FILLING TREES 101 



hardly necessary to insist that it is impossible to 

 answer with one word the question " Is filling 

 trees successful?" It all depends on the tree, 

 the cavity, and the filling. A small cavity in a 

 healthy tree can be filled with certainty of success. 

 A large and complex filling in a decrepit tree may 

 well be beyond the power of any man to accom- 

 plish successfully at any cost. Somewhere between 

 these limits lies the line of demarcation, fluctuat- 

 ing with the existing conditions and the skill of the 

 workman. Further observations on old jobs may 

 draw that line farther back toward the simple 

 operations. Future inventions and greater skill 

 may push the line out to a point where it will in- 

 clude more difficult work than has yet been at- 

 tempted. The rules laid down in this chapter aim 

 to locate the line as definitely as that can now be 

 done. 



In conclusion, for the sake of the emphasis which 

 comes of repetition, let it be said again here, as it 

 has already been said several times in various 

 forms, that tree surgery is not nearly so important 

 to trees as feeding, watering, and spraying, and 

 that the common-sense, as well as the scientific 

 procedure, is first to make the tree vigorous, and 

 then, if it needs filling, to fill it. 



