22 8 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



poles, or with bundles of thorn branches wired 

 closely about them. 



Trees growing along streams are very fre- 

 quently hollow, the result of the work of fungi 

 which enter the trunk through wounds made in the 

 bark by floating ice during spring freshets. In 

 bottom lands, trees a considerable distance from 

 the river are sometimes thus affected. If such 

 trees are valuable all but the oldest and toughest- 

 barked must be protected, as by poles tied around 

 the trunk with wire. The guards can be put on 

 in winter and taken off in May, or they can be left 

 on for several years at a time. On a large scale, 

 it may be necessary to grow willows and birches 

 to protect the standard trees. 



It is in building operations, however, that the 

 most pitiless slaughter of the innocents takes 

 place. Graders seem to think only of their 

 grade, builders only of finishing their work at the 

 time specified in the contract, and teamsters, one 

 is forced to believe, of nothing at all. A tree is 

 either a nuisance to these people, or a convenient 

 post to which to tie their horses or to nail their 

 scantlings. The owner does not yet realize the 

 value of the trees, and is confident that a year or 

 two of care will remedy the damage they suffer. 

 But, in fact, the years following building opera- 

 tions and lawn making are years of low vitality 

 for the neighboring trees, and they are in no con- 



