Popular Science Monthly 



55 



O 



Fly Impaled by Spear of Grass 



NE of the 



Roots instead of branches were grafted to 

 this pear tree, and with the fresh Hfe 

 brought to it by the healthy young 

 suckers, the old tree returned to its 

 previous record crops 



Giving a Pear Tree New Roots 



THE startling operations performed 

 upon human bodies by advanced 

 surgical methods find their counterpart 

 in tree surgery. How a pear tree was 

 supplied with new roots after its own 

 had been destroyed, is an example. The 

 disease which required the drastic treat- 

 ment of removing the roots of a well- 

 grown tree is "pear blight," which can 

 be eradicated only by cutting away all 

 afifected parts. So dangerous is this tree 

 disease that even the knife which is used 

 in cutting away the bark, wood or roots 

 must be sterilized after each use, in or- 

 der to prevent the contagion from 

 spreading to sound parts of the tree. 



Should the disease attack the roots, 

 as in the instance shown in the photo- 

 graph, it is necessary to supply nourish- 

 ment to the tree by grafting to the trunk 

 a number of healthy young "suckers." 

 These are well rooted and are set into 

 the ground about the diseased tree, while 

 the upper ends are grafted upon the 

 trunk, so as to carry the sap from the 

 ground by healthy channels. 



most mterest- 

 ing accidents that 

 has ever come to 

 the attention of 

 z o o 1 o g i (x t s is 

 shown in the ac- 

 companying illus- 

 tration. While ly- 

 ing in the tall 

 grass near Fire 

 Island, N. Y., 

 waiting for game 

 birds, Dr. A. L. 

 Goodman, a New 

 York physician, 

 saw a fly perch- 

 ing upon a spear 

 of grass near him, 

 and entirely un- 

 afraid of the 

 hunter, for it nev- 

 er moved. After 

 watching the fly 

 for nearly half 

 an hour, Dr. 

 Goodman's curi- 

 o s i t y was so 

 aroused that he 

 got up and, upon 

 examining the in-r 

 sect, found that 

 the sharp point of 

 the grass had 

 pierced the fly's 

 frail body. 



The insect had 

 evidently been 



flying against the wind, when a sudden 

 gust blew it down against the blade of 

 grass, which had swayed with the wind. 

 Dr. Lutz, of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, says that in the fifteen 

 years that he has collected specimens he 

 has never seen a similar accident, nor 

 has he ever read of such an occurrence. 



Hammering Spine to Cure Sick Heart 



AS a remedy for enlargement of the 

 heart. Dr. Meyer Solis-Cohen ham- 

 mers the spine with a rubber-tipped ham- 

 mer. The tapping should be done on the 

 protruding vertebra in the spine at the 

 bottom of the neck, a little above the 

 shoulderblade. It immediately livens the 

 valves of the heart. 



