Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-17
Rises AsD a TREES AaB.

NJ. CharDay, in one of his North Amteri
can papers year ago, declared that he did
not trust the c0nceDtric rings of 8 shrub as
a record Of its age in years. He had put
the popular theory to a test during his
Central American explorations, and bad
fouad it to err. Dr. A L Child, in the
current Popular Science Monthly, says he
never until then had seen the authority of
this age record disputed, and when he
came, some months later, to cut down
small trees which he knew where planted
in April 1871 he resolve to test the ma
ter, and found that, although they had
only twelve years growth in them, he
could count on each from thirty-hve TO forty
concentric rings. :" l could select twelve
more distinct ones" he says, between
which fainter and narrower or subrings
appeared. Nine of these apparently an.
nual rings on one section yers peculiarly
distinct, much more so than any of the
sub. rings, yet of the remaining it was diff
fcult to decide which were annual and
which were not" DR.. Child then pro-
ceeds CHOW, to ascertain what relation
OF connection there might be between the
meteorology of the several seasons and the
growth made during the same, selected
from. my meteorological records the maxi.
mum, minimum and mean temperature,
and the rainfall of the six growing months
of spring and summer of each of the
twelve years of growth. These extracts l
have tabulated, and have appended to
each season the thickness of the ring
formed, as measured on the obliaue cut
previously described. An examination of
the table shows a general relation Of cause
hot, b,rL 20, fun r,d
large rainfall and greater growth. Bat it
! falls very far short of proving general
law of so much heat and so much water
during the growing season, to produce so
much wood For example, compare the
the years 1875 and 1878 The temperature
of 1878 for the season is better than four
degrees in excess OF the season of 1875,
and the rainfall only little over four
inches less, and the growth OF 1875 is sew n
times what it was in 1878 This almost
unparalleled growth of IS75-tbat is, as
compared with the other years-cannotsb be
explained by the above general law. But
l think the May and June record of that
year throws light upon it. We see there a
maximum heat in May Of ninesy-six de-
grees, higher than l have ever known it III
an observation and record of twenty-five
years, and mean temperature of the
whole month, also unsqualed of seventy
one degrees, and this great heat continued
through the month OF june and no cold
spells after the heat SCI in sufficient TO
check the growth. Then, in connection
with this heat, the ground was well satu.
rated with water when this heated term
began (May 9TH by l 90 inches of rain on
the 4th. From this on TO the Gosh Of June,
fifteen inches more of rain fell, 80 sppor-
toned over the time as to keep the ground
saturated. This synchronous excess of
heat and water evidently produced the alb
normal growth. And probably, as this
matter IS further studied, it will be found
that these agents. rightly pyoportioned, op-
Grating spontaneously, produce these thick
er rings; while as one or the other is in
excess or absent, the growth Is checked,
aud thus has tims to condense and harden,
and form these sub rings; and the more fire.
quent these alterations the greater the num-
| Der of them"