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| January/February 2016
ARCHIVES
FROM
THE
LOOKING BACK: 10 YEARS AGO, 2006
• In 2006, the January/February Davey Bulletin celebrated Davey Canada's
75 years since its establishment in 1930. The first permanent office stood
at 57 Bloor Street in Toronto.
• Davey helped install the landscaping for the United States Air Force
Memorial, which was dedicated in October 2006 in Washington, D.C.
Davey crews planted more than 300 trees and 60,000 ground cover
plants for the memorial.
• Trees at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate received care from Davey.
• National Geographic Magazine featured a story on Davey in 2006 about the
move of a five-story tall oak tree in Florida. The tree, which weighed almost
as much as a Boeing 747, took six weeks to move.
WHERE SCIENCE MEETS TREE CARE
Today, row after row of mature trees line the fields of the Davey Tree
Research Farm in Shalersville, Ohio, a short ride from the Davey Institute
and corporate headquarters.
Such was not the case in 1962, when Davey bought a 30-acre farm for the sole
purpose of creating an outdoor tree laboratory. The company bought the land,
as executives explained to shareholders in the 1962 annual report, "for carry-
ing out extensive research as regards many phases of tree growth and care."
In short, Davey's technicians needed a dedicated space where they could
conduct experiments on the applications of herbicides, insecticides and
fertilizers with the expressed intent of improving their use in the field. When
John Davey founded the company in 1880 he had the entirety of Kent's
Standing Rock Cemetery to experiment with. In the decades that followed,
Davey's scientists had few such grand spaces.
The new research farm boasted good surface drainage and, for glacial drift
soil, was reasonably uniform in texture. The space made it possible for
technicians to plan long-term experiments with some assurance they would
not have to abandon the effort because the land, or the trees, had to be used
for a job.
In 1962 the land was split into 29 plots, for record-keeping purposes, and
about 500 small trees were planted. White birches were planted for leaf miner
control tests. Bechtel crabapples were planted to monitor severe fungal leaf
diseases. Pin oak, green ash and silver maple trees all had their specific
research purposes.
Henry Gilbertson, then manager of the technical services center, explained
in a story for the 1962 Davey Bulletin that shortly after the research farm was
established arboriculture experts at colleges and field stations from around
the country came to see the farm. Davey benefitted from shared knowledge
and by gaining the respect of such experts, who undoubtedly relayed to
others the advancements in research being made.
Read about the role the research farm plays for Davey today in "Let's Get
Technical," on page 31.
