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THE GIANT ELM. 



"Thou canst not censure more than we 

 The Vandal hand that laid thee low ; 

 For any fool can fell a tree, 



But it takes a god to make one grow." 



About a mile southwest of the little town of Erie, Kansas, 

 there was standing, until recently, the largest elm tree known 

 to exist in that vicinity. It was in the "bottom lands," near 

 the Neosho River, and on a tract called "The Island," on 

 account of the fact that at some remote period the river had 

 broken across its left bank and made an additional channel, 

 through which, for many years, flowed the largest volume of 

 the stream. This new channel pursued a serpentine course, 

 inclosing a body of about three hundred acres of land, and 

 finally regained the original stream half a mile or so below 

 its point of departure. When I came to Kansas in May, 

 1868, this island was covered with a dense and heavy primeval 

 forest, consisting of black walnut, sycamore, elm, hickory, 

 hackberry, bur oak, and some other varieties indigenous to 

 this region. Some of the walnut trees were the largest that 

 I ever have seen of that species. They were ruthlessly slaugh- 

 tered by the first settlers, and their trunks, in the main, made 

 into rails to serve as fences to inclose the cultivated patches 

 of land, or the more ignoble uses of pens for hogs and cattle. 

 So effectively did the axe and saw perform their work of de- 

 struction that the greatest part of this island forest has been 

 utterly destroyed, and now there is none but some small strips 

 and scattered trees. The largest existing belt is on the south- 

 eastern side of the island, and here, until about twenty years 

 ago, was standing a most gigantic sycamore. By actual and 

 careful measurement its circumference at the base was found 

 to be thirty-two feet and a slight fraction over. But, at the 

 time above indicated, this grand monarch of the forest fell a 

 victim to the insatiable rapacity of man. The most of its 

 trunk was converted into butchers' blocks, some of which 



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