The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-03-10
GOOD WATER FROM TREES.

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 a spring
by which to quench his thirst. If,
however, he is an experienced hunter
and woodman, he will not have to
drink water from the stagnant pools
i'll 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 a
means which is only known to the
initiated. Every old huntsman car
ries with him, when going on long
hunt, small auger, by which he can
secure a refreshing drink and water
to cook with at any moment.
A cottonwood tree or a willow is
the we'll which the willy huntsman
taps. He examines each tree until
he finds one that has what woods
man calls "vein." 1t is simply an
attenuated prctuberance. BY boring
into this vein a stream of clear
water will flow out. 1t is not sap,
but clear, pure water. The hunts
men say that the water is better than
the average to be had from the or
binary wells. There is no sweetish
taste about it, but it has a strong
flavor of sulphur, and is slightly car
donated.
The reason for this phenomenon
cannot easily be explained, but that
a supply of water can be contained in
a 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
furnish the water in the dry season,
and that the ground is literally bak-
ed, it is the more remarkable, espe-
cially 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
willow trees, very peculiar testimony
was recently heard in 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 large tract of land
was deserted by the stream on the
Tennessee side. Years afterward this
land was claimed by the man who
owned property in Tennessee adjoin-
ing 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, saw
ed off the top of cottonwood stump
that was on the island and showed
that it contained So circles, or rings,
beginning at the heart. His state
ment was that a ring was formed in
the tree every year, hence the tree
was sapling 55 years ago, and was
consequently growing there SO years
before the island became a part of
Tennessee.
In order to prove that 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 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 rings and
that the number of rings from this
plug to the bark of the tree would be,
in the year 1899, "a, showing that a
ring had been formed for every one of
the "a years it 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 ex-
actly "a rings.
Although such testimony would
not be be doubted by woodsman, it
was not received as evidence by the
urt.-Ex1hange.