Yikes...Old Timey Pruning

I wonder exactly what their tool of choice was or looked like.
I'd think it was some sort of pruning saw, but I really have no clue.
 
This looks like a possibly doctored image, much like the infamous Cottingley Fairies photos. Believe it or not, image manipulation and trick photography was a popular pastime long before Photoshop was invented.

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Hell, I hardly trust someone to hold the ladder steady when I'm going up 20 feet. No way would I climb that death trap.
 
Looks to be a real snapshot (via shroud-enclosed glass plate camera?) because it would have been a newsworthy/publicity event for whoever elected to do the pruning job. In the days before gov't-mandated employer's Workers Comp Insurance premiums for tree climbers rose to 35% of payroll (1992, in Ontario) there were lots of fearless, skilled and proud-of-their-trade daredevils. Even extension ladders (and by god that's an extreme example in the photo) aren't deemed insurably safe anymore! Notice most of the boys have ropes although they probably dragged them along as they were going up.
The majestic tree pictured is unlikely to be an already-dead elm or there'd have been no one (sane nor sober) willing to 'go out on a limb' to pose for that picture.
 
Square_peg said:
You think elm? I was thinking oak. Hard to say. Big'un whatever it is.
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Agreed. Not typical for an Amer. or White elm by the way the limbs droop and twist but there aren't any oak species anywhere near that big up this way nor in my memory and I'll be darned if I know what else to educated-guess at. For sure it ain't a Cottonwood!
 
300Six said:
Looks to be a real snapshot (via shroud-enclosed glass plate camera?) because it would have been a newsworthy/publicity event for whoever elected to do the pruning job. In the days before gov't-mandated employer's Workers Comp Insurance premiums for tree climbers rose to 35% of payroll (1992, in Ontario) there were lots of fearless, skilled and proud-of-their-trade daredevils. Even extension ladders (and by god that's an extreme example in the photo) aren't deemed insurably safe anymore! Notice most of the boys have ropes although they probably dragged them along as they were going up.
The majestic tree pictured is unlikely to be an already-dead elm or there'd have been no one (sane nor sober) willing to 'go out on a limb' to pose for that picture.
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I'd believe it if it came with some provenance. As there's none here provided I remain extremely skeptical.
 
I think it's a real photo.

Bert, we have an oak about that size on the UW campus. Planted in approx. 1885. I paced it off one time at 150' wide tip to tip.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Looks like it's authentic. However, it's not pruning. Rather, they're removing gypsy moth egg masses from the Dexter Elm in Malden, MA.
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Today I thought of right-clicking on the image and choosing "Search Google for image", but you beat me to it. It brought me to some similar images, too, like the one below with around 20 people in the branches.

By the way, Werner currently makes a 60-foot extension ladder (in 3 sections), which costs over a grand.

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McFeeli said:
Hell, I hardly trust someone to hold the ladder steady when I'm going up 20 feet. No way would I climb that death trap.
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Half my roof has a serious pitch to it that made me sink a huge eye screw to attach a rope to - no way I'd get up where those guys are.
 
When I was just a wee lad, my grandfather tied a rope to the axle of his pick up, adjusted for slack, ties himself off and climbed up to repair his roof.
Not sure that was covered under his homeowners.

These pictures and history are great!!
Here I CT we have had some large, prominent and historical Oaks, Elms, Spruce.
In my life I have only see the Redwoods out west and the old growth Cathedral Pines of the Eastern High Peaks in The Adirondacks.
Always a humbling experience to be among those old beauties
 
300Six said:
Agreed. Not typical for an Amer. or White elm by the way the limbs droop and twist but there aren't any oak species anywhere near that big up this way nor in my memory and I'll be darned if I know what else to educated-guess at. For sure it ain't a Cottonwood!
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Do you get Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa) up your way? Those buggers get big. There were a couple of planted ones in Guelph that could rival the tree in that picture.

Having seen the citation of this being an elm, I can kind of see it in the vase shape and lack of any leader, but that one really doesn't seem typical of the species... but then again we don't get very many really old ones any more to compare it to.
 
Although not common there are some very large Bur Oaks in Ottawa and their outline and growth is more so like the picture in the original post than a classic vase-shaped American Elm but then again I didn't know where that picture is from, there are no leaves on the featured tree and there's no wood or bark for me to look at. Most cities and institutions went for Elm plantings eons ago because they grow like crazy, whereas you need 2-3 generations of patience to get a white or bur oak to achieve magnificence.
When DED decimated the elms in Ottawa in the early 1970s I intentionally guarded over a seedling that sprouted at the end of my parents driveway. Diameter of that one is now is 55 cm (22 inch) and it's in the order of 80 feet high.
 
Roughly 2' a year sustained I hope it can growth rate, I hope it manages to stay healthy and happy. :thumbsup:

Are you familiar with the breeding program in Guelph? https://www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum/collectionsandresearch/elmrecovery

I had the honor of working with Henry and got to go on one of his expeditions to collect material before this was an official project. If their projected timelines are right I should be able to buy one of the results of his work in a few years. I already have a spot in the yard picked out.
 
We used to use an A frame ladder that went up about 30 feet, then had a 10 foot extendable section that came straight up from the apex of the "A." It was used to adjust lights in a theater I did work at, and it was named "Godzilla." I have no fear of heights, but that thing scared the bejeebers out of me, I can't imagine trying to trim a tree on something like that. This is why man created hydraulics and scissors lifts.
 
Canadian Mojo said:
Roughly 2' a year sustained I hope it can growth rate, I hope it manages to stay healthy and happy. :thumbsup:

Are you familiar with the breeding program in Guelph? https://www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum/collectionsandresearch/elmrecovery

I had the honor of working with Henry and got to go on one of his expeditions to collect material before this was an official project. If their projected timelines are right I should be able to buy one of the results of his work in a few years. I already have a spot in the yard picked out.
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Yes I have. I've been following the U Guelph program about selecting/breeding for DED-resistant elms and nominated to their program 10 years ago (when they asked for public input) my own example. Farm field along Fallowfield Road between Merivale Rd and Woodroffe Av (in City of Ottawa, formerly City of Nepean) featured a mature elm every 100 yards for a distance of a mile along the north side while I was growing up during the 1960s. DED knocked off all of them, except for one, between 1970 and 1972. That one particular, and elm classic beautiful, tree is still thriving and I've increasingly come to worship it (I call it 'she' now) whenever I drive by. What did she have for natural defences against an introduced fungus, that none of the others had, and why has she so far survived the latest DED scourge, whereby the majority of newer trees from the 70s succumbed, really impresses me.
The adopted elm I have at home (because it's growing beside the road) has been treated by the City with fungicide on a two year interval over the past decade but municipal officials removed the gov't ID tag last year and the private company doing the injections told me (in 2015) that they'd already lost 90% of the fungicide-treated trees despite their best efforts. There aren't very many healthy elms left in Ottawa and mine is a mere teenager. Is it fungus resistant? I don't know but what is going for it is it's 1/2 km+ away from any other elms and I have a few discrete chemical tricks up my sleeve to dissuade the elm bark beetles, that transmit the fungus, from having a good time.
 
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