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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE LAKEVILLE ELMS 



THE AVERY OAK 



"VTEAR Middleboro, on the road 

 -** to New Bedford, there are 

 standing at the present time two 

 beautiful and towering "wine glass" 

 elms. As you approach them from 

 the north they give the impression 

 of being so close together that the 

 tips of the branches interlock, but 

 they soon break upon the view as 

 two separate columns, seventy-five 

 feet apart, lifting their heads up- 

 ward into the sky. Each is slender 

 and graceful, not possessed of great 

 age, but singularly beautiful in its 

 isolation from everything save field 

 and sky and distant woods. The 

 larger tree of the two has a height 

 of 60 feet, a spread of 65 feet and 

 a circumference at breast height of 

 8'/ 2 feet. The smaller is 60 feet 

 in height, 50 feet in spread and 7 

 feet in circumference. Their his- 

 toric value lies in their location in 

 .a one time training field of Civil 

 War times. They are known as the 

 Lakeville Elms. 



'T'HE oldest white oak in Dedham 

 bears the distinction of having 

 once been selected as suitable ma- 

 terial for the celebrated and much 

 honored frigate that still lies at 

 anchor off Charlestown Old Iron- 

 sides. The amount offered was 

 seventy dollars, but the offer was 

 refused because the owner's wife, 

 Mrs. William Avery, greatly ad- 

 mired the tree and prevailed upon 

 her husband to spare it. This was 

 about 1798, and the Avery oak is 

 still with us, gnarled but vigorous. 

 The present circumference at one 

 foot above the ground is 23 feet 

 5 inches, and at breast height 16 

 feet 9 inches. The height is 68 feet 

 and the spread of the branches 

 93 feet. 



THE HOLLISTON ELMS 



HP HE elms at Holliston were 

 planted about the year 1747. 

 They may have been six or seven 

 feet in circumference during Wash- 

 ington's time, but they seem to have 

 escaped the attention of those who 

 would have given them a place in 

 literature. The larger of the two 

 trees is quite as remarkable in its 

 way as the smaller and is certainly 

 more magnificent. Unquestionably 

 no pair of elms in Massachusetts 

 can surpass these in size and 

 grandeur; none give greater hope 

 of preserving their beauty far into 

 the future. For the larger tree the 

 circumference at breast height is 

 18H feet, the height is 92 feet and 

 the spread 80 feet. For the smal- 

 ler, the circumference is i6j^ feet, 

 the height 85 feet and the spread 

 85 feet. 



