Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-29
RIRCHES ARE DYING.
Tree Is Comparatively Short-Iived
Even Under Favorable Conditions.


Many Of the cut-leaf or weeping
hirches are dying. Authorities no less
than y. +. Halves professor of forestry
in the State university and State
orester; NJ. 3. Cummings. professor of
horticulture; and Edward Newton. care
taker of the Elmwood Avenue cemetery,
say so. Many Of the trees in half a
dozen different sections Of the city are
succumbng to the comparatively dry
summers of four or five years past.
Said Prof Hawes "The cut-leaf or
weeping birch is short-lived tree.
don't think on the average they live
more than forty years, as a rule. as
compared with the elm, which will live
$50 years. OF course none of these trees
here live as long under cultivation as in
their wild state. They do better on a
well-cleaned. light loamy soil than on
clay or mud. The tree is not native ,
It was introduced from Europe, | think
/ guess it's been in this country long
time, hundred years, should say
Il don't think it has the depth Of
foliage and the pretty white smooth
; bark of the white birch. 1t ism, as
hardy either. Vermont is in the opti-
mum region, as we call it, for the white
birch. You don't find any south of Hart
ford and it stops in Connecticut.
We've had four or five rather dry
summers. That is probably the chief
cause Of the trees present state, COM
bined with the short-lved nature of the
tree, There has been more precipitation
this season than in several years. The
top is the first part of the tree to show
/ a.
sible. because the tree finds it hardest
to pump the water up there. When n
tree dies at the top that way we call it
| stag headed The branches have a look
like the antlers of a stag.
Here's n tree out here (pointing out
Of his office window with the top gone.
A tree may live on for quite a while
without its top.
"a little fertilizer and fresh soil around
the bottom and cutting off the top II
is dead help some
Professor Cummings said there
were probably quite good many
around the city that We're af-
fected Zone meal broadcasted UNI
under the tree right on the grass" he
thought, lis a good remedy, two or three
quarts to a square rod, The rain will
wash it in.
| "And while you're talking about this
think 1t would be a good thing to say
something about the elms. They are
suffering from the leaf-miner, some
| times called the 'skeetonzer.' 1t works
especially on the weeping elm. I've
seen more of it this year than in half n
dozen years before. Probably it's toe
late now to spray but it may help some
to spray the trees with black leaf forty.
! That's n tobacco concocton. Use 1t al
the rate of a pint to 70 gallons of
water. Drench the trees we'll
| 1.-THE care-taker of the cemetery. Ed
ward Newton. said he had noticed that
the birches planted about forty years
ago in the cemetery had lived longer
than those set out I'm later years But
| he had also found, as the State Forester
| said, that the tree was not lonS-lived as
rule. There were trees forty years
old in the cemetery, but the weeping
birch usually lived to be only q,
Besides those on the university
grounds there are trees on Loomis
street. Buell. street and various other
thoroughfares that appear to be touched.
But n tree, according to the State
forester, may live for some time without
its top,
Some Of the trees that have actually
died have been cut open, says Mr. New
ton, and found to he as sound as ever in
side.