LAWS OF TALL-TREE GROWTH 545 



in circumference at the stump, 161 feet to the first limb where the di- 

 ameter is 11.5 feet, and "estimated" to be about 300 feet high. It is 

 regrettable that reliable information about these trees is so meager. 



The third column of the table shows a fairly steady, but slowly de- 

 creasing, value from the outset. I thought this due to the fact that 

 these are second-growth trees. Stump shoots make a rapid growth at 

 first, but it seems characteristic of redwoods. The bigtree behaves in 

 the same way, as also Louisiana cypress. The Douglas fir behaves 

 in just the opposite way for two hundred years. (See the Douglas fir 

 table.) 



H = 59. 8 '^7^, by (E) 

 Hence h = 0.31H 



Thus redwoods of this species are, for the first 45 years of their 

 growth, about three-tenths of their still-air height. The McDonald 

 tree (above) is about one-fifth its still-air height. The 350-foot tree 

 was about one-fourth its still-air height. 



Bigtree {Sequoia washingtoniana) 



The estimates in the table, p. 540, were made in 1904. They 

 were given me by Mr. Woodbury, Assistant District Forester at San 

 Francisco. 



Bigtrees from about the 50th to about the 500th year of age are 

 about one-fourth their still-air greatest possible height. 



Relatively the tallest bigtree I have found is a tree 294 feet high 

 with a diameter of 103 inches. See section (E) and the following section. 

 This tree is thirty-five hundredths of its greatest possible height. 



The tallest and biggest bigtrees. — The tallest bigtrees actually meas- 

 ured by the United States Forest Service up to the present time are 

 (according to Mr. Woodbury) : 



Total height, Diameter breasthigh Merchantable 



feet outside bark, inches height, feet 



300 = 0.32// 123 275 



300 = 0.29// 141 275 



295=0.33// 116 265 



294 = 0.35// 103 270 



These trees are thus about one-third their greatest still-air height. 

 These are not the tallest trees in the Sequoia National Park, but the 

 tallest actually measured by the Forest Service. The tallest of the 



