The times., 1901-05-05

| grove until 1862. then being 325 in height
! by % feet in circumference at the ground
This tree was blown down that year ar ni, duT, :,
| another giant 31e feet by q feet in dame
/ ter, was blown down In a gale In 1860, ano
| the Fallen Monarch, which has prop
| ably been down for centuries. This trunk
! is still is feet in diameter, and was PROB
| ably over 300 feet high and 70 or more fee'
| in diameter.
| The extreme old age attained by the
| Big Trees is still an unsettled question.
| One great difficulty in settling the ques-
| tion of age, at least for existing trees, is
the lack of proper number OF trunk lf
! sections ct which to count the rings OF
! annual growth, thus giving unqueston-
| able data for age.
Ring countings from PROSTATE or decay
| eo trunks and sections of trees felled for
other purposes than ring countings have
| largely furnished the basis of the age es-
| Inmates so far, and from these countingS
age estimates have been made for trees of
other sizes which could not of course be
cut down. These can be only, therefore,
approximate estimates. 1t is estimated
that the average rate of growth is one
| inch of diameter for every twelve years,
which would make a tree twenty-five feet
through $500 years old An authority on
the sequoia writes: Under the most fa-
vorable conditions these giants probably
live 5e01 years or more, though few of
even the larger trees are more than half
as old. | never saw Big Tree that had
died natural death Barring accidents,
they seem TO be immortal, being exempt
from all the diseases that afflict and Kill
other trees. Unless destroyed by man
they live on indefinitely until burned.
smashed by lightning, or cast down by
storms or by the giving away of the earth
on which they stand. The age of one that
was felled in the CalaveraS Grove, for
the sake of having its stump for dane
ing floor, was about 1.300 years old, and
its diameter measured across the stump
was twenty-four feet inside the bark.
Another that was cut down in the King
.l,,g,-4 1aaz Int
nearly a thousand years older e, 200 years.,
though not a very old-looking tree. This
colossal Scared monument was cut down
to secure q section for exhibition pur-
poses. 1t had been burnt half through.
and by clearing away the charred surface
a careful counting of the annual rings
was made with the aid of a pocket lens
The wood rings in the section examined
were so involved and contorted in some
places that it was not possible to deter
mine its age exactly, but over 4,00 rings
were counted, which showed that this
tree was in its prime, Swaying in the ST.
ezra winds when Christ walked the earth
No other tree in the world, so far as is
known, has looked down on so many CEN
turies as the sequoia, or opens such i'm
pressiVe and suggestive views into his
tory.
The numbering of the Big Trees is de-
structive TO a most unusual degree In
the first place the enormous size and
weight Of the trees necessarily entails
very considerable breakage when one of
them 1aUS. SuCn q tree strikes the ground
with force OF many hundreds, OF. even
thousands, of tons, so that even slight in
edualities are sufficient to smash the
brittle trunk at its upper extremity into
almost useless fragments. The loss from
this cause is great, but it is only one of
the sources of waste. The great diameter
of the logs and in spite of the lightness
OF the wood, their enormous weight make
II Impossible to handle many of them
without breaking them up. For this pur-
pose gunpowder is the most available
means. The fragments of logs blown
apart in this way are not only often of
wasteful shapes, but unless very nice
judgment is exercised in preparing the
blast great deal of the wood itself is
scattered and useless. The Big Trees
stand as q rule in a mixed forest COM
posed of many species. The destruction
caused by the fall of the enormous trees
is in itself great, but the principal dam
age is the immense amount of debris left
on the ground-the certain source of fll-
ture fires. This mass of broken branches.
trunks, and bark is often five or six or
even more feet in thickness, and necessa-
rily gives rise to fires of great destructive
power, even though the Big Tree wood is
not especially inhammable The devasta-
tion which follows such numbering is as
complete and deplorable as the untouched
forest is unparalleled, beautiful. and
worthy of preservation. AS d rule it has
not even had the advantage Of being prof
liable. Very much of this appalling de-
struction has been done without leaving
the owners of the Big Trees as well OFF
as they We're before II began