Sunstruck Trees

During the late extraordinary warm spell the writer of this paragraph was ca lied upon to see a large silgar maple tree that was supposed to have been destroyed by a leak of the city gas main at the root, but an examination showed that the tree died, literally, from sunstroke. It is strange that close observers of trees are unable to see when anything is out of the common run ot things, and consequently note that something is going wrong. This sugar maple had been planted on the street probably a quarter of a century ago, and was about four feet in circumference, but the trunk was almost triangular, and yet this peculiarity seemed to attract no attention. The tree was slmply triangular because on three sides of the tree the bark and wood hail evidently been destroyed years' ago, while the outer bark still continued to cover up the injury, and the only live wood was on the angles of the trunk. Only about one-third of the trunk was practically alive. When the exceedlngly warm spell came lt was impossible for these limited ducts to supply the moisture required for such a large surface of foliage, and the tree, therefore, literally died from inability to furnish the moisture required for transpiration. It may always be taken for granted that when the trunk of a tree, naturally cylindrical, takes an angular form there is something wrong beneath the bark, and an examination should at once be made. The natter portions v,-ill usually be found dead. In this case the bark should be wholly cut away from the dead portion and the denuded part painted, in order to check rotting away. In time the healthy wood may grow over the wound or lifeless part, and the life of the tree be eventually saved. .Li