PREVENTION OF WOUNDS 227 



mower, or rather the man behind it. It is as- 

 tonishing how otherwise good gardeners will com- 

 placently bang a machine against the trunk of a 

 tender-barked young tree. On many fine estates 

 nearly every tree on the lawn bears near its base 

 the ugly and dangerous memorials of the con- 

 firmed contempt of gardeners for anything but 

 their own planting. The cure for such a con- 

 dition of affairs is not far to seek. Every man 

 on the place should be impressed with the impor- 

 tance of avoiding wounds and should be made to 

 attend immediately to every wound he causes. If 

 a man proves to be quite unreformable the only 

 thing to do is to order him to wrap a gunny-sack 

 around the base of every tree on the lawn before 

 he starts to mow it. 



In the orchard whifBe-trees and cultivator 

 wheels do most of the damage. Here again, 

 remedial measures can be effectively applied to 

 the human element, although short and specially 

 designed whiffle-trees are an important aid to care- 

 ful work. 



The necessity of placing stout guards around 

 trees in pastures need hardly be insisted on. The 

 guards should be of ample size, and so built as to 

 protect the roots of the tree. Pigs, and espe- 

 cially boars, are very destructive, and when they 

 are permitted the run of the orchard the trees 

 must be protected, either with guards of wood or 



