50 DA VET'S PRIMER 



Here is a sick oak. To understand a tree you must 

 bear in mind that its life is real, as real as yours; 

 and you must know this fact also, namely : IT IS 

 NATURAL TO BE WELL. When you children are 

 in good health, it is what we call a "normal condi- 

 tion"; your cheeks will be ruddy, the eye animated 

 and the step elastic. When your cheeks become pale 

 and sunken, your shoulders "round," and you lack 

 cheerfulness, your parents are alarmed. If your horse 

 becomes sick, droops his head and refuses to eat, you be- 

 come uneasy and send for the veterinary surgeon ; but 

 millions of trees are sick, and but very few people seem 

 to suspect that there is anything wrong. In this photo- 

 graph the leaves are not only dead, but the twigs and 

 small branches also. There are several causes leading 

 to this trouble, but here, also, it was want of water. 



Children : there is no one cause in our whole country 

 that has produced the death of so many trees as the lack 

 of sufficient water. It is one of the greatest problems 

 that America has to deal with. Without sufficient 

 water we cannot have healthy trees. What would you 

 think if your horse, or cow, or dog were allowed to die 

 of thirst? On page 52 you will learn how much water 

 a tree can use. 



In loose, sandy soil, like they have in the central 

 part of Cleveland, O., there is no way that a tree can 

 get sufficient water when a thick sod is formed. In 

 planting trees in such soil it would be wise to take less 

 trees and use the money in preparing for the few. Dig; 



