Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-09-05
The Ase Of Forest rree..

Eleven years ago I examined the stumps OF
two white oaks and the grave Of . third, which
told this singular story by circumstautial evil
dence SO strong that IL could not be doubted: In
the year 1902 an acorn fell about one and a
half miles from where Am now writing Rock
VILE, !ndiana) and by favorable chance
spro1ted and grew into an oak. In 1894
another acorn sprouted about twenty feet dis
tant from IL. 1t may have grown on the tree
before menfionsd As IT was then ninety-two
years old. In 1871 tornado from the north
west blew down q still Older oak which in its
fall struck against and greatly damaged the top
well-marked grave of the fallen giant. the dirt
piled upon the southeast side of the hole. and
long depression in the ground where the
wood can be seen to-day Though some traces
OF the bark OF the roots cam. This depression
POINTS to the stump OF the damaged oak.
The two younger had been freshly cut down
when examined them. Their stumps were
about four feet across, and there was not an
ninety-two years difference in their ages. The
younger had u large, healthy top, no broken or
dead limbs, and II had put on rings OF growth
The older one had been injured in its branches
by the fall Of the still older one before men,
toned dn 1881 and for fifty-seven years had
put on very small rings Ofgrowth about twenty
i've TO thirty years TO the inch instead of twelve
to fifteen as it should), when a new set OF
branches developed to take tho place of the
damaged ones, ana the rings began to increase
In size and gradually attained to the average.
1 examined their tops, which conceded with
what has gone before There were the peculiar
knots in the top of the older one where dead
limbs had rotted of and were healed over (Any
expert timberman will readily recognize them
with the older one In size. TIE size of q tree &
q very uncertain indication of its age
In all the cases Of the hundreds have ex-
amined of the oaks the oldest trees of the forest
think, never saw but one that was here when
Columbus discovered America. That one was
by Tar the largest ever saw, aud was over six
rod Ghfrf frrtax ,<~st .
other largest ones. l could not get its exact age
as it was SO decayed near the heart could not
seven ieet in diameter and forked about sixty
feet up, and each fork was as large as the other
largest trees. 1t was not sound enough To make
good lumber, being what in this region is called
doughty" state between soundneSs and rot
tenness. 1t had been down q year before l ex.
amined it being out Of the county when 1t was
l have mslaid my memorandum OF it, but IL
would be about a. follows: At the age of about
two hundred years 1t had some ill-fortune which
caused it to form about one hundred small
rings. 1t then regained its health and formed
normal rings for about one hundred and forty
years, when another mishap caused small
rings till within the last fifty years, when il
was putting on fair growths again. This tree
was about one and u half miles southeast OF
hunters and woodmen. 1t was disagreeable
showery day when I examined it, and for
that reason | did not examine its top to see
II dead, and lost, and healed-Over limbs coin.
cided with the small rings, but have often done
SO In other cases. and found them to coincide.
Last May QsS4) examined sycamore and
water elm in the Wabash river bottom, the for
mer six feet in diameter and the latter five each
one hundred and eighty years old. They stood
about one hundred and fifty feet apart. They
were standing on the upper end of newly
made bottom Il mean new as compared with
the higher and older bottoms a little more in.
land from the river say two hundred years old.
This was the largest sycamore l ever saw that
was sound to the heart. l have seen hollow
ones nearly eight feet in diameter This tree
seems never to have met with any mishap till
the log man came along, as the rings of growth
were all unusually large.
There trees very probably sprouted twelve to
fifteen feet below the present surface of the bot
tom. they generally begin life on the lower
end OF river SandbarS, and sedimentatiOn
builds up the surface they put out Lew surface
roots at every two to three feet of elevation.
Such trees with their several sets OF surface
roots are often seen in drift piles, and also still
standing Oh the verge of a steep river bank
where one side is exposed by the erosion OF the
river. Their roots are often hollow like their
trunks, the hollow land root too) decreasing in
diameter downward till it terminates in a point
ike cone standing on its point. In the south
west corner OF this county is q hollow cotton
wood stump on what is now high bottom OF
the w abash, in which the hollow extends down.
ward twelve feet Mr.. Joseph j. Daniels an
intelligent, observing man, ON whose land it
stands, told me SO. Sucn sitting up over the
surface roots would kill most OF the upland
trees, or those that grow from the seed on the
high bottoms.-Joh, r. CumpLeU IL. American
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