The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-07-16
Longevity of Trees.


Longevity of Trees.
At the meeting of the Botanical Sec
ton of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
of Philadelphia, Mr.. Thomas Meehan
remarked that there was nothing phe-
nomenal in the great age of the mann
moth Sequoias, as other trees on the Pa
cific Coast exhibit great age. In order to
ascertain whether more than one annual
circle of wood is formed in each year, he
tested the matter in various ways For
instance, pine or spruce would be found
| to make an average growth OF foot
year up to fifteen years; from that to
about thirty years, nine inches; from
that on, SIX inches; after that a stage
was reached where the erect growth
ceases to any considerable extent, and
the growth force seemed turned toward
the lateral branches. In the pine forests
OF the Pacific Coast there was no danger
OF error in fixing the age OF the average
tree OF sixty feet high at about fifty years
| Whenever such a tree was cut down,
and an opportunity afforded to count the
circles, they would be found to cores
pond so nearly with the calculated age
as to prove that it was quite safe to as
sume single circle for a single year
/
uniformity in the diameter of these an
nual growths in most trees, so that when
once we had the number OF circular lines
to the inch, and the diameter OF the tree
we could tell its age near enough for
| general purposes. In some pine trees
growing on very rich soil, he had found
as few as about four circles to the inch
For instance, section of Pinus Lam
bertldno III Mariposa, four feet across,
had but lS9 circles; but here the i'm
creased size OF the trees correspond with
the larger annual circles. Trees OF thi,
sYeSASs p pNake AASsrsss xxacasssHrizAls thirty
: aIal d few tfsirty three feet roull.9y wes
not uncommon. No matter, however
how vigorous may be the growth of tree
under 90 or over 100 years, they decreas,
with age, and we may safely allow sis
rings to the inch in these older sugar
pines, which would make the thirty
three-feet tree 800 years old. The outer
growths OF the sequoia were very narrow.
He counted as many as eighteen to the
inch, while the rings in the interior of
cross-sections would show about six to
the inch. Allowing twelve as the aver
age per inch, the tree of thirtythree
feet diameter would give 2376 years old,
which is about the same as given by an
actual count of the rings.
At Harrisburg, or Juneau, in latitude
$50, a Sitka spruce (16ics Sitkeasis) cut
down, gave 149 rings from center to cir
circumference-29S lines in a trunk three
feet across. This gave an average of
about eight to an inch in this 149-year-
old, three-foot tree. At WrengeI, lati-
tude $50 30', a tree of the Western hem
lock (Abies Merteissidnd) which had been
blown down and afterwards divided by
cross-cut saw at four feet from the base,
gave eighteen lines to an inch, and the
annual growths seemed very regular
almost to the center of the tree. 1t was
six feet in diameter, and must have been
grand old tree in its day. 1t had evil
IDENTIFY been broken off years before it
was blown down, but the length of the
trunk up to where it had been broken
was 132 feet, and four feet i'll diameter
at that height. But allowing as much as
twelve to an inch, it would give for the
point cut across, six feet, an age of 432
years At Kaidau Harbor, latitude $50,
the Sitka spruces were very large, and
of great height. He measured two of
the largest, which were twenty-one feet
in circumference each Allowing eight
to the inch, as in the tree of the same
species at Harrisburg, it gives 1856 years
4 dS CllC ets5c VI IiIC I1CCs hoO dppcatI-
ances went, these trees were in the
height of their vigor, and there seemed
no reason, judging from experience in
other cases, why these trees might not
flourish for hundred years yet. Mr..
Meehan had no doubt but that these
trees in these latitudes in Alaska would
easily have life of 500 years.
Turning now to the Atlantic States, we
find that 200 years is the full average
term of life for its forest trees, with the
exception, perhaps, of the plane Plata
ms occidentalis), which is the longest
lived of all. Trees famous for longevity
in Europe are comparatively short-lived
here. In the old Bartram Garden, near
Philadelphia, and where the trees can be
but little more than $50 years old, nearly
all are past their best. The English
oak (Quercus Rober) which in England
is said to live for a thousand years, has
grown to full size and wholly died away
in this garden, and the foreign spruces
are on the down grade. The great cy-
press (Tdrodium distichum), and which
must have made an average growth of