PREVENTION OF WOUNDS 229 



dition to have their recuperative powers further 

 taxed by avoidable bark wounds. 



The remedy for this condition of affairs lies in 

 a wider appreciation of the fact that serious es- 

 thetic, as well as financial losses can be avoided by 

 consulting beforehand an expert in the care of 

 trees, be he an arboriculturist, a consulting for- 

 ester, or a landscape architect. If it pays to pur- 

 chase the advice of an expert in heating or light- 

 ing before building a house and if that is not 

 done directly, it is done by the architect, unless he 

 is an expert in those branches it will certainly 

 pay to consult some one, no matter what he may 

 call himself, who has a really expert knowledge 

 of trees. An error in handling trees is likely to 

 be as difficult to remedy as an error in wiring a 

 house, and may be quite irremediable. 



Once the expert is found (often, unfortunately, 

 not an easy thing to do) he will ask to see the 

 architect's plans for the grading and drainage of 

 the lot and for the location of buildings, walks, 

 and drives. With these, and preferably in com- 

 pany with the architect and owner, he will visit the 

 property. There he will examine the trees, not- 

 ing their species and their physical and physiologi- 

 cal condition. He will pay special attention to 

 the soil, its surface covering, its texture, its con- 

 dition of drainage. After this examination he 

 will be able to forecast the effect the operations 



