HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 1910 
the wound, but 
will also expose 
the inner wood to 
the action of de¬ 
cay. The wound 
may at first appear 
insignificant, but if 
neglected it will 
soon commence to 
decay and carry 
disease and insects 
into the tree. The 
tree then becomes 
hollow and dan¬ 
gerous and its life 
is doomed. It re¬ 
quires a large ex¬ 
penditure to care 
for a diseased con- 
Protect very young trees with a cylindrical 
guard of one-sixteenth-inch mesh wire¬ 
netting, fastened to a tall stake 
dition that could have been easily and 
cheaply prevented by a suitable guard or 
by a little dressing applied to the wound 
before the latter had developed too far. 
The most serviceable guard is made 
of ordinary wire netting, cut to a height 
of at least seven feet and passed around 
the tree. In case of a very young tree, 
the wire may be nailed to a stake placed 
alongside of the tree as a support; and 
with larger trees, the two perpendicular 
ends of the wire are fastened together 
and the guard allowed to stand on the 
ground loosely around the stem. Wire 
netting of one-sixteenth-inch mesh is 
preferable for young trees and that of 
one-half-inch for older specimens. Wire guards around young 
trees, the bark of which is always more or less tender, should 
have a piece of rubber hose, or some other soft material, line the 
interior of their upper edges, in order to prevent chafing of the 
bark. 
There is a great variety of more elaborate and expensive iron 
tree guards on the market, all differing in style and usefulness. 
Some of these may look better than the wire guard but none are 
more efficient. If any of them, however, are used, it should be 
seen that they are sufficiently tall to prevent horses from reach¬ 
ing over them, and that the bars composing the guard are suffi¬ 
ciently close to each other to prevent easy access to the bark. 
As the tree grows in diameter, the guard must also be loos¬ 
ened proportionately or else it will become so binding that it 
will sever the very tissue which it is supposed to protect. The 
wire guard is better adapted to such changes in diameter than 
the more expensive iron guard. 
In spite of our many efforts to protect the bark of trees, 
bruises sometimes will occur, and in all such cases the wound 
must receive immediate and careful attention. The bruised bark 
should be removed; it will never adhere to the tree again. The 
rough edges should be cut smooth and the exposed wood cov¬ 
ered with coal tar. The coal tar has a sort of antiseptic as well 
as protective influence. It becomes absorbed into the wood tis¬ 
sue of the tree to a depth of an eighth to a quarter of an inch 
and destroys every fungus spore or disease germ with which it 
comes in contact. Tar is preferable to paint for wound dress¬ 
ing, not only because of its absorbent and antiseptic qualities, 
but also because it lasts longer and never peels in later years 
as does the paint. 
The usual method of bandaging wounds with burlap or cloth 
is very hurtful to the tree, because underneath the bandage the 
fungus spores will find the ideal conditions for their develop-' 
inent. There the disease germs will find darkness, moisture and 
warmth, all of which are wanted for their rapid growth and so, 
wherever I have seen a bandage applied to a tree wound, I have 
invariably found disease breeding on the wood underneath. To 
discard all bandages, to treat the wound 
and expose it freely to sun and wind 
should be the method of caring for all 
abrasions of the bark. 
When you consider the matter, does 
it not seem as if we had gotten into 
the habit of expecting a very great deal 
from those trees that we plant along our 
suburban and city streets? They have a 
long, hard struggle for existence, at the 
best. We plant them at the edge of 
the sidewalk, close by a deep-set curb¬ 
stone, with the brick or cement of the 
paving brought almost as close to the 
trunk as it possibly can come. Perhaps, 
in addition, the street surface is paved 
A wound, now become dangerous, that could 
easily have been cured at once by a dress¬ 
ing of coal tar; the latter is better than 
paint for the purpose 
with a material 
that is impervious 
to water. Little 
chance, indeed, 
does the root-mass 
have of getting a 
fair supply of wa¬ 
ter—as essential to 
the tree’s life as it 
is to our own. Left 
to draw its food 
from hard-packed 
clay, deprived of 
even the natural 
rainfall by surface 
drainage, nibbled 
by horses, how do 
any survive? 
Even after the tree has attained a fair size 
it should be protected in this manner from 
nibbling horses, but do not let the guard 
become too tight 
