Chapter XII 



THE PREVENTION OF WOUNDS AND 

 CAVITIES 



ENOUGH has been said about the difficulty, 

 expense, and uncertainty of filling trees to 

 make almost unnecessary any argument in favor 

 of protective and preventive measures. And yet 

 the slowness with which decay does its work, and 

 the fact that the tree, lacking a nervous system, 

 may give no indication in one part that another 

 part is being eaten away, often blinds people to 

 the danger which lurks in every wound in a tree. 

 The prevention of decay is vastly the most valu- 

 able part of the work of tree repair. It pays 

 back by far the largest return on its cost. It is 

 the stitch in time which saves nine, and many 

 times nine. 



The work of prevention of decay falls into 

 three divisions: making those wounds correctly 

 which have to be made, dressing wounds, and 

 preventing wounds. 



The first phase is really within the realm of 

 tree pruning. A very large proportion of the 

 cavities which have to be filled, or which cause the 



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