334 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
was blasted out of solid rock. Four miles 
beyond Lookout Mountain is Genesee 
Mountain, to which place the road is now 
complete, while a road was built not only 
to the summit of Genesee, but a second 
road winding around it to the valley. 
The grade of these mountain park roads 
is a maximum of 6 per cent, most of the 
construction being 5 per cent, or six or five 
feet rise per 100 feet. To accomplish this 
the road up the mountain twists and curves 
like a serpent, with hairpin curves, verging 
on the edge of precipices and constantly 
unfolding views of surpassing splendor of 
mountains and valley and of the plains that 
stretch away to the skyline in the east. 
Safety has been considered in all road 
work, the roads dipping to the inside, while 
eventually safety walls or rails will be add- 
ed at the more dangerous places. 
The development and maintenance of the 
BETTER WORK 
Within the last decade there has been a 
great increase in demand for surgeons to 
repair decaying shade trees, but the possi- 
bilities of practicing fraud in this profes- 
sion, like the instance just cited, have 
tempted so many unreliable people to dab- 
ble in the science that tree surgery has 
fallen somewhat into disrepute. I he U. S. 
Department of Agriculture realizes that 
commercial tree surgery should occupy a 
high place in the estimation of the public, 
and has recently issued a pamphlet entitled 
“Practical Tree Surgery,” wherein sugges- 
tions are made for improvement along 
these lines. When a serious blight such 
as the chestnut bark disease infects the 
trees of a district, the community or indi- 
viduals in it will often spend considerable 
money to control ravages which may rob 
the whole district of its trees. An affection 
like the chestnut bark disease is conta- 
gious. It requires scientific knowledge of 
the disease to know' whether an affected 
tree should be destroyed at once or is 
worth treating. It requires scientific 
training to understand the manner of 
growth of the fungi causing the disease 
and what treatment is best. 
Besides the careless filling of decayed 
cavities in trees, there are other practices 
of certain so-called “tree surgeons” that 
do the trees more harm than good. Many 
of these “surgeons,” as well as the people 
who employ them, do not realize the dan- 
ger arising from fresh injuries to a tree. 
The tree owner should realize that prompt 
attendance to fresh injuries will largely do 
away with the need of tree surgery fif- 
teen or twenty years hence. The tree sur- 
geons must realize that if they make fresh 
injuries in the living bark, when treating 
decayed portions, they are laying the tree 
open to more dangers of infection that will 
result in further decay. 
Just as a person is subject to infection 
mountain parks comes from a separate 
fund, with a special levy, and approximate- 
ly $65,000 was raised in 1913, and in 1914 
approximately $100,000. 
Inspiration Park forms one of the strik- 
ing features of Denver’s parks, and is not 
duplicated anywhere else in the United 
States, and possibly nowhere else in the 
world. 
For more than three years the park 
commissioners were engaged in securing 
the land, including the special point de- 
sired and a strip of ground to connect it 
with Berkeley Park. The twenty-five acres 
thus bought in 1909 cost $8,000. In July, 
1909, actual work on Inspiration Point was 
begun and was finished in the summer of 
1910. The Point is constructed of a con- 
crete retaining wall 700 feet in length and 
from 6 to 18 feet in height. It is 200 feet 
above Clear Creek at its base, and is 228 
through cuts and scratches, trees are ren- 
dered subject to infection by having their 
living bark torn. Notwithstanding this, 
many tree surgeons use pruning hooks and 
climbing spurs and cut fresh gashes in the 
tree. To break off small dead branches 
a workman may use a long priming hook 
as though it were a club. In doing so the 
hook usually causes injury to the young- 
bark nearby. Every new wound may fur- 
nish a new point of entrance for decay, 
even though the old dead branch may have 
been removed. 
The use of climbing spurs should be 
particularly avoided on trees in vicinities 
where there is a contagious infection. 
They should simply render the treated tree 
all the more liable to catch the disease 
which is “in the air.” 
All properly equipped firms of commer- 
cial surgeons should have ladders that 
would reach forty or more feet into a tree. 
Ladders, ropes and rubber-soled shoes will 
allow a man to reach practically every 
part. Reliable estimates indicate that it 
takes somewhat longer (perhaps 25 per 
cent on an average) to do work on a tree 
when these are used instead of clintbing 
spurs, and this is one reason why many 
firms who value remuneration more than 
reputation use the spurs. 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture is 
suggesting a plan that may help put com- 
mercial tree surgery on a better basis. 
Owners are urged to have a definite writ- 
ten contract with the tree surgeons they 
employ, and the following is suggested as 
a model for such contract : 
(1) No climbing spurs shall be used on 
any part of a tree. 
(2) The shoes worn by the workmen 
shall have soft rubber bottoms. 
(3) Ordinary commercial orange shel- 
lac shall be applied to cover the cut edges 
of sapwood and carribium (which is the 
feet above the Civic Center, which is a 
mile above sea level. On the Point is a 
70-foot roadway and a parking for auto- 
mobiles and vehicles. 
From Inspiration Point is obtained one 
of the grandest mountain views in the 
country. The eye sweeps the Rockies from 
the Spanish Peaks, below Trinidad, to the 
Rockies in Wyoming, a distance of more 
than 200 miles. More than twenty peaks 
are visible, including Pike’s, Gray’s, Long’s 
and others known the world over, with 
hundreds of smaller mountains, some clad 
in everlasting snow, some rearing their 
bald heads far above timberline, and others 
clothed in timber and verdure. Between 
the Point and the mountains lies the won- 
derful Clear Creek Valley, with its orch- 
ards and gardens and farms, and its sub- 
urban homes, forming one of the most at- 
tractive pastoral scenes in the West. Back 
of the Point is the city and Berkeley Park. 
soft formative tissue from which the new 
wood and bark originate) within five min- 
utes after the final trimming cut is made. 
(4) All cut or shellacked surfaces shall 
be painted with commercial creosote, fol- 
followed by thick coal tar. 
(5) All diseased, rotten, discolored, 
water-soaked or insect-eaten wood shall be 
removed in cavity work and the cavity in- 
spected by the owner or his agent before 
it is filled. 
(6) Only a good grade of Portland 
cement and clean, sharp sand in no weaker 
mixture than one to three shall be used to 
fill cavities. 
(7) The contractor shall repair free of 
expense any defects that may appear in the 
work within one year. 
If the owner prefers to have a cavity 
filled with asphalt or other material in- 
stead of cement, the contract can be al- 
tered accordingly. If it is desirable to 
substitute some other preparation for shel- 
lac, this can be done. ” Similarly, under 
certain conditions, various other modifica- 
tions may be made, although alterations in 
Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 7 should be made with 
caution. It may so happen that if all in- 
sect-eaten wood is removed, the tree may 
be dangerously weakened ; under such con- 
ditions the diseased matter can be removed 
to solid wood and the cavity fumigated. 
The department realizes that this science 
is comparatively new and that methods in 
the near future may be developed that will 
prove far superior to some now in com- 
mon use. It therefore invites correspond- 
ence either from individuals or firms con- 
cerning new methods of treatment and is 
prepared to advise regarding any particular 
method so far as experimental results will 
permit. The co-operation of all who are 
interested is necessary for this work. All 
interested are urged to write for the new 
bulletin. 
IN PRACTICAL TREE SURGERY 
