The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-07-26

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cause Of the steadily Increasing
value nf shade and orchard trees.
tho tree doctor haa taken place
With the veterinarian Is Z recog-
ni1ed practitioner.
A shade tree was once looked
upon ~ . superhuous ornament,
like q mantlepiece clock. II you
wanted m elm in the front yard,
you hitched up . horse and dug oQe
up in the nearest wood. Now. when
q house without shade is looked
upon ~ undesirable, you pay a
nurseryman for the trees on your
grounds, and employ an expert
enced laborer to plant them. There
fore, the shade tree becomes in its
owners eyes q thing Of value
which must be taken care Of. In
recent years the owner Of an ex-
ceptionaily fine oak or chestnut has
been known to offer as much as
81 900 to the person who could cure
it Of some disease.
"A XII cat AAAy vdlu0UlC IL Geo A0 2
been saved by surgery, and good
many others have been lost through
bungling treatment by novices.
There are many unskillful and fake
tree repairers travelling about look
ing for practice. The American
Forestry association advises that
the owner of An injured tree make
sure that the doctor he calls in IS
q real NJ. D. of ire, diseases.
A Quack doctor will give your
priced old oak a dose Of lime or
some other harmless-and useless
remedy. and depart with your
money, after explaining 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
injured trees is by surgery-cut-
ting out the decay or infected por-
ton and filling the hole with ce-
ment or brick. If this is properly
done-and it is a more exactine
piece of carpentry than it sounds
the bark grows over the injury, OF
at any rate, the disease does not
spread.
But thisidea of using the knife
as a remedy for all tree evils may
in. time seem as queer as to cut Of
leg or arm if human patient de-
velops rheumatism. Doctoring
trees, or tree pathology, is COM
/, paratively new study, and We still
have a lot to learn regarding the
trees anatomy. Tree surgery is
tremendously important, of course
but medicine for trees is also
matter Of experiment, with results
which, though slow, are promising
Trees Have Nerves.
Most of US are surprised by an
Indian scientists recent announce
ment that tree should be given
injections of an anaesthetic if it is
to be transplanted. Old trees. he
explains, have rarely withstood re-
moval because of the severe shock
to their nerves, but he has found
that this shock is entirely eliminat-
ed when an anaesthetic is properly
administered.
Certain fungus diseases which
penetrate too far into the heart OF
a tree to be attacked very satisfac-
torily from the outside, have proved
another possible field for the use
of chemical injections. Some sue
cessfdl 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 a
long chance to hit upon thes right
dose.
Russian scientists 20 years age
found that trees suffering from
malnutrition were improved in
vigor if injections of an iron solu-
ton were made into the bark. Ii
was also pointed out in this con-
nection that in numerous cases
where a rusty iron pipe lay in the
immediate vicinity Of tree the
iron from the pipe had been taken
up by the roots, giving unusual
! vitality to the tree.
In this country there is no great
need for giving trees tonic. There
is little, If any, valuable timber
planted in soil too poor to afford
sufficient >>nourishment. To the
Russians of the Crimean province
however, the use of iron was &C
counted a great discovery. Also Il
suggested other experiments in ths
use Of injected medicine, but thu
work was stopped by unettled con