THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



contain, on an average, forty-eight annual layers to the inch. The semi-diameter of the tree, 

 at iho point where the specimen examined was taken from, being five feet two inches, (viz. at 

 twenty-five feet from the ground,) supposing the tree increased in diameter at the same rate 

 during its whole life, there would be nearly three thousand annual layers ; but Dr. Gray, in 

 OOnsideratioD of the greater thickness of the layers of a young tree, and from comparison of 

 section- of the so-called cypress of the Southern States, (Taxodium distickum,) assigns about 

 two thousand years as its highest probable age. 



Dr. C. F. Winslow, formerly of Boston, furnishes to the California F<irmir the following 

 description of a visit to the Localities of these gigantic trees; he says: "The road was more 

 or less shaded all the way by pines so gigantic as to awaken in me, who had never before 

 seen the native and lofty forest scenery of the north temperate zone, the strongest feelings 

 of wonder and admiration, I had never before conceived of the capacity of the various spe- 

 cies of oonifera to attain such enormous dimensions. They were often six feet through, and 

 from one hundred and thirty to three hundred feet high, and so symmetrical and perfect in 

 form as to impress me with new and more Commanding ideas respecting the force and ope- 

 ration of tlie vital principle presiding over the nourishment and growth of organized bodies. 



"The height of the locality is about five thousand feet above the sea, and two thousand 

 four hundred feet above ' Murphy's Camp,' on the Stanislaus. So far as known, the vege- 

 table growth, to which the name of ' Big Tree' has been attached, grows in no other region of 

 the Sierra Nevada, nor on any other mountain range of the earth. It exists here only; and 

 all the individuals of its kind, so far as I can learn, arc localized to this vicinity. They are 

 embraced within a range of two hundred acres, and are enclosed in a basin of coarse, siliceous 

 material, surrounded by 8 sloping ridge of sienitic rock, which in some places projects above 

 the soil. The basin is reeking with moisture, and in the lowest places the water is standing, 

 and some of the largest trees dip their roots into the pools or water-runs. The trees of very 

 large dimensions number considerably more than one hundred. Mr. Blake measured one 

 ninety-four feet in circumference at the root, the side of which had been partly burned by 

 contact with another tree, the head of which had fallen against it. The latter can be mea- 

 sured four hundred and fifty feet from its head to its root. A large portion of this fallen 

 monster is .-till to be seen and examined ; and by the measurement of Mr. Lapham, the pro- 

 prietor of the place, it is said to be ten feet in diameter at three hundred and fifty feet from 

 its uptorn root In Calling, it had prostrated another large tree in its course, and pressed 

 out the earth beneath itself so as to be imbedded a number of feet into the ground. Its 

 diani't. r aoi oot is forty feet. A man is nothing in comparison of dimensions while 



walking on it or standing near it£ Bide. This to me, was the greatest wonder of the forest 

 The tree which it prostrated in falling has been burned hollow, and is so large, a gentleman 



who accompanied as from Murphy's informed as that, when he first visited the place two 



is ago, lie rode through it on horseback Gar two bundled feel without stooping but at one 



ttered al the root. We all walked many scores of feet through it; but a large 



piece of its side has (alien in near the bead. Bnl there are many standing whose magnitude 



olutely oppresses the mind with awe. In <>u<- place, three of these gigantic i row 



ride, as if planted with special reference to their present appearance. Another, so 



inoi; tely to OOmpel yOU to walk around it, and even linger, is divided at from 



hundred feel from the ground into thre< of th.-.-r straight mammoth trunks, 



towering over three L Ired feel into the sky. There are others whose proportions are as 



delicate, symmetrical, clean, and straight as -mall Bproces, that rise three hundred and fifty 

 oand. In one spot a huge knotofsome ancient prostrate giant is visible 



above the -oil, where it fell B I, and the earth ha- accumulated so M ncaily U) oblite- 



i tte all traces of its former existence. The m l of this tree, I am told by Mr. Lapha m , is 



remarkable for it- slow decay. When first out down, its fibre is white; but it soon becomes 



. liah, and long exposal it as dark as mahogany ; it i- soft, and resembles, in some 



lar. It- bark, however, if much unlike these b ; the ground 



it is prodigiously thick, fibrous, and, when pressed on, hai a peculiar f< eling i ty. In 



■ n inches thick, and resembles ■ mail of ooooanut bosks thickly 

 matted and together, only the fibroui material is exceedingly fine, and altogether 



