Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1900-03-08
LORE OF THE WOODS.
WATER EXTRACTED From TREES
INTHE SOUTH.
7: he Experienced sportsraan BROCHURES
the Pure Drinking FItid by Boring
Into Cottonwood and Willow Trees y
Natural Wells Of the Forest.


In many sections OF the forest lands
of the South during the dry season a
man may walk for miles without lind
ing a stream OF water or spring by
which 10 quench his thirst. II. 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 II may seem. an experienced
man can hunt for days through such
dry tracts and yet experience no incon-
venlence on account of the lack of wa
ter. Nature has provided means
which Is only known to the initiated.
Every old huntsman carries with him
when going on long hunt small
anger by which he can secure refresh
ing drink and water to cook with at any
moment.
A cottonwood tree or willow is the
well which the willy huntsman taps.
He examines each tree until he finds
one that has what woodsman calls a
"ve!n." 1t is simply an attenuated pro-
tubersnce. 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 bet
ter than the average to be had from
ordinary wells. There is no sweetish
taste about it, but it has strong flavor
of sulphur and is slightly carbonated.
The reason for this phenomenon can
not easily be explained, but that sup
ply Of water can be contained in tree
is not so surprising. The fact Of Its
ing that it must be under pressure or,
in other words, that there is more at the
source of the supply. When 1t is con-
sidered that the trees furnish the water
In the dry season and that the ground
is literally baked 1t is the more remark
able, especially when the roots Of the
trees do not extend to any great depth
into the ground.
Owing to the fact that water can be
obtained by tapping cottonwood and will
low trees, very peculiar testimony was
recently heard in a case in the Federal
court here. About twenty years ago,
at a certain point on the Mississippi
River, one of the islands which was
formed by the channel forking and sur
rounding large tract Of land was de-
serted by the stream on the Tennessee
side. Years afterward this land was
claimed by the man who owned prop
erty 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 not been washed away, sawed
off the top of cottonwood stump that
was on the island and showed that 1t
contained fifty-six circles or rings, be-
ginning at the heart. His statement
was that n ring was formed in the tree
for every year. hence the tree was a
sapling fifty-five years ago and was
consequently growing there thirty-six
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 twenty miles from
that place in 1865 he had tapped cot.
tonwood 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 its growth would have
covered up the plug and that the mum
Der of rings from this plug to the bark
of the tree would be in 1899 thirty four
showing that ring had been formed
for every one of the thirty-four years il
had been imbedded in the wood.
The tree was found and sawed up,
The plug was discovered and was dis.
tant from the outside Of the tree exact
ly thirty-four rings.
Although such testimony would not
be doubted by woodsman it was no:
received as evidence by the court
Memphis Scimltar.