II. 3. THE CHESTNUT. 169 



at six feet. The trunk was undivided for twenty-four feet, 

 where it put forth several large but short branches. A third was 

 a perfectly vigorous tree, rising to eighty or ninety feet, with 

 many large branches, at all heights above fifteen feet. It was 

 eighteen feet nine inches at the surface, fifteen feet three inches 

 at three feet, and thirteen feet two inches at six. A fourth, 

 which measured nineteen feet eight inches at the surface, fifteen 

 feet nine inches at three feet, and fourteen feet three inches at 

 six, at nine or ten feet, threw out some large crooked branches, 

 and then towered to eighty or ninety feet, with a magnificent, 

 full, branchy head. In the near vicinity, on land of widow 

 Rhoda Houghton, are many noble trees, three of which deserve 

 to be recorded. One, a vigorous, well-branched tree, seventy 

 or eighty feet high, measured, at the surface, at three and at six 

 feet, twenty-two feet three inches, seventeen feet one inch, and 

 fourteen feet ten and one-half inches. A second, beginning to 

 decay, measured, at the same points, twenty feet five inches, 

 sixteen feet two inches, and fourteen feet, ten inches. A third, 

 which at six feet divided into two main trunks, seventy or 

 eighty feet high, measured, in like manner, twenty-two feet six 

 inches, seventeen feet one inch, and sixteen feet seven inches in 

 circumference. 



In the stump of a tree recently growing on the same land, 

 which measured four and one-half feet or fifty-four inches in 

 diameter, one hundred and twenty circles were counted, indi- 

 cating an annual growth of nine-twentieths of an inch. At the 

 same rate, the largest of these trees may be a hundred and 

 seventy or a hundred and eighty years old. Two trees in Hop- 

 kinton, on land of Mr. Valentine, measured, in 1826, one twenty- 

 five and one-half feet, the other twenty-three feet at the ground. 



South-east of Monument Mountain, near the road leading to 

 Sheffield, in a pasture, an old chestnut measured, in September, 

 1S44, at the ground, thirty feet two inches in circumference; at 

 two feet, twenty-four feet seven inches, at four, twenty-one feet. 

 At sixteen feet, it throws out several large branches, which form 

 a top of sixty feet across. Some of the branches are decaying 

 and ruinous. 



Such fine old trees as these, wherever found, ought to be 

 23 



