46 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



than mere local treatment is required in such cases. 

 The best way is to cut off one of the limbs. If 

 that cannot be done they must be braced apart 

 in one of the ways suggested in the chapter on 

 bracing. In addition, the worn places require 

 thorough wound treatment. 



The breaking off of branches is another fre- 

 quent cause of wounds. When proper pruning 

 and bracing have been neglected, large limbs of 

 red and silver maples, linden, and such soft- 

 wooded trees, are often fairly torn out by the 

 roots. The thing to do in such a case is to clear 

 away completely all splintered wood and torn 

 bark. The essential thing is to prevent the pos- 

 sibility of any cracks remaining in which water can 

 stand and decay begin. The smoothed surface 

 must receive an especially heavy dressing. If it 

 is large and at all cracked it had better be covered 

 with sheet metal. 



This last type of injury comes, so to speak, in 

 all sizes, up to the huge wounds one so often sees, 

 made by the tearing apart of a forked maple or 

 elm. These are very serious affairs and require' 

 painstaking treatment in order to prevent the 

 entrance of decay. The part of the wound re- 

 quiring the greatest care is the lower part, the 

 stub, it might be called, of the broken half of the 

 tree. If the bark and wood of the stub have been 

 split from the rest of the trunk, they will almost 



