to keep out the germs and fungi. A covering of sheet iron or tin may keep out the rain, but it will not exclude the germs of decay; in fact, it may provide the very moist conditions that such germs need for their growth. Deep holes in trees should be treated by having all the decayed parts removed down to the clean wood, the surfaces painted or otherwise sterilized, and the hole filled with wax or cement.
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Fig. 66.—A Knot Hole, and the beginning of a hollow trunk.
Stems and roots are living, and they should not be wounded or mutilated unnecessarily. Horses should never be hitched to trees. Supervision should be exercised over persons who run telephone, telegraph, and electric light wires, to see that they do not mutilate trees. Electric light wires and trolley wires, when carelessly strung or improperly insulated, may kill trees (Fig. 67).
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Fig. 67.—Elm Tree killed by a Direct Current from an Electric Railroad System.
Suggestions.—Forms of stems.
43. Are the trunks of trees ever perfectly
cylindrical? If not, what may
cause the irregularities? Do trunks often
grow more on one side than the other?
44. Slit a rapidly growing limb, in spring,
with a knife blade, and watch the result
during the season. 45. Consult the
woodpile, and observe the variations in
thickness of the annual rings, and especially
of the same ring at different places
in the circumference. Cross-sections of
