August, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



103 



American Reforestation 



By J. Chandler-French 



O AMONG your trees, and see where the 

 branches have been severed; plunge your 

 knife into the wounded parts and you will 

 have a revelation that will make you sick at 

 heart. Turn back to your botany and read 

 of the wonderful cell structure, and see how 

 the tree butcher has left it all exposed until you can find holes 

 in some trees big enough for your head. It will prove a 

 painful task and an instructive one, for it will tell you of 

 the tree's heart failure as nothing else will. 



The trees through the Middle West are receiving a new 

 lease of life through skilled surgical operations and other 

 scientific care. In Western Pennsylvania in the rear lawn of 

 a handsome home there stands a gigantic white oak that was 

 recently the patient of the 

 tree doctor. A huge black 

 snake had climbed 100 feet 

 to its summit and made its 

 snug home nine feet down 

 in the topmost branch. The 

 wood began to decay. Grad- 

 ually the trunk rotted a 

 little further and yet fur- 

 ther, until the entire tree 

 was suffering from the ef- 

 fect. The dead wood was 

 carefully drilled out until 

 the wood cells gave no sign 

 of decay, the cavity thus 

 made being filled with Port- 

 land cement, at once a pre- 

 serving and antiseptic com- 

 position. 



The natural condition of 

 all things living is health. 

 When there is disease and 

 death there must be a cause. 

 Life and death are antago- 

 nistic forces and cannot long 

 exist side by side. The work 

 fast extending through the 

 country to the relief of suf- 

 fering trees is surgery, pure 

 and simple. The decay is 

 removed and life is pre- 

 served. The natural condi- 

 tion of forest trees is health. The roots are covered with 

 earth, over the top of which covering the leaves rest lightly, 

 admitting the rain, holding the moisture, at the same time 

 not excluding air. Trees that decay at the time of their lives 

 when they should be flourishing are usually those upon 

 private property where the property owner insists upon both 

 trees and sod. The close lawn sod keeps out air and does not 

 retain moisture. There is but one remedy for trees suffering 

 for moisture. Dig out the sod two inches deep with an area 

 of four feet, and in this space lay a stratum of coarse gravel. 

 Gravel provides the best substitute for the leaves that are so 

 beneficial to forest trees. 



During the months of July and August trees require a 

 great deal of water and nature's supply is not sufficient for 

 these months where the tree has not the advantage of the 

 moisture of forest soil. There are thousands of trees upon 



The Result of an Abundance of Water 



private lawns and in public groves dying of thirst and the 

 passer-by can see no cause of the dwarfed, wilted condition. 

 The tree with an ample supply of water will gro^ symmet- 

 rically, and be subject to few diseases. 



Not a great distance from the white oak is a great elm, 

 split for several feet. When the splitting began the usual 

 tree man was summoned. According to accepted methods 

 he placed a heavy iron chain around the body of the tree. 

 This answered, to all appearances, for a few years, but the 

 time was not far distant when the powerful laws of nature 

 asserted themselves, and the great and wonderful growth, 

 since it could not burst its iron fetters, was retarded, and 

 the entire trunk became diseased. So strong are nature's 

 laws that sometimes their power even bursts such chains and 



bands. The chain in this in- 

 stance was removed just in 

 time to preserve the life of 

 the tree. The tree doctor 

 made use of the lag-hook, 

 driving it gently at triangles 

 into the upper branches to 

 stay them against the wind. 

 Below, in the body of the 

 tree, where the main split 

 occurred, the decayed wood 

 was removed, an iron brace 

 the exact size and shape of 

 the cavity inserted, and the 

 cavity itself filled with Port- 

 land cement. A drain pipe 

 inserted in the tree both be- 

 low and above the filling not 

 only served to carry off all 

 moisture but to hold the 

 tree firm during its process 

 of healing. The bark event- 

 ually heals over the cement 

 and the tree lives its cen- 

 turies. This is expert sur- 

 gery of a high order. 



Twenty-five per cent, of 

 maples and elms split, and 

 the result of splitting is de- 

 cay. It is often necessary to 

 drill out the decayed wood 

 until the tree is nothing but 

 the merest shell. Even such a cavity may be successfully 

 filled and the tree preserved for a hundred additional years. 

 If apple trees are not prospering and bearing fruit at the 

 age of two hundred years it is because of stupidity. They 

 are ignorantly pruned and their wounds left frequently un- 

 covered, exposed to the elements and destructive insects. It 

 is because of such carelessness that our markets are being 

 overstocked with such imperfect fruit. There is really little 

 excuse for such conditions when a little time given to the 

 study of trees would place one in a position to administer to 

 their needs comprehensively, and produce satisfactory results. 

 One may not take up the profession of tree surgery 

 without the possession of very broad culture in horti- 

 culture, landscaping and floriculture. The first of all 

 requisites is the love for all life. Trees must be studied 

 as individuals must be studied; considered in truth 



