Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-12-13
Measuring the Age of Trees.

The counting of the rings added by exoge-
nous trees every year to their clrcumfer-
ences can only, with ut risk of great error,
be applied to trees cut down in their prime,
and hence is useless for the older trees
which are followed and decayed. Trees,
moreover, often deyelOpe themselves so un-
equally from their centre that, as in the
case OF a specimen in the museum at Kew
there may be $50 rings on one side to fifty
on the other. Perhaps the largest number
of rings that has ever been counted was in
the case of an oak felled in 1912, where
they amounted to 10; but DeCondolle,
who mentions this, adds that 300 years
were added to this number as probably
covering the remaining rings which it was
no longer possible to count. This instance
may be taken to illustrate how unsatisfac-
tory this mode of reckoning really is for
all but trees Of comparatively youthful
age.
The external girth measurements, is for
these reasons, the best we can have, being
applicable where the date of tree'sintro-
duction into a country or of its planting
is definitely fixed, since it enables us to ar
que from the individual specimen, or from
a number of specimens, not with certainty,
but within certain limits of variability, to
the rate Of growth of that tree as species
In these measurements of trees of CEN
tury or more i'll age, such as are given
abundantly in LOudon's ''Arboreum," lies
our best guide, though even then the growth
in subsequent ages must remain a matter
of conjecture. The difficulty is to reduce
this conjectural quantity to the limits Of
probability for, given the ascertained
growth of the first century, how shall we
estimate the diminished growth of the
later centuries ? The best way would seem
to be to take the ascertained growth of the
first century, and then to make, say, the
third of it the average growth of every
century Thus if we were to take II feet
as the ascertained growth of an oak in the
first century, four feet would be its con-
slant average rate and we might conjec-
ture that an oak of forty feet was about
thousand years old But clearly it might
be much less; for the reason for taking the
third is not so much that it is more prob
able average than the half, as that it is OBJ
v!ously less likely to err on the side of ex-
cessive rapidity.
Why the Sons of Malta Disbanded.
Lafayette Qnd) Courer,l
1t is perhaps not generally known, but
the dissolution of the Sons of Malta
throughout the United States was the re-
suit OF an unfortunate and fatal accident
here. George Harding, an employe OF the
wholesale grocery establishment of Rey-
nolds, Earl & Hatcher, a brave and brawny
Scotchman, desired to become member of
the order, and the order was only too glad
to take him in.' A night was set apart
for his initiation, and as he was particu-
larly powerful man, the gathering of the
clans was unusually large The initiation
proceeded amid uproariOus fun up to the
elevated railway and a plunge into the
seething waters of the lake-a wet blanket
in the hands of a dozen strong men, in
which the aspirant was tossed about until
they became exhausted. Harding was an
intensely earnest man, and took the initi-
alton to be serious affair, being told by
the Grand Conductor that from the ele-
waited railway he would be plunged into
lake, he had contracted his muscles and
nerved himself for the battle with the
waves. When he struck the blanket the
shock was too great for his nerves. He was
taken to his home paralytic. He lived
year, suffering intensely. and died in great
agony The order paid out over $4,000 in
his behalf. All that medical skill could
do was done, but to no purpose. He was
noble man, and bore his suffering like
hero or a martyr, never once complained or
spoke harshly of those who innocently
caused it all. His sufferings and death
were the death knell of the Sons of Malta,
not only in Lafayette, but throughout the
country.