The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-09-24
Oak Surgery.

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under date OF BERKELEY, Cal, August
Is, says:
Three surgeons are at work on the
University OF California oaks. Tnose
famous trees that almost everybody
In the world has read or heard about
are submitting to rejuvenatlng pro-
cess.
II may not be as painful as the sur
gerry practiced on human beings, but
II is doing a great deal of good, ana
the patient old oaks will come out OF
the ordeal revivified and the better
equipped to Withstand the PACING
winds.
Once in their lives oak trees-the
California kind, that is-mtist be opaf-#
ated upon. Like human beings, as
they grow older, their vitality de-
treases. Their withered limbs get
more crusty, and the dry rot takes hold
OF their trunks.
In their young days, say when they
were about two hundred years old
for the university oaks are estimated
to be over four hundred years OF age
they were strong enough to shake on
these manifestations OF age.
III the wind made a wound in the
trunk Of an oak it soon healed over
with new bark; if limb broke, 1T sent
8 new one to take its place.
But in the infirmity of old age the
palsied tree can no longer cover up
its injuries, and it stretches out its
scraggy arms to man, appealing to
him for assistance in its distress.
The most devitalizing aftliction OF
the oak is the dry rot. This usually
malifests itself at the places On the
trunk where the limbs have been
Lroken or cut off. Before the bark
has had time to shield the wound the
weather sets into it and the WoodNrots
away.
Sometimes there will be hole sew
eral feet deep where 1t is least sus-
pected. II this disease Is not corrected
it will eat it's way into the heart OF
the tree, eventually killing it.
Professor w. A. Setchell, of the
botany department of the university,
las been watching with some appre-
hension the encroachments OF the dry
rot on the trees.
Just before his departure for Europe
recently he had conference on the
subject with President Wheeler, to
whom he said that something must be
done to save the oaks, and done at
Cnce.
President Wheeler was alive to the
necessity of immediate treatment, and
gave orders, therefore, to Grounds SUI
perintendent A. L. Bolton to proceed
according to Professor Setchell'S d.
IectionS.
In carrying out the instructions, SUI
perintendent Bolton, as chief surgeon,
and the surgeons under him h
tenderly solicitous for the fathers OF
the campus.
In digging out the cavities and fill
ing them with more wholesome stuff
they have exercised the greatest care
not to hurt the tree, though there must
be inward groans when the drills
pierce too far.
Workers have proceeded by Kidding
the trees of all the dry rot, Their dis
injecting the exposed places with coal
tar and filling them with California
cement. The cement takes the place
of the natural wood and enough is put
into the cavity to bring it to the edge
Of the bark.
This leaves surface over which the
bark grows in time, thus enclosing
the cement. If the cement was filled
to the brim of the bark the bark
would be retarded in its growth and
finally the tree would die.
The treatment of the trees has dis
closed some strange things Most
curious of these is an oak in which
lie letters &c. r." were cut years ago
in the bark.
This left the wood exposed to the
weather which in time rotted deep,
though it was not apparent until the
operators began work upon it. In a
few more years the tree would have
died.
Various are the tools used by the
tree surgeons in prosecuting their la
bors, many of them not unlike those
nSaG by a surgeon. There are scoops
and spoons and drills and all sorts OF
instruments, all of them turned out
for the purpose by the college black
smith shop.
For the cavities high up from the
ground an improvised chair is EN-.