78 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
We have found that decay in the majority 
of cases starts from wounds somewhere in 
the crown of the tree and not as often 
supposed at the ground line. 
Huge cavities at the base of the trees 
have been caused in the above manner, the 
tissues gradually rotting downward and 
which germinated with the result as shown. 
The disease had even extended to the large 
conducting roots, the dead portions of these 
were likewise removed. In fact so much 
dead wood was removed from the base as 
to render a secure foundation for the fill- 
ing material impossible. An excavation was 
tern of reinforcement. The last illustra- 
tion shows the completed work. 
The filling of large cavities while essen- 
tial is but incidental to the more impor- 
tant operations of pruning, of eliminating 
dead branches and tissue, and of properly 
treating and thus giving the wounds a 
DAMAGE TO TREES BY ICE STORM, QUEEN VICTORIA NIAGARA FALDS PARK. 
even extending to the roots. The dead 
wood is removed from these cavities, and 
their surfaces sprayed with a fungicide, a 
weak solution of carbolic acid. The cavity 
is then filled with a mixture of three parts 
cement and one of clean, sharp sand.. In 
the larger cavities the mass is reinforced as 
illustrated. When the cavity is long, ex- 
pansion joints are placed about fifteen 
inches apart. Particularly in the filling of 
cavities in limbs where considerable sway- 
ing and twisting occurs have we found 
the expansion joint necessary, as without it 
the concrete is slowly but surely pulverized 
by the grinding action. 
The above is a correct description of the 
work as practiced on the trees. 
To neglect a wounded tree is to court 
gradual, but none the less certain, destruc- 
tion. One of the trees illustrated was 
found to be diseased at the ground line. 
The origin of the disease was a wound in 
a branch thirty feet from the ground. The 
wound proper was insignificant, being only 
two inches in diameter. Moisture convey- 
ing fungus spores penetrated at this point 
and passing downward deposited the spores 
made, the remaining roots after being 
treated were bridged with cement and a 
foundation of this material made to retain 
the large mass which later was filled into 
the cavity. This concrete foundation is 
visible in the first picture and also the sys- 
Ever since the author of “Hamlet” put 
the grave digger into literature there has 
been an impression in literary circles that 
there is something more or less humorous, 
philosophic, or romantic about the grave 
digger. 
Consequently, when the grave diggers in 
one of the Philadelphia cemeteries recently 
went on strike, the more or less humorous 
reporter of the Ledger was sent out to in- 
terview, and produced the following philos- 
ophy or lamentation of the grave digger : 
Grave digging is healthful. It makes tine muscles. 
Rut it isn’t very exciting or profitable. That is 
why the grave-digg;‘ng force in a large cemetery 
has walked out, and another is about to. Tli© 
grave diggers want it known that they are not 
striking for the excitement, but for the money. 
“Those graves are hard to dig,” said one of the 
men in the Fernwo<^id Cemetery today. The Fern- 
wood force is all ready to strike if the Holy Cross 
chance to heal. This work is really that 
of prevention, and where consistently prac- 
ticed will prevent decay and so preclude 
the expense of time and of material to re- 
pair cavities, which otherwise are sure to 
appear. 
diggers are siiccessfal in the strike they have 
carried on since Monday. It may be said, in pass- 
ing, that if the Holy Cross diggers do not get 
their raises, they have at least got the “goat” of 
every undertaker in the city for the manner in 
which they are spoiling funerals. Funeral after 
funeral has driven into Holy Cross Cemetery to 
be halted by the absence of the grave diggers, 
who swear they'll get a raise if they have to 
strike for a year. 
“We have to dig in all kinds of weather,” con- 
tinued the Fernwood digger, Frank Pumley, who 
is married and has thi*ee children, including a 
daughter, 19 years old. “We dig in water up to 
our knees, and under a sun that drives the ther- 
mometers to 120. Below zero weather is also fre- 
quent. 
“A grave digger digs two graves a day. He has 
a helper, and in the morning after the grave is 
marked out by the superintendent, he must dig it 
in four and a half hours. Some graves are harder 
to dig than others. Some cave in, some are rocky. 
Then the size of the grave makes a difference. An 
ordinary grave is 7 feet deep, 30 inches wide and 
from '7 to S feet long. For two coffins, the grave 
is 9 feet deep, for three, we dig down 11 feet. 
THE LAMENT OF THE GRAVE DIGGER. 
