280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



feet ill liclght, the others over 300 feet, and twenty-three feet in 

 diameter. Tiicre are nearly 100 of these trees in the grove, 

 ten of wliich arc tliirty fect or over, in diameter, and npwards 

 of SOO feet in height. Many of these trees have tablets nailed 

 to them, looking much like country guide-boards, inscribed 

 with the names of persons and places. Some are decidedly 

 inappropriate. Wc do not object to the illustrious names of 

 George Washington, Daniel Webster or Abraham Lincoln, Drs. 

 Lindley, Gray or Torrey, William C. Bryant, Henry Wads- 

 worth Longfellow or Henry Ward Bcccher, the Empire, Granite, 

 or Bay State, the Father of the Forest, the JMother of the Forest, 

 the three Graces ; but names like Salem Witch, Siamese Twins, 

 Old Bachelor or Old Maid, are simply desecrations of the noblest 

 works of God's creation. As these trees have all been described 

 so often by travellers, it would be superfluous for us to give a 

 detailed account of them ; but I will name a few of the largest. 

 In '1853, one of the largest trees, 92 feet in circumference 

 and over 300 feet high, was cut down. Five men worked 

 twenty-five days in felling it, using large augers. But the 

 monarch was so accustomed to standing, he would not then come 

 down, and it required three days more work with wedges, to 

 make him bow his stately head. The stump of this tree has 

 been smoothed off, and a house built on it which has accom- 

 modated three cotillion sets. Our party of sixteen persons 

 assembled on its headless trunk, and there, in commemoration 

 of our visit, wc joined hands and sang " Auld Lang Syne." With 

 united congratulations and benedictions, we parted with this 

 relic of former ages, declaring that it was the most substantial 

 and the greatest stump orator wc ever saw. The Mother of 

 the Forest is 327 fect high, and 78 feet in circumference 

 without the bark ; this was nearly two feet thick, and was sent 

 to the World's Fair in London in 1851. The tree is dead, but; 

 a young pine is growing in its top. One of the largest trees, the 

 Father of the Forest, long since bowed his head in the dust, and 

 yet how stupendous even in his ruin 1 He measures 112 feet in 

 circumference at the base, and can be traced 300 feet, where 

 the trunk was broken by falling against another tree ; it here 

 measures 16 feet in diameter, the size of the section of the 

 big tree on exhibition in the city of Boston, and according 

 to the average taper of the other trees, this venerable giant 



