." This 



man got himself into the daily papers, who lauded to the 

 skies both him and his "discovery." In due course of 

 time he came to me, and, as the tree faker has ever been 

 an interesting personality to me, I allowed him the chance 



A FINE TREE MISTREATED 



This magnificent sycamore tree had a neglected wound which was made 

 worse by a covering of tin. Note the tin partially removed and the 

 whole interior badly decayed. Many trees on the same estate were 

 treated in a similar manner. 



of proving his contentions on a tree of his own selection. 

 He picked a large elm, applied some cans, bored holes 

 into the tree which he connected with the cans by means 

 of a rubber tube, filled the cans with his "dope" and de- 

 parted. I have not seen him since, but the poor elm still 

 shows four great scars around and below the places 

 where his wonderful serum had gotten in its deadly work. 



Quite recently a company has been advertising a won- 

 derful discovery which is applied to the roots. Their 

 pamphlet gives very minute directions, which remind one 

 of the hokus pokus of the ancient alchemists, but it very 

 carefully refrains from mentioning any specific pest or 

 ailment that can be cured, though it shows a number of 

 testimonials. 



A faker that I well remember came to me with the 

 information that the chestnut tree bark disease, then at its 

 worst, was all a mistake. In fact there was no such thing. 

 The chestnut trees were being killed by ants, and not 

 by a blight. He had invented a compound that would 

 coax all of these ants out of the ground and trees into 

 the jar containing his "dope," and then they would 

 promptly lose all interest in life. This man was sent to 



