Ah, the majestic elm trees of Cazenovia ... (and all the wild ones that
grew [and still grow] in back corners and fence lines!)

I recall the last days of the big elms, black stripes around them, plastic
tubing pumping whatever kind of noxious agent into them, kids like me (and
Lester Hendrix) sitting among the roots watching the parades ... They
dumped them by the ton in the gully of the Michigan Road Landfill where it
all ran down into beloved Chittenango Creek (which was also then the sewer
outfall).  The disease was said to be spread by burning so it all just sat
there and rotted.

Some elms scattered about the Village survived well into the 1980s.  One
massive elm near the foot of Cazenovia Lake, below Lorenzo, was as healthy
as any elm tree ever was and as far as I could tell had never been
treated.  It was 4 or 5 feet in diameter when it was struck by a car in the
late 1980s.  DOT took it down for safety and there was not a spot of rot or
disease in it.  Several others across the highway were even larger but died
all at once.  They stood dead for a couple more years until we took them
down in about 1985.  They were massive, and made excellent firewood, with
the smoothest, cleanest grain I have ever seen.  (Long-dead elm cleaves
beautifully, like cherry; the fresh wood is worse than a Gordian Knot.)

About this same time the restoration crews were doing work on the windows
at Lorenzo and discovered that the sills were made of walnut or
butternut.  I also recall that the original bills for carving of the
mantles in 1807 called for a lot of elm wood.  Otis Ormsbee was the carver
and he went on to carve some of the most beautiful woodwork in all of
Central NY in a number of other houses in Cazenovia.  Late-19th and
early-20th Century historians forgot all about Ormsbee, or disbelieved that
some backwoods Yankee could carve such beautiful things, and the written
histories attribute all of the exquisite mantles, stairs, and doors as
having been carved by "imported Italians."

The elm is hanging on a bit, but I'm hoping the American Chestnut can be
brought back.
http://www.acf.org/

I'm all for planting native-to-New York trees along our highways and
byways, if only for the historicity of it all.

         Dan W.



>Lester Hendrix <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >Dan Weiskotten, in discussing turnpikes, mentions elm trees in Cazenovia.
> >For what it's worth, I recall efforts to save Cazenovia's elm trees. In late
> >1940s and the 1950s bands about two to three inches wide were carved
> >(shallow) into the bark of the elms, and something which I recall was
> >yellowish was put there. I never saw the bands being carved, only they bands
> >themselves and was told they were to help prevent Dutch elm disease. I think
> >(and I believe that years ago I thought) that the yellow looked a lot like a
> >band of fly paper (remember that stuff?). The tree bands were perhaps 4 feet
> >above ground.
> >Each summer for several years, a tank truck would appear in the village and
> >pump a liquid high into the trees, the stream of liquid looking much like
> >water from a firefighter's hose only whiter. This also was an effort to
> >prevent the spread of Dutch elm disease.
> >I do not know who was responsible for the efforts but suspect the village
> >since the bands, and pump trucks, were everywhere in the village and I never
> >was aware of any outside the village.
> >Perhaps someone can shed some light on the bands about the trees, and
> >chemicals sprayed high into the trees only to rain down on the little
> >children playing beneath.
> >
>
>
>--
>Cindy Amrhein
>Town of Alabama Historian
>in Genesee Co., NY
>Experience the Town of Alabama in Genesee County, NY.
>http://www2.pcom.net/cinjod/historian/
>APHNYS (Association of Public Historians of New York State)
>http://www.tier.net/aphnys
>
>
>
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