Evening star., 1932-08-27

Garden pests, as every one knows,
are not always eight-legged.
Some of them have two legs.
One specimen is called the Tree
Pruner, or, more specifically, the Tree
Topper. ,
book. Common Garden Pests, What
They Are and How to Control Them, "
Profs. C. T. Gregory and j. j. Davis OF
the Purdue University agricultural ex-
pertinent station declare:
"Perhaps one of the most serious
causes of trouble in city trees is the
so-called tree pruner, the man who
knows little about the true principles
of pruning, but who slashes of branches
promiscuously.
There is also the curious and futile
practice of topping trees. Just what Is
accomplished in cutting of the large
branches of the trees and causing large
numbers of secondary growths?
Certainly it does not add beauty to
the tree. OF course. one certain re-
suit is the ultimate rotting and death
Of the tree.
IF this is the aim, topping is a
sure way to accomplish 1t. The great
open wounds that cannot and will
never heal are the best way to permit
LD6 eIlIEdllCc VI IlCdlI AOtOAlS Ah'SS-'
There seems to be no control OF the
Tree Topper except by education, and
since he is a gentleman who customarily
thinks he knows it all, that line of rea-
soning commonly fails.
So many horticultural practices come
down through the ages by word OF
mouth, repeated and repeated, CEN
tury after century, without much real
foundation in fact. that 1t is no wonder
that the topping of trees should be
amorg tl-m.
Tnc.c is. of course, here as else
wh--e a diTrcnce Of opinion. A GER
tain u icious tcppirg. practiced by a
real tree surgeon is one thing.
Promiscuous looping off of great
branches by one who actually knows
nothing at all about trees, but only
how to handle the ak and the saw, is
distinctly another
Usually it is this latter gentleman
who believes the most in the divine
benefits of topping
Doesn't he paint" the wounds? Sure
he does!
And he will point with pride to an
assembly of bare stark pole-like trunks
sticking straight up into the air.
Many an average gardener who is by
no means an expert nevertheless in
stinctively feels that such wholesale
topping has something criminal about
1t, horticulturally speaking.
Even II 1t does not lead to the heart
rotting of which the professors speak,
it seems wrong somehow to so mutilate
a tree, the grandest plant in the world.
Too many people are inclined to look
upon trees as creations apart from other
plants, whereas in reality they are much
the same as the smallest flower that
grows.
Their size and sturdiness distinguish
them. but they are growing things, too,
and need to be handled with discretion,
and some consideration, on account Of
their very bignesS.
Indeed, it is this very rugged look Of
trees, in the last analysis, which leads
so many amateurs to think that they
can do about as they please with them.
Surely no harm can come to this
gigantic fellow by merely looping off
a few branches, no matter how large
they are; they are small, in comparison
with the trunk, and can be spared.
So thinks the ambitious Tree Topper,
as he looks over his victim. He fails
to take into account the fact that
nothing will show in the tree for several
years, that a tree Is a longtime propo-
sition. even the shortest lived of them,
and that many a hurt will not be
revealed until many months later.
The amateur tree pruner also fails
to consider the immense difficulty Of
actually taking off just the proper
boughs. One would have to have a
balloon, almost, to do the preliminary
survey work properly.
les 1t is impossible to tell from the
ground, looking up through the
branches, which ones to take out and
which TO leave.