2 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



chopped off in digging roadways and cellars; the 

 soil-water level to which they have become accus- 

 tomed has been lowered by deep drainage pipes. 

 Barren soil has been piled over their roots, rob- 

 bing them of the air which is just as essential to 

 them as water. Graders, teamsters, builders, and 

 telephone men have treated the trees as their con- 

 venience suggested, tearing out their roots, bruis- 

 ing their bark, tying guy-wires to them and lop- 

 ping off their branches, as if they were the dead 

 and worthless things which, by the time the new 

 suburban home is turned over to the owner, they 

 too often are. Is it any wonder, then, that in 

 most of our suburbs half the large trees are de- 

 cayed and dying? 



Out in the open country the conditions in the 

 tree world are often much the same, though for 

 different reasons. A good many groves, for in- 

 stance, are now in existence solely by virtue of the 

 fact that the trees in them are all decayed. I 

 know of several beech woods in which every tree 

 is hollow, for the simple reason that ten or fif- 

 teen years ago all the sound trees were felled 

 for timber. Over-pasturing wood-lots has also 

 ruined many beautiful groves. The cattle pre- 

 vent the natural forest reproduction and compact 

 the soil so that it dries out quickly, and the old 

 trees can no longer make a vigorous yearly 

 growth, and can no longer resist the attacks of 



