The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-11-07
THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA.

14OAcSSOI w. II. brewer, OF ale
College, an eminent authority on
matters pertaining to the botany of
California. writes to the New England
Journal of Education to correct some
errors made by a correspondent of
that paper in regard to the "Big
Trees of California" -errors which
are constantly creeping into the
papers, although they have often been
refuted. He says:
The first error relates to their
height, the second to their age.
II only the truth be told. they still
remain the grandest trees on earth,
and one of the wonders of the world.
Some of the Australian Eucalyptus
trees exceed them in the matter of
height, yet, take them all in all and
as they are. the giant Sequoias are the
greater. Your correspondent tells of
1.-The Father of the Forest" being
"about four hundred and fifty feet
high when in his glory" as if this
was a proved fact rather than vague
guess. The fact is that no one knows
how high it was, for. when the grove
was first discovered by white men,
the PROSTATE tree was already partly
rotten and the whole top burned
away; and accounts published twenty.
four years ago speak Of the tree as
perhaps over 400 feet high when liv.
ing.
The State Geological Survey care.
fully measured all the higher stand
ing trees in this grove. in the Mari.
posa grove, and some of the trees in
the other groves, and published the
result years ago. In the Calaveras
grove there were then 81 trees of $50
or more feet, four of which were 300
or more feet, the highest being 1926
feet. Over 800 trees were measured
in the Mariposa grove, the tallest Of
which was 272 feet. The only other
tree l have seen VIII ich rivals "The
Father of the Forest" in diameter is
III the Kings river grove, and was
less than 300 feet high. There is no
evidence that "The Father of the
Forest Tor any other SeQuoia) ever
reached $50 feet, and what its height
actually was can never be known.
Next as to the age. The first ex.
tended description, published in
Europe twenty-five years ago, "esti-
mated the age at several thousand
years, and gave wings to the magma
ton as to the events in the world S
history which the old trees had seen
in their lifetime. This error has
been refuted for years, for l know
not how long, for every scientific in
vestigation has shown its fallacy; but
the first story was SO well told, and
seemed SO marvellous, that it is re-.
peated by the majority of "corres.
pondents" in some form, and l am
sorry to say that clergymen and
teachers are not the least common
offenders. 1t is SO much easier to re-
peat startling story than it is TO test
its accuracy. that it is probable
future generations of correspondents
in 1878 will continue to tell how large
this or that tree was when Paris
carried Helen from the walls of
Troy" And so your correspondent
speaks of one still standing as "a tree
that began its growth long before
David reigned in Israel !"
We know the .ual age of only one
Of the largest trees of the Calaveras
grove, and that is the tree your cor
respondent tells us of as having been
felied in 1853. That tree was sound
to its center. and we know its age to
within very few years, and it began
its growth more than twenty five
hundred years after David died. 1t
is possible that some Of the Oldest
trees of this species may have begun
their growth over 1000 years ago,
but not at all probable that any
reached back to within a thousand
years Of the time Of David.