REPAIRING WOUNDS BRACING WEAKNESS : Page 91

Tree "surgery" as it was first sold years ago consisted largely, and more truly, in tree "dentistry": plugging up cavities with a variety of fillers, chiefly concrete, which were supposed to arrest decay and strengthen the tree. Seldom did cavity-filling do any such thing for trees. Unless a perfect seal is achieved, decay persists more surely in a "filled" cavity than in one left open, well drained and periodically painted. Structural strength is as often lessened as it is increased by the filler's inert, non-integral bulk, against which the tree's living tissues weave and chafe. Nowadays, cavities are seldom filled except for appearance's sake; and this work, which is at once the most expensive and