9 
trees, especially as the causes of the present trouble are to be found 
in great measure in previous mismanagement. 
Remedy and Prevention 
The truth is that our shade trees have commonly been treated 
as if, unlike any other crop we raise, they needed neither care nor 
cultivation, but once set out would take care of themselves forever. 
This is not true, as we now know, for even forest trees growing 
under native conditions; and it is peculiarly false for trees planted 
in more or less unnatural situations, and for those whose original 
surroundings have been changed materially for the worse. Here 
especially the elm must be watched and cared for; fed, watered, 
and protected; relieved from the attacks of its insect enemies, and 
surgically treated to heal the wounds they have made. The amount 
of attention it will require will vary, of course, with its situation, 
including the condition of other trees on adjacent premises. In¬ 
deed, no really satisfactory program of protection and maintenance 
can be worked out except by cooperation of all concerned. A single 
badly infested tree, kept because of the indifference of its owner, 
may be a constant menace to all the other elms in its neighborhood, 
however intelligently they may be cared for. 
The main effort must be at first to supply to endangered trees, 
and especially to those beginning to fail, the water and plant food, 
a lack of which is the most serious feature of their situation. Well- 
rotted stable manure spread generously around the tree as far as 
its roots extend, with an occasional free watering of the soil during 
periods of severe drouth, will meet these requirements. If the 
manure can be left during dry periods as a mulch, the chances of 
the tree will be greatly improved. The watering must not be a 
mere surface sprinkling, but should soak the ground to a depth of 
several inches. 
When it is necessary to trim a tree, superfluous branches should 
be cut or sawed smoothly away at their very beginning. To cut or 
hack them off irregularly, leaving projecting stubs to dry up and 
decay, is simply to invite the attacks of borers by offering them a 
favorable place of deposit for their eggs. For the same reason 
dead, dying, or badly injured limbs should be promptly cut out and 
burned. 
This is as good a place as any to enter an emphatic protest 
against the practice of topping or pollarding trees like the elm, not 
only because their natural beauty is forever destroyed by the proc¬ 
ess, but also because the tree is peculiarly exposed by it to fatal 
infestation by its most destructive insect enemies. 
