The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-05-23

temporarily the attainment OF the
preme ambition held by DR.. Herman Won Schrenk
of st. Louis, which is to determine scientifically
the approximate age of this nestor Of the whole
vegetable kingdom.
Experts, Judging by the gigantic bole of the
Santa Maria del Tule cypress and by the slow
growth OF this species, have estimated the age
of the patriarch of all trees to be between 5000
and 5000 years.
These figures are staggering to the magma
ton Taking the lowest computation, when the
seed from which the tree sprang fell upon tho
earth King Menes was holding the first reign in
Egypt of which have historic knowledge
5000 years before the birth of Christ 1t was a
slender STRIPPING, 200 years DID, when Cheops
drove his subjects with the lash to the labor of
building the great Pyramid. 1t had reached
Iusty youth of 1,500 years when the Hebrews
made their exodus from the land Of the Nile
This living thing in tropical America was 81
1enty building itself to its present stature and
v1gor seven centuries before Babylon reached it's
greatest spIendor. Ancient Ntneveh, in the ninth
century before the Christian era, was parvenu
compared with the Oaxaca cypress The earliest
cuneiform inscriptions which psychologists have
unearthed in Assyrfa date back to only 1900 B. c.
and the tree in Mexico which was to arise in
the distant future new and unknown CONT
nent had even then lived almost many years
as separate the world today from the final recall
of the Roman legions from Britain.
This still f1ourishing tree of the twentieth cen
fury had built its annual rings and spread its
yearly foliage for ten centuries when Abraham
tended his fOcks and saw vision of the Jewish
race that to be- 1t had lived 1000 years
before David slew Goliath and Solomon erected
the temple at Jerusalem.
In the eye of its hoary antiquity, Troy. Athens,
the Macedonian kingdom and the Roman empire
mere upstairs of time. The discovery of
America and the conquest of Mexico by Cortez
would seem, in its life, things of only few
months ago.
The last scientific measurement of the Santa
Maria del Tule cypress made by Dr.
CnIV NJ az A.
covered it while on his famous tour of the equa-
torial America DR.. Won Schrenk found that
its trunk, four feet from the ground, had the
astounding girth of 126 feet.
An idea OF its vast age may be obtained by
comparing it with cypress described by Prof.
Asa Gray, which, although only II feet in cir
conference, $40 years old. So slow is the
growth of the cypress that this tree had required
nearly seven centuries to attain q diameter of
81 inches.
DR.. Won Schrenk, now an arboriculturaI expert
with a laboratory at the Missouri botanical gar
den in st. Louis in 1908 connected with the
United States forestry service. While travelling
through southern Mexico he determined to in
spect the Santa Maria del Tule cypress. Arriving
at the village, he introduced himself as an official
OF the United States government who wished to
examine the famous tree. The mayor welcomed
him with elaborate ceremony.
DR.. Won Schrenk learned that the tree
regarded sacred in the vicinity and that it
guarded night and day by two soldier senti-
nelS. Escorted by numerous and dignihed
rettnue the mayor could muster, he marched
to the little graveyard in which the cypress
stands.
Before the broad and towering bulk of this
life which has persisted without interruption
since the date of the dawning of history, the visi
tor halted in awe. Had the foiaged creature pos
sessed eyes and a tongue, what treasures Of in
formation could it have added to the annals of
man!
But flights of fancy gave way to immediate sci
entifc duties Authorities trees had declared
the discovery of the approximate age Of this
cypress to be one of the most important problems
in arboriculture. They had expressed a hope
that the next scientist who should visit the
cient living monument would not fail to complete
the evidence needed.
The mayor of Santa Maria del Tule, however,
opposed barrier of adamant Measure the cir
conference OF the tree? Surely Photograph it?
Indeed, yes But TO take instrument and bore
from the trunk plug two feet deep and half
inch in diameter? Horrors,
In vain DR.. Won Schrenk urged that this ex-
pertinent had been made hundreds Of times with
rOut damage to trees, and that by counting the
rings shown on the plug he could learn the trees
average rate of growth and thus solve one of
the great scientific problems OF the world. The
mayor was all humility and submissiyeness Any