Help With ID'ing Civil War Photographer Last Name Ward

I just love when threads cover more than the original topic! I don't know if trees are still white-washed, but I certainly remember the practice in PA and NY. Also trees, when damaged in some way, used to get patched with a sort of giant alligator tile.

 

I do remember that when the trees on our property on the Island were pruned, the gardener would build a fire and heat up a bucket of tar and plaster the "wounds". I remember it because the smell of the hot tar was pretty esoteric at the time.......then they started to patch roads with it and I smelled it all over the place.........alas! the joy of a noxious odor was eclipsed by familiarity........

 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" Oh.... Are you related to Betty Smith!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn_(novel)
Starred Shirley Booth
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn_(musical)

Seems to me I've seen painted tree trunks more on young, newly planted, trees/saplings, especially in cities. Believe it is suppose to protect the tender young bark from cracking and splitting that allows insect infestation, borers, fungus, etc... I think it may still be done in orchards and tree farms?

--- Susan

 

I don't think so, but always thought someday I might write "A Girl Grows in Brooklyn"!

If I remember correctly, the tree in the story was an ailanthus. The one tree in our little backyard, that grew between the cement surface and a chain link fence, was an ailanthus. It grew pretty tall, too.