The Making of a Tree Surgeon 
IX Tree Surgery there is no half good 
mechanically perfect and scientifically accurate, 
or else it is a delusion and a snare. Can you 
imagine a half-good filling in your tooth? As the 
boy said, "There ain't no such thing." 
A few years ago not much was known of Tree Sur- 
gery or its requirements, and it was commonly sup- 
posed that "most anyone can fix a tree." And most 
anyone did fix them, with the result that tens of thou- 
sands of fine trees have become the victims of mal- 
practice and stand today (those that were not ruined 
or killed) as tragic examples of a great wrong. 
The tree business looked like a get-rich-quick op- 
portunity, and within a few years there developed a 
motley crowd — yes a veritable grotesque army of 
"Tree Doctors." "Tree Experts," and "Tree Cure- 
Everj'things." 
Unfortunately it takes only about a dollar and a half 
and plenty of nerve to start in the tree business. But 
it takes a vast amount more than that to make good. 
So it happens that many, many men, who were out of 
a job or who wanted some easy money, started to fix 
trees, without the slightest preparation or with only 
a dangerously small idea of the work and its require- 
ments. The only logical result of such gross ineffi- 
ciency and mercenary plundering was a multitude of 
failures. 
For this reason there are some good people who, 
even to this day, honestly think there is no good Tree 
Surgerv. They have not learned the dift'erence be- 
tween the good and the bad. Nor have they discov- 
ered whv some Tree Surgery is inherently good, while 
other tree work must inevitably be bad. 
There is good and there is bad, and the dift'erence is 
as great and as fvmdamental as the dift'erence between 
day and night. 
Let us reason this thing out and see what consti- 
tutes a real Tree Surgeon and then it will be clear 
what causes this wide gap between good and bad Tree 
Surgery. 
He must not be a rough-neck nor a ne'er-do-well 
nor a high-l:)row nor a conscienceless pretender. He 
must be a clean, manly fellow — not an angel, but a 
wholesome man. He must be intelligent and honest 
and sincere. He must have a natural love of the work. 
He must have some mechanical instinct and the ability 
and willingness to learn. But above all there must be 
in him an undying determination to do things well. 
So far, so good. But he must be thoroughly trained 
in the sciences and mechanics of the art. He must de- 
velop an almost intuitive skill and mature judgment. 
Where can he secure this training? There are any 
number of splendid schools where one may learn 
Botanv and Entomology and Pathology and all kin- 
dred subjects. 
Ikit where shall he learn Tree Surgery, the new 
science? 
There is Ud Agricultural school in the world that 
teaches real Tree Surgery. We have employed gradu- 
ates of most of them, and from a practical standjjoint 
these men are little better than ordinary acceptable 
beginners. They are as helpless as babes in the face of 
the everydav Tree Surgery problems. They make good 
men in time, as a rule, but they require the same train- 
ing as any other naturally capable fellows. 
By M. L. Davey,* Ohio. 
It must be There is no Forestry school in the world that teaches 
•Gener.il Mannger of The Davcj' Tree Expert Co. 
Tree Surgery. I have the highest respect for the pro- 
fession of Forestry, but this does not change the facts. 
-V forester is trained to deal with trees in the mass, 
primarily for lumber supply. The two subjects are as 
dift'erent as Medicine and Dentistry. Would you ex- 
pect a Physician to treat your teeth or trust the Den- 
tist to treat your body ? 
,W'e looked in vain for a school of any kind, any- 
where, that could train real Tree Surgeons. There 
were none — none — so as a matter of absolute necessity 
we started one of our own. 
We as a private concern, without help from any out- 
side source, have carried the load. There have been 
times when it has taken all the courage and all the 
faith that we could summon to pay the price and keep 
it going. For, dear reader, the pathway has not al- 
ways been rosy, and faith many times had to supply 
the incenti\fe for the required sacrifices. 
It is necessary that the Tree Surgeon be scientifical- 
ly trained. He must learn to know a tree as a living 
thing. He must know its enemies and how to control 
them. He must know the things which contribute to 
its well-being. 
That is a good start. However, he inust know very, 
very much more, and much of it he can not learn from 
books. He must be guided skilfully day by day for 
many weary months until the art of it is trained into 
his very being. Just as the painter or the violinist 
becomes an artist under the patient and skilful hand 
of the master who trains him, so is the Tree Surgeon 
made. 
For, be it known, not all men have it in them to l)e- 
come successful Tree Stirgeons. Possibly one in fifty 
or not more than one in twenty-five has that peculiar 
combination of qualities that are absolutely required, 
for the responsibility of directing the work. There 
are many men who do excellent work under the su])er- 
vision of a really good man, btit who fail under the stress 
of responsibility. 
Proper training presupposes skilful and devoted in- 
structors. Ah ! there is the big problem. How long 
do you suppose it would take the most competent 
blacksmith to train a good dentist or a dentist to train 
a good blacksmith ? 
It has taken a long, long time to develop competent 
instructors, but gradually, very gradualh", it has been 
possible to build up a superior force that measures up 
to the requirements and the responsibilit}-. 
Proper training also presupposes proper methods. 
No one could become a capable automobile driver if his 
instructor taught him to put sand in the liearings and 
water in the gasoline tank. So correct methods are 
also necessarA', vitally necessary, in Tree Surgery as in 
everything else that is worth while. 
John Davey worked out the basic principles of the 
new science of Tree Surgery. He was working on it 
patiently and with dogged persistence when I was a 
barefoot boy in knee breeches. And John Davey paid 
the full price of privation and soul-3'earning for his 
contribution to humanity. Only now when he is near 
seventy-one has he come to see the real beginning of 
the fruits of his faith and his laborious creative genius. 
However, the science of Tree Surgery has gone 
forward by remarkable strides because of another 
great fact. The annual gathering of all the responsible 
303 
