The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-05
OUR OAK TREES.
Cause of the shortnsss Of Their Lives---Vener-
able English Oaks

To the Editor: l have read with inter
est what the News and Observer has had
to say about the old oak lately cut down
on Blount street in Raleigh. The tree
itself has been an object OF interest to me
since 1869, where for several years L made
Raleigh my home.
l never thought it to be as old as was
generally believed. And that for two rea-
sons: One was that the rcd oak-to which
species the Raleigh oak belongs-ls the
quickest growing and shortest lived OF all
the oak family. The other reason is that
owing to climatic conditions none of our
trees have the longevity common tC
trees of more agreeable climates. Now
and then we have protracted droughts,
accompanied by great heat, which while
it rarely kills large trees outright, yet
greatly impairs their vitality.
The first of these fierce droughts within
living memory was in 1926. That year
the creeks dried up, the rivers became
mere threads and vast number OF forest
trees died. The people became fearful OF
famine and hundreds of families moved to
Tennessee, where the crops seemed to
have been good. Our land records show
numerous land sales in that year and
many a Tennessee family dates in that
State from that period.
In 1881 we had a drought second only
to that of 1926. The woods were dotted
with dead trees in the late summer of
that year and the streams as a rule ceased
to run Again, 1896 and 1900 were OK
cessvely hot and dry and taxed greatly
all things that grow, man included.
~
them carefully, the effect on them of a
hot dry summer is plainly visible and
these signs of suffering like the ridges
that sorrow writes in the human face abide
to the end
Within my own recollection, now cover
ing nearly half century, we have seen
many instances of the shortness of the
lives of large oaks, and especially of red
oaks. few years ago there decayed and
had to be cut down in a yard near Kit
trell some apparently very old oaks of
this species. To all appearances they had
sheltered generations of Indians before
the white man came Nevertheless a per-
fectly reliable man then scarcely seventy
assured me that as boy he had swung
from their tops, bending them near enough
to the ground to venture to tnrn loose
and drop. Any close observer will note
in any large grove that the red oaks and
their congeners age the fastest. If he
continues his observation he will find
that decay and death overtakes them first.
The white oak is much longer lived. In
fact believe that it is the longest lived
of any OF the perennials that we have.
Near Kittrell there are many grand white
oaks. The most famous one stands at Old
Fop Castle. Old Pop was a tavern In Re
evolutionary days, they say, and when IN
1871 regiment was raised here to fight
the Tories one of the companies drilled
under this old tree, whose limbs were even
then wide spreading. The old tavern dis
appeared about forty years ago, but the
white oak still thrives.
In England with it's mjder summers
and comparative freedom from drought
the oak is almost immortal Indeed, TO
the ancient jewellers in that island, the
Britons and the Rruids their priests, tine
oak seems to have after a fashion
symbolized Immortality. Their affairs were
ere cted i'll its shade and they were gar
lands of it on their herds.
The Englishman of today loves his
oaks That is if he is fortunate enough
to have any. When hard up he mclts
down the family plate, even leases his
ancestral home, does almost anything
rather than fell and sell the ancestral
oaks This, according to the English novel
at least, never fails to set young Timon on
his feet again.
The money value of English oak seems
That this sturdy lumber
should have sold high in the past seems
natural. But that English oak timber
should retain the value that it still appar-
emily does. in the face of the large influx
of American pine, is rather puzzhng.
IT is in the Pastor letters, 0420-1510),
which give an insight into old English life
found nowhere else. | believe that we
read of relatively fabulous prices for the
lumber in an old manor house. This lum-
Der was bought and carried far off to
another shore to be used IN erecting
another building.
o. w. BLACKNALL.
Kittrell, N. c.