ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 2 73 



"Wild calculations have been made of the ages of the larger of these trees; 

 but one of the oldest in the Calaveras grove being cut down and the rings of 

 the wood counted, its age proved to be one thousand three hundred years; and 

 probably none now upon the ground date back farther than the Christian era. 

 They began with our modern civilization ; they were just sprouting when the 

 star of Bethlehem rose and stood for a sign of its origin ; they have been 

 ripening in beauty and power through these nineteen centuries ; and they stand 

 forth nov a type of the majesty and grace of Him with whose life the)' are 

 coeval. Certainly they are chief among the natural curiosities and marvels of 

 Western America, of the known world; and though not to be compared, in the 

 impressions they make and the emotions they arouse, to the great rock scenery 

 of the Yosemite, which inevitably carries the spectator up to the Infinite 

 Creator and Father of all, the)" do stand for all that has been claimed for them 

 in wonderful greatness and majestic beaut}-." 



So much larger are these immense trees than those we ordinarily see, that a 

 comparison is about the only way in which we can correctly measure them. 

 Shortly after they were discovered, the hollow trunk of one of them was for- 

 warded to New York, where it was converted into a grocer)- store. 



In one of these groups of trees a stage road has been cut under the trunk 

 through the roots, and immense coaches, drawn by six horses, pass directly 

 under the old giant. 



One of the original hotels, known as the "Hotel de Redwood," consisted at 

 one time of five hollow trees. One served as an office and bar-room, another 

 for the proprietor's family, and dining-room, and the remainder were used as 

 lodgings. 



A pioneer set up house-keeping in the hollow trunk of one of these trees. 

 His family had room enough, and there was no trouble about lathing and 

 plastering. A hollow tree thirty to forty feet in diameter would make several 

 rooms of convenient size, and quite large enough for a numerous family. 



We have known men upon whose grounds were old, magnificent trees of 

 centuries growth, lifted up into the air with vast breadth, and full of twilight 

 at midday who cut down all these mighty monarchs and cleared the ground 

 bare ; and then when the desolation was completed and the fierce summer sun 

 gazed full into their faces with its fire, they besought themselves of shade, and 

 forthwith set out a generation of thin, shadowless sticks. Such folly is theirs 

 who refuse the tree of life the shadow of the Almighty and sit instead 

 under feeble trees of their own planting, whose tops will never be broad enough 

 to shield them, and whose boughs will never discourse to them the music of 

 the air. 



BEECHER. 



It never rains roses : when we want 



To have more roses we must plant more trees. 



13 GEORGE ELIOT. 



