104 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



August, 1906 



as human beings, the tree doctor feeling impelled as any 

 physician to relieve the suffering of his patients. The work 

 must begin with the study of soil. Long years of farming 

 will teach this as nothing else can. If the disease and decay 



Dyi 



ng ol 



Thirst 



of a tree can not be traced to conditions of soil, the next 

 thing to be determined would be if the patient had plenty of 

 water. Trees must be supplied with an abundance of mois- 

 ture or they grow into deformities and die unnatural deaths. 

 Where the trail of the tree butcher is found it is not so dif- 

 ficult to determine causes, and for these there is but one help, 

 intelligent care of our trees. 



Trees all over the country that have received the care of 

 this scientific tree surgery attest the enormity of the work 

 and the fact that the American people are no longer sluggish, 

 but have awakened to the necessity of the great need for 

 reforestation. 



No people on this earth are blessed with such a wonderful 

 territory, range of climate, variety of soil and general adapta- 

 tion to fruit growing as those of North America. Still we 

 are confronted with the appalling fact that unless something 

 is done to arrest the diseases and check the ravages of untold 

 billions of insect pests that prey upon our apple trees, inside 

 of ten years it will be next to impossible to grow even defec- 

 tive apples. For the last twenty years there has been a 

 gradual decrease in the quality of this most desirable and 

 staple fruit. Similar difficulties are being encountered in 

 attempts to grow the peach, pear, and other fruit, and shade 



Portland Cement is at Once a Preserving and Antiseptic 

 Composition 



A Shell Filled with Cement to Preserve Life 



trees are going to pieces. The whole country is getting 

 alarmed over the disasters that await us from the destruction 

 of our fruit crops, and at last some sections of the country 

 have been able to lay the ax at the root of the trouble. The 

 ghastly wounds of the glorious tree friends of man have 

 begun to cry aloud their sufferings in no uncertain way, and 

 the day for theis relief is at hand — nay, it has already begun. 

 Trees by the roadside and in our groves are many 

 of them defective without our knowledge. Not more than 

 ten per cent, of them are in a perfectly sound condition. 

 And more deplorable still is the fact that more frequently 

 than otherwise people are ignorant of their condition and 

 the causes thereof. America leads the world in commercial 

 enterprise, education and industry. Our forbears cried 

 aloud, as they pushed through the wilderness, west, "Trees! 

 trees! trees! nothing but trees! Cut them down — burn them, 

 anything to get rid of them." Of course it was necessary in 

 the beginning to hew down the wilderness to procure land 

 for agriculture ami timber for building, but when the 

 butchery continued in wholesale destruction through the years 

 without ceasing it is scarcely a surprise that the day has 

 arrived when we are called upon to pay the penalty of our 

 ancestors' thoughtlessness, and when I say "thoughtlessness" 



