PARK AND CEMETERY. 
139 
I have offered as evidence, in support of the methods 
here recommended for street tree planting, those trees 
surrounding the small parks named, and, in support of 
the enlarged method of pruning several thousand trees 
and many of the largest, are to-day in evidence in our 
beautiful Fairmount Park. I could there point out to 
you numerous amputations, some of which extended 
over twelve inches in diameter, that are now nearly 
covered with new bark, and thousands of others that are 
entirely covered, and but for my association with the 
trees themselves even I could not locate the parts 
pruned. After pruning all wounds from one inch and 
upward in diameter should receive a coat of paint, 
which will prevent the decay of the heart wood, and 
the kind used in my many years of praciice is boiled 
linseed oil colored with lamp black. Why I prefer this 
and not coal tar put on hot, as some recommend, is be- 
cause linseed oil is a vegetable production and therefore 
analogous to the tree, while coal tar is a mineral pro- 
duction and contains carbolic acid, which is injurious 
to plant life. It is optional whether lamp black is used 
or not, the only recommendation it has is that it turns 
to an invisible green color in a short time and thus 
hides the bareness of the amputation, and without which 
the wound in a large tree would be very conspicuous. 
Among the many drawbacks incident to the life of a 
city tree is the contraction of its outer bark. The roots 
may take hold of the soil, which we can tell by external 
evidence in the growth and vigor of the branches, but 
sometimes a check occurs and the tree stands still. 
This, I find, is caused by being bark-bound, or, as we 
would say in reference to an animal, hide bound. The 
reason that I ascribe for this is that vegetation in the 
city, especially in the more crowded parts, does not 
receive the full benefit of the nightly dew. The dew 
falls over the city as well as the country, but the smoke, 
heat and gaseous vapors arising from the city either 
absorb the dew or impregnate it to such an extent that 
it 1 OSes its life-giving properties and destroys its 
efficiency. Now, to remedy this bark contraction, I 
find scoring gives relief to the tree. This is performed 
by drawing the point of a sharp knife down the stem to 
the ground, leaving a furrow from top to bottom. The 
salutary effect of this scoring process will be discernible 
in a very short time by the renewed energy of the buds 
and twigs or infant branches of the tree. Having guarded 
the tree from all injurious attacks of all of its enemies 
here enumerated, there remains yet another to combat, 
namely, the caterpillar, the second army of which is now 
so strongly in evidence throughout parts of our city. 
Doubtless all here present remember the disastrous 
state of affairs in the matter of tree life that existed in 
our city four or five years ago, caused by the ravages of 
the tussock moth and its numerous progeny, the hairy 
caterpillar. To say nothing of the trees on the streets 
and in private grounds, our small parks and squares 
were not only denuded of the foliage and rendered 
shadeless, but were practically deserted by pedestrians 
and the rest seeking public, for in sitting on the benches 
or even passing through, the pest dropped down from 
the trees in such numbers that many persons carried 
;;mbrellas to shield themselves from the rain, literally 
speaking, of caterpillars. And this occurring as early 
as the beginning of July, the thousands of citizens 
whose scant means or daily avocation prevented them 
from leaving the city during the heated term, were 
deprived of the life resuscitating advantages and health 
giving properties our public squares and small parks 
afforded them prior to the advent of the caterpillar, and 
which they now enjoy through the untiring energies of 
the bureau of city properly. A tour of our small parks 
and squares will reveal the fact that less than i per cent 
of the thousands of trees owned and controlled by the 
city are leafless, and further, if the tour is made late in 
the evening, it would convey an idea of the apprecia- 
tion shown by hundreds of thousands of our citizens 
and their families, of the provisions made by councils, 
and the carrying into effect of the same by the depart- 
ment, for the health, comfort and pleasure of our people 
at large. But to produce this has not been an easy 
matter. Time, thought and money have been expended, 
and the warfare must go on to preserve this state of 
affairs; and further, it is imperative that private tree- 
owners co-operate with the department by judiciously 
caring for their own trees, if they do not the pest 
remains, and year after year we will be subjected to its 
ravages. The destruction of the trees our fathers and 
grandfathers planted for us, to say nothing of those 
we have planted ourselves, goes on and the city is put 
to an unnecessary expense year after year. 
I am gratified to state that many of our citizens 
have awakened to this fact, and frequently my office is 
visited by numbers desiring information on this all- 
important subject, and which is at all times cheer- 
fully given. Time will not permit me to enlarge on this 
question of extermination, and sufficient to say that the 
means used by the department are three (3) and are as 
follows; Remove and crush or burn the cocoons when- 
ever and wherever found, spraying with paris green in 
weak solution at the rate of one pound of paris green 
to four hundred gallons of water, or if necessity requires 
the strength is doubled. This, however, is the excep- 
tion and not the rule. It is not the quantity of paris 
green used that renders it efficient, so much as the 
agitation and distribution of it. These are extermin- 
ators, while the third means is a preventative. The 
trees are girdled about six feet from the ground, with a 
device known as “Filler Catter, which consists of a 
cotton bandage to which an adhesive paste is attached. 
This prevents the caterpiller from ascending the tree 
and places it in a convenient position to be crushed. 
Now, while each individual tree owner cannot command 
the use of a steam sprayer, that cannot be used as an 
argument why his tree or trees are not protected from 
the caterpillar, for he can produce equal effects in a 
small way with an ordinary greenhouse syringe, as with 
a steam spraying machine, especially so if the number 
of his trees is limited to one or two, and those on his 
sidewalks, which are easy of access. With the aid of 
a tall stepladder, a syringe and a bucket of solution, a 
great number of the trees on our streets can be pro- 
tected and preserved, and at a nominal cost. 
