56 FORESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 



14 feet long, with its base stripped of bark and tarred, 

 driven well into the ground. The tree, covered with a strip 

 of tarred felting, is tied to the stake in two or three places, 

 with ^ inch Manila rope slipped through a piece of india- 

 rubber hose, about 8 or 9 inches long. This prevents the 

 stem of the tree from coming in contact with the stake. 

 The ties attaching the trees to the stakes must be loosened 

 in time, so that they may not eat into the bark. 



Pruning is necessary, but only in order to take off the 

 lower branches, so as to allow unimpeded the passage of 

 pedestrians and vehicles; and also in rare cases, as in narrow 

 streets, where trees must be kept in a limited space. Prun- 

 ing is expensive ; and the performance of a surgical operation 

 on a tree is no more to its good than the same on an 

 animal. The appearance of trees in towns, not only in 

 streets, but in parks, with their trunks marked with great 

 scars or wounds, is very distressing, and is, moreover, the 

 cause in many cases of disease and death. The spectacle 

 of untrained men going about hacking trees in towns is a 

 painful but common one. The whole art of pruning is to 

 cut away in time the branches that must be removed, that 

 is when they are small, say less than ^ inch in diameter ; 

 and to cut only a little at a time, applying a dressing of 

 coal tar to the freshly cut scar. Trees require all their 

 branches in order to grow vigorously, and, left to themselves, 

 they generally make a finer bole than if maltreated. All 

 the so-called systems of pruning trees are to be avoided. 

 If you ever prune, prune so that the tree looks as if it had 

 not been pruned at all. Dead wood, of course, can be removed. 



People will be more interested in the preservation of 

 trees if they know something about them. It is advisable 

 then to place one or two inscriptions in each street, giving 

 the date of planting and the names of the species used. 



The preservation of trees is as important as their plant- 

 ing; and in every large town it is advisable to form a 

 committee to look after the trees. Sometimes a beautiful 

 tree is felled or sound branches are lopped off, and the 

 timber subsequently sold by untrustworthy borough servants. 



