8 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



ditions, laymen frequently form (as they are 

 intended to) an exaggerated idea of the impor- 

 tance of tree surgery and the certainty of its re- 

 sults. With their vision thus distorted they 

 frequently rely too completely upon the filling of 

 cavities, when, perhaps, the same money might 

 be better spent in enriching the soil and planting 

 young trees. 



The remedy for this entire state of affairs lies 

 in a more widespread understanding of the aims, 

 methods, and limitations of cavity work in trees. 

 It lies in a saner estimate of the comparative 

 values of the various branches of arboriculture. 

 The remedy, in other words, is to carry out, 

 effectively and consistently, all three provisions of 

 the program which has been outlined, instead of 

 giving our attention mainly to the least important 

 of them. It means that the public, the officials of 

 cities and towns, landscape architects, arboricul- 

 turists, and the tree-men and gardeners who actu- 

 ally handle the tools, must cooperate in carrying 

 out the whole program. And more than any- 

 thing else, we need a greater number of — and a 

 greater appreciation of — well-trained, all-round 

 arboriculturists, men who know trees, how to plant 

 them and how to keep them in health and protect 

 them from danger throughout their lives; men 

 capable of giving owners of trees rational, un- 

 biased advice, and of seeing that it is effectively 



