Arizona republican., 1920-07-26
Medicine For Trees
Rx Erederic I Haskin

WASHINGTON. D. C., July 23-Be- cause of the steadily increasing value of shade and orchard trees, the tree doctor has taken place with the vet erinarian as a recognized practitioner. A shade tree was once looked upon as a superfluous ornament, like a mantlepiece clock. If you wanted an elm in the front yard. you hitched up a horse and dug one up in the nearest wood. Now. when q house without shade is looked upon as undesirable, you pay a nurseryman for the trees on your grounds, and employ an exper- fenced laborer to plant them. There fore, the shade tree becomes in its owners eyes a thing of value which must be taken care of. In recent years the owner of an exceptionally fine oak or chestnut has been known to offer as much as $1.00o to the person who could cure it of some disease.
 A great many valuable trees have been saved by surgery, and a good many others have been lost through are many unskilful and fake tree re- pairers travelling about looking for practice. The American Forestry nsso- citation advises that the owner of an injured tree make sure that the doc tor he calls in is a real M D. of tree diseases.
 A quack doctor will give your prized oak a dose of lime or some other harmless-and useless-remedy, and depart with your money. after explain | ing to you in nice. long, technical terms what he and his secret method have done to save your dying tree. The accepted method of treating in jured trees is by surgery-cutting out the decay or infected portion and fill 1 ing the hole with cement or brick. l If this is properly done-and 1t is a more exacting piece of carpentry than | it sounds-the bark grows over the in- jury. or at any rate. the disease does not spread.
 1 But this idea of using the knife as a remedy for all tree evils may in time seem as queer as to cut off a leg or arm if a human patient develops rheu- ! matism. Doctoring trees, or tree path ology, is a comparatively new study, and we stin have lot to learn regard ing the trees anatomy. Tree surgery is tremendously important. of course, but medicine for trees is also mat ter of experiment, with results which, though slow are promising
 Trees Have Nerves
 Most of us are surprised by an In- dian scientists recent announcement | that tree should be given Injections of an anesthetic if it is to be trans planted. Old trees, he explains, have l rarely withstood removal because of l the severe shock to their nerves, but he
 
 eliminated when an anesthetic is prop l erly administered.
 Certain fungus diseases which pene- trate too far into the heart of a tree to be attacked very satisfactorily from the outside, have proved another pos sible field for the use of chemical in jections- Some successful experiments have been made along this line. The trouble is that there are so many kinds of trees, so many diseases, and SC many possible remedies that it is Q long chance to hit upon the right dose Russian scientists twenty years age found that trees suffering from mal- nutritiom were improved in vieor if in jections of an iron solution were made into the bark. It was also pointed out in this connection that in numer- ous cases where q rusty iron pipe lay in the immediate vicinity of a tree tht iron from the pipe had been taken UT by the roots, giving unusual vitality tC the tree.
 In this country there is no great need for giving trees tonic, There it little if any. valuable timber planted in soi too poor to afford sufficient nourish- ment. To the Russians of the CrimeaT province. however. the use of iron was accounted great discovery Also il suggested other experiments in the ust of injected medicines, but the work was stopped by unsettled conditions ana the world war, ana II IS unuer- stood that it has not been resumed.
 In Germany. before the war. medi- cine for grape vines and fruit tree: was a subject of extensive study. The German farmer has long been taught to know the value of every piece oi timber on his land. so that he vel comed the new method of attacking disease. The German experiments, like the Russian, were interrupted by the war, so that just now the only country that is known to be working especially on tree injections is England.
 United States agriculturists were several years ago greatly interested in the possibilities of tree injections because they were proposed remedy for the terrible chestnut blight which has destroyed millions of oul valuable trees.
 Injections for Trees
 pr. Caroline Rumbold. pathologis connected with the department of agri- culture, is the only scientist in thi: country who has studied the effect ,o different chemicals when injected into the tree system. The work, she says Twas baffling and very slow. In the