MAINTENANCE

Requirements. The maintenance of trees, shrubs, and vines, sincethey are almost invariably planted where they are expected to re-main permanently, presents fewer difficulties than the care of perennialplantings, except where plants become diseased or subject to insectattack. Maintenance is confined mostly to cultivation, feeding, water-ing, pruning, and spraying.

Trees—Tree Surgery. Pruning has been discussed in ChapterIII, but there is an analogous practice often followed by "tree doc-tors," namely, the scraping of bark from trees, which should betouched on here. The main object and accomplishment of treescraping seems to be the providing of work for "tree doctors" duringdull seasons. The ultimate consequences to the tree are seldombeneficial, and often fatal. Instances have occurred where handsomeshade trees were scraped down to the cambium by ignorant "doctors"and promptly died. The outer bark of trees is placed by nature as aprotective covering and should not be removed, except in the case ofthose trees, such as hickory and plane tree, which naturally shed barkin large scales, and then only when these scales are harbouring insectswhich cannot be otherwise destroyed. The criticism of the so-called tree doctors is, however, not intended in the least to discreditreally expert tree surgeons nor to discourage the employing of them.Quite to the contrary, it should be noted that these men can rendermost valuable service and that often a greatly prized tree can besaved for many years and its growth greatly improved by having itwisely cared for. The supporting of branches where a crotch mightcause a splitting of large limbs is too often neglected. The removing ofbroken branches often prevents decay from entering into the heart ofthe tree. The taking out of crossing limbs often makes possible asymmetry of development that otherwise would never be realized.