The suburban citizen., 1900-02-10
ooop WATER FRoM TREEs.
why wOOdsmen in the south Always
Carry AN Auger in Their Kit.

why woodsmen in the sOuth Always
Carry AN Auger in Their Kit.
In many sections of the forest lands
of the south during the dry seasons a
man may walk for miles without find
ing a stream of water or spring by
which to quench his thirst If, how
ever, he is an experienced hunter and
woodsman, he will not have to drink
water from the stagnant pools in order
to keep life in his body.
Queer as it may seem, an expert
enced man can hunt for days through
such dry tracts and yet experience no
inconvenience on account of the lack
of water. Nature has provided
means which is only known to the in
itiated Every old huntsman carries
with him, when going on'a long hunt
a small anger, by which he'can secure
a refreshing drink and water to cook
with at any moment.
A cottonwood tree or willow is the
we'll which the willy huntsman taps.
He examines each tree until he finds
one that has what a woodsman calls a
''vein. 1t is simply an attenuated
protuberance. By boring into this
''vein" stream OF clear water will
flow out 1t is not sap, but clear, pure
water The huntsmen say that the
water is better than the average TO be
had from the ordinary wells. There
is no sweetish taste about it, but it
has a strong flavor of sulphur, and is
s1iOhtlv parhnoated
The reason for this phenomenon
cannot easily be explained, but that
a supply of water can be contained in
q tree is not so surprising. The fact
of its flowing is the wonderful feature,
showing that it must be under pres
sure, or, in other words, that there is
more at the source of the supply.
When it is considered that the trees
furnish the water in the dry season,
and that the ground is literally baked,
it is the more remarkable, especially
when the roots of the trees do not ex-
tend to any great depth into the
ground.
Owing to the fact that water can be
obtained by tapping cottonwood and
willow trees, very peculiar testimony
was recently heard in a case in the
federal court here. About 20 years
ago, at a certain point on the Missis-
sippi river, one of the islands which
was formed by the channel forking and
surrounding a large tract of land was
deserted by the stream on the Tennes-
see side. Years afterward this land
was claimed by the man who owned
property in Tennessee adjoining the
former island. His claim was that the
island had been washed away, and
that the present land was formed by
acCretion.
The former owner, to prove that the
land had been washed away, sawed off
the top of a cottonwood stump that
was on the island and showed that it
contained SO circles, or rings, begin
ming at the heart His statement was
that a ring was formed in the tree
every year, hence the tree was a sap
ling 55 years ago, and was consequent
ly growing there 36 years before the
island became part Of Tennessee.
In order to prove that a ring was
formed every year he testified that
while hunting, about 20 miles from
that place in 1865, he had tapped a
cottonwood tree for water, and had
put a plug in the hole afterward to
keep the water from wasting. His
theory was that the tree in it's growth
would have covered up the plug aud
that the number of rings from this
plug to the bark of the tree would be, in
the year 1899, "a, showing that ring
had been formed for every one of the
81 years it had been imbedded in the
wood.
The tree was found and sawed up.
The plug was discovered, aud was dis
tant from the outside Of the tree ex-
actly "a rings
Although such testimony would not
be doubted by a woodsman, it was not
received as evidence by the court