Quack Medicines 123 
react to such treatment. Especially when the foliage of an 
old tree has become generally slim, caution is indicated in 
pruning. 
On the other hand, improvement of soil conditions as 
regards water-supply will invariably show good results, 
and when by this means the old trunk has been brought to 
more vigor, the time for the knife has come. 
Even quite dilapidated ruins, hollow to the core, have 
been resuscitated and given a new lease of life, by building 
up with brick and cement the stability of the tree, and by 
applying the measures of invigoration described in detail. 
Often it would not be worth while to preserve the disfig- 
ured ruin, if its beauty is already gone, but where special 
value is placed on securing an old landmark, a historical 
monument, or a stately veteran, much can be done by the 
simple process of soil improvement and pruning. 
Quack Medicines. All kinds of prescriptions which are 
not based on an intelligent knowledge and appreciation of 
the life processes of the plant we may call quack medicines. 
Such are the indiscriminate scraping of the bark, painting 
it with lime without definite reasons, applications of fluids 
to the soil without knowledge of their value or diagnosis 
of their needfulness, boring holes into the tree and placing 
various powders or concoctions into them. This last pro- 
cedure practised by the quacks may be harmless or harmful, 
according to what may be placed in the hole, but is mostly 
harmless. While it may not be impossible to drug a tree 
by such means, securing transfusion through the body, 
this field of medicine is so far undeveloped, and the pre- 
scriptions of the quacks have not proved themselves effec- 
tive. 
