38 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



heavy coat of asphalt. To meet such a situation 

 we have always the possibility of covering the 

 wound with zinc or copper. There is a method, 

 though, which secures quite as effective a covering 

 as does zinc, with less expense and less work. 

 That method is the reinforcement of ordinary 

 brushed dressings. 



A dressing is reinforced by applying a fabric 

 to the wound and saturating the fabric with the 

 dressing. The materials available for this pur- 

 pose are numerous, such as cotton batting, burlap, 

 cheesecloth, and canvas. By all means the most 

 satisfactory, though, is cotton padding, a material 

 used in dressmaking. It is a thin bat of cotton, 

 perhaps an eighth of an inch thick. All depart- 

 ment stores sell it, the price being about five cents 

 a square yard. 



Three steps must be observed in applying the 

 reinforced dressing. First give the wound a 

 thorough coat of the dressing. It is well to let 

 this dry a day or two. Then press the padding 

 against the wound and saturate it thoroughly with 

 the dressing. At this point the padding which ex- 

 tends beyond the edges of the wound can be 

 trimmed off. It takes only a moment to trim the 

 edges if a sharp instrument is used. The writer 

 uses old safety razor blades. When this saturat- 

 ing coat has dried a few days the upper surface of 

 the cotton padding will usually be somewhat ex- 



