Malnutrition in Trees 
By Arthur Smith, New Jersey. 
RECENTLY upon an estate in the Berkshires, I had nection with some 
the opportunity of examining some White 
Pines of 12 to 18 inches caliper upon which all 
the needles had become brown at the tips and in some 
cases the green color had been entirely lost. Although, 
as the owner stated, this browning of the needles had 
come about in practically a sudden manner, it was 
quite apparent from the fact that the needles of this 
and of the previous year's growth were little more 
than half the length of those upon unaffected trees 
close by, that the cause had been working for some 
time, probably several years. 
No trace of any disease could be found above 
ground and the condition of the needles, together 
with past experience with smaller pines of the same 
species showing similar effects but in a minor degree, 
that is, the actual browning stage had not been 
reached, led me to the conclusion that the cause was 
malnutritii in. 
The trees in question are probably forty or fifty 
years old and are part of the natural forest upon which 
a cleaning up and clearing out process had taken place 
about twelve years ago when the estate was 'created, 
which "left the trees "growing under conditions quite 
different from those in which they had passed the 
previous portion of their lives. 
' The most natural conditions for tree growth are 
•found in the virgin forest. A soil continuously shaded, 
practically free from grass and weeds, covered with a 
mulch of decaying foliage and of. humus, which pre- 
vent evaporation and keep the soil granular, easily 
penetrable to water and air, and well supplied with 
h " k1 materials. _::..;" 
Street trees and lawn trees are not growing under 
natural conditions. In the case of those upon lawns, 
arge Hemlocks that had been 
growing under natural conditions for seventy or 
eighty years. Some six years ago everything was 
cleaned under these Hemlocks, from which nature had 
pruned the branches up to a height of twenty-five feet, 
and a lawn formed under them. That this change in 
environment has been the cause of the trees affected 
by it dying back at the top and at the ends of some 
of the branches, appears to be proved by the fact that 
Hemlocks of the same size growing in the immediate 
vicinity under natural conditions are perfectly healthy. 
Sudden changes in environment affect coniferous 
trees to a greater extent than the same changes do to 
hardwoods, doubtless by reason of the above men- 
tioned fact that the former have sturdier powers of re- 
cuperation. 
To get the best growth from conifers that the con- 
ditions permit, it is very essential that their fallen 
needles may lie allowed to remain. We can supply in 
other ways the loss to hardwoods caused by the re- 
moval of their fallen leaves, but we cannot do this to 
the same extent with conifers. The layer of decom- 
posing needles appears to be the home of afrother 
plant growth whose presence is essential to" the wel- 
fare of the tree, a relationship known as symbiosis". 
Examples of this symbiosis occur under different con- 
ditions in connection with other things, such as the 
taming of the wild Blueberry and the growth .of Al- 
falfa and other legumes. 
When for any reason, or for "no reason,; we ask "a 
tree to grow under unnatural conditions we should see 
that the" loss is as far as possible made.up-to'it in" other 
ways.' 
"Trees -deprived of the "benefit of their natural an- 
nual mulching of leaves will suffer more from the 
grass competes severely with the trees for food and effect" of drought than others and the necessity for 
water and the natural mulch of foliage is kept raked 
off, thus removing food materials and soil protection, 
and much moisture is allowed to escape. Such tree's 
are therefore more or less upon starvations rations; 
they show almost always that they are underfed and 
if any other contributing cause for unhealthy condi- 
tion, atmospheric or otherwise, is added, they readily 
succumb, especially as the trees grow older and the 
difficulties of securing their water supply increase with 
age. 
Coniferous trees are more susceptible than hard- 
woods because they have less power of recuperation. 
In the case of young conifers planted on a lawn from 
a nursery, they are branched close to the ground, and 
if the lawn mowers are kept from destroying the tips 
of the lower branches, these will continue to grow 
outward, keeping the grass from growing close to 
the tree and if the annual fall of needles is allowed to 
remain, more or less natural conditions will prevail 
and the trees will make good specimens. Hut in the 
case of trees growing under natural conditions and in 
such relationship to others that the lower branches 
have disappeared and then if man conies in and sud- 
denly clears things up, exposing the ground around, 
harm is sure to result sooner or later and the life of 
trees thus exposed is invariably shortened. The greater 
the age to which trees thus exposed have reached the 
greater will be the reverse effect. 
Sometimes the effect of this is to cause trees to be- 
come staerheaded, such as T recently observed in con- 
artificial watering is therefore "indicated. Under nat- 
ural conditions trees do not require mineral matter in 
large quantity and a large proportion of that taken 
from the" soil with -the water remains in the leaves 
after the water has transpired and is returned to the 
soil when the leaves fall. 
The application of fertilizer to any tree showing 
signs of malnutrition is always in order. Dr. Spauld- 
ing;of the Federal Forest Service, told me some years 
ago that he considered pure bone meal the best "thing 
to use for trees. Lightly breaking up the soil to at 
least the outer spread of the branches and mulching 
with good stable manure will always do good. In the 
case of conifers a mulch consisting of some surface 
soil and needles from the forest taken from under 
trees of the same species or at least the same genus 
would undoubtedly prove an excellent and lasting 
stimulant to trees showing signs of malnutrition if 
used before it is too late, although this process may 
be looked upon as robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sheep 
manure, cotton-seed meal and woodashes are all valu- 
able tree foods, the latter especially upon sandy soil 
and where the use of potash is indicated. 
Referring again to the White Pines in question, it 
is worthy of note that the affected trees are growing 
here and there about the outside of a natural forest 
and quite close to others apparently in perfect vigor 
that are living under exactly the same conditions. It 
must be remembered that some trees are from their 
birth constitutionally weaker than others and one fre- 
399 
