I recall when my parents bought five acres of land on the edge of a little rural town in Indiana in 1950. There were no buildings on it; my dad had decided to build a small hobby-type farm there with a house, barn and chicken house. On the land was an old inter-urban railroad track which was not used any more. Lots of cinders and a few rotted railroad ties ran through the center of the five acres.
There were only four trees on the land when they bought it. There were two black walnut trees and a mulberry tree on the far northwest corner of the five acres. There was a nice-looking elm tree very near the center of the south line fence. Later, I and my mother planted a few other trees including Colorado blue spruce and some type of maple tree that sprouted in the side ditch.
My father built a five bedroom house, with Mom’s help. As I was only ten years old, I was not much assistance. After the house was done and while we were living in it, my dad quickly turned his attention to building a medium-sized barn with a milking parlor, a stall for my Palomino horse and room to store alfalfa and timothy hay for the animals to eat in the winter. This barn was within ten feet of the handsome elm tree. The cows and my horse enjoyed standing under that tree many times on hot days or when it rained.
The tree grew over the years and became an even more appreciated asset to the little farmstead. Its green leaves on wide-spreading branches made the area around the barn quite picturesque.
However, one springtime seemed different. The tree was much slower to get its leaves after the winter ended. When the leaves came on, they were not as healthy in appearance as before. My dad recalled that the top of the tree seemed to be dying earlier during the autumn before. The tree seemed to be sick.
In the following spring seasons, there were sucker trees trying to grow up from some of the exposed roots of our beloved elm tree. They grew for a while, but in a couple of years, they were afflicted and died.
Neighbors with similar elm trees seemed to all have the same thing happening. The large, healthy-looking trees seemed to have an upper branch become afflicted with the leaves turning yellow and falling before autumn. Someone learned that the problem was due to a thing they called Dutch Elm Disease.
From studies that I did later, I learned that the disease was first noticed in the Netherlands, hence the name Dutch Elm Disease. It was first seen in the 1920s although our tree was not afflicted until the 1950s. It is caused by bark beetles which plug the flow of nutrients from the leaves to the roots. There are two species of beetles which can afflict an elm tree, the European elm bark beetle and the native elm bark beetle.
From what I have learned, there are two or three fungicides which seem to be able to prolong the life of affected trees. They seem to be less effective than elm owners would prefer.
Now that it is too late for our tree beside the barn, I have become aware of a few elm trees which seem to be resistant to the Dutch elm disease. Another idea which seems to have merit is to make hybrid elm trees to resist the disease. I trust they will catch on in popularity so we will again see the lovely elm trees in our cities.
