THE CARE OF TREES 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY 
ea| TIS book is not a sentimental effusion on the 
4| beauty and need of trees, but a compilation 
of information such as the owner of trees 
may be in search of. 
Throughout our entire continent, especially in its more 
settled parts, and most of all in its cities, there has never 
before been such widespread interest as is now manifested 
in trees and tree-planting for shade and ornament. Al- 
though this kind of tree-planting has been quite assiduously 
practised in past generations, and although as a result we 
are the heirs of stately elms and oaks and maples, the neces- 
sity of greater care for this inheritance has only of late been 
fully realized. As a consequence, the “Tree Warden” and 
“City Forester’? have become recognized institutions, and 
the statutes of several states for the protection of planted 
trees bear testimony to the popular sentiment, and to the 
conception that the care of public shade trees is a public duty. 
Although with this awakened interest there has come 
forward a large amount of information regarding the care 
of trees, in the form of bulletins and essays, these generally 
confine themselves to some particular phase of the subject; 
a collective and more comprehensive manual, so far as the 
writer knows, is still lacking. It is to supply this gap that 
I 
