THE WOODS. 139 



suppressed balsam seedlings, for example, with the 

 microscope, and found that it had taken thirty years 

 for their tips to reach the level of a two foot stump, 

 so that, the shape of the stems being of course conical, 

 the rings below the height at which the saw was entered 

 would therefore not show on the tree's cross-section. 

 This unknown quantity will vary, of course, with the 

 different species, and with the location and exposure; 

 we must know our tree before we can judge it. Then, 

 again, if the crown is scragly in old age, or narrow, 

 and hence in an unfavorable season might not be able 

 to assimilate enough material to form a new encircling 

 woody sheath extending along the entire length of the 

 tree below, the actual age would perhaps be a few years 

 greater than the number of rings at the stump. Thus, 

 in one instance, I personally counted the rings at both 

 ends of a fourteen foot log and found them at each 

 end the same (214 years), which would ordinarily in- 

 dicate that the tree had shot up in a single season more 

 than fourteen feet in height, a presumption on its face 

 absurd, and still more impossible considering the evi- 

 dent slow growth of the tree, the rings being so closely 

 crowded that I had to use a microscope to see the 

 separate lines. Then, too, there is frequently decay 

 in the center at the butt, and that (no matter how 

 little) will have depleted the years it has reached. If 

 the growth, too, is greater on one side than the other 

 (and it will generally be to the south, on account of 

 the entrance of more sunlight from that quarter), there 

 will often be two woody layers, close together, for but 

 one year's increase, the first attempt having perhaps 

 been retarded by a cold snap later in the season. I 



