90 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



wood from a rotting tree and to put in a filling of 

 concrete or asphalt. When there are many trees, 

 it is easy to see that the bill is likely to be a large 

 one. Few would object to the cost, however, if 

 paying the bill meant that the trees were perma- 

 nently restored to health and vigor. Few would 

 object if they were sure that, whatever the result, 

 the money was spent in the way in which it would 

 do the trees the most good. But not many of us 

 have absolutely unlimited funds to expend on our 

 trees, and we want to be reasonably sure, if we 

 spend a hundred dollars for having a tree filled 

 with concrete, that the tree will be helped thereby, 

 and helped more than it would be by any other 

 expenditure of the hundred dollars. 



It is this condition of affairs which makes it so 

 essential that the owners of trees, and the land- 

 scape architects and other professional men who 

 are called upon to advise them, should be in- 

 formed as to the principles to apply in determining 

 whether a certain tree ought to be filled or not. 

 As a help in that direction, certain rules can be 

 laid down, but it must be remembered that they 

 are not iron-clad, and that they are subject to the 

 supreme rule that circumstances alter cases. 



The first rule is almost self-evident, and it 

 would not seem necessary to state it, if it had not 

 frequently been violated by tree surgeons. It is 

 that no expensive cavity work should be put into 



