PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



283 



interior wood having rotted and crumbled away, yet the roots and branches 

 are aiive and growing thriftily, and the outer walls are fresh and green, 

 notwithstanding two-thirds of its bulk, the oldest formed, is dead and gone. 

 Such a tree has lost its greatest value centuries ago. 



Youth is life, energy, strength, vitality, elasticity, no matter whether it 

 be in the animal or vegetable world. 



The oak, at thirty years, having made a rapid growth, is in its prime. 

 This wood is sought by the manufacturers, while in an ancient tree the wood 

 is dead, brittle, and for many purposes of far less value. 



Second-growth hickory, that young, vigorous timber which quickly 

 springs up in an old clearing, where the vegetable mould is abundant to stim- 

 ulate rapid growth, is of much greater value than lumber made from older 

 trees. 



A woodsman never chose an old tree from which to make an ax handle, 

 but seeks a young pecan or a hickory sapling which possesses the necessary 

 strength and elasticity. 



The best carriage spokes are made from second-growth hickory the tree 

 from twenty to thirty years growth while the locust rapidly decreases 

 in value after the fifteenth year. 



From careful measurement made of many trees growing in parks, and 

 of well known age, the following table is prepared : 



AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE IN GIRTH FROM PLANTING. 



Inches. 



Ash 2.8 



Birch ... . . .4.4 



Buckeye 2.1 



Chestnut ; ... .2.9 



Catalpa 3.4 



Cottonwood 7.0 



Elm, White 3.2 



Hemlock 1.7 



Hickory 2.4 



Honey Locust 3.0 



Inches. 

 K'nt'cky Coffee Tree 2. 6 



Larch 3.0 



Locust 4.0 



Lombardy Poplar ..5.5 



Linn 3.3 



Maple, White 5.8 



Maple, Red 2.0 



Maple, Sugar 2.1 



Mulberry 4.0 



Wild Cherry 1.8 



Inches. 



Oak, Red 3.3 



Oak, Black 2.3 



Oak, Burr 2.5 



Oak, Willow 2.5 



Pine, White 2.2 



Sweet Gum 2.6 



Sycamore 3.9 



Spruce, Norway ... .2.4 



Tulip Poplar 2.7 



Weeping Willow ... .7.0 



TREES WHICH HAVE GROWN IN FOURTEEN YEARS. 



Common Name. Scientific Name. 



Linn Tilia Americana 



Yellow Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera 



Silver Maple Acer dasycarpum 



Red Maple Acer rubrum 



Height in feet. 



40 



35 



SO 



30 



Sugar Maple Acer saccharinum 25 



White Poplar Populus monilifera 60 



Lombardy Poplar Populus dilatata 65 



Weeping Willow Salix Babylonica 45 



Girth, in. 

 46 

 38 

 81 

 30 

 24 

 96 

 78 

 96 



