1284 



Canadian Forestri} Journal, September, 1917 



operations have so far only yield- 

 ed a tree of 3250 years old. 



Popular lecturers, in solemn tones, 

 are apt to tell us, "Scientists agree 

 that the bigtrees are 10,000 years 

 old." This may or may not be the 

 case. The foresters, however, after 

 finding trees 3,200 years old, are 

 willing to concede that there may be 

 trees which took root between 4,000 

 and 5,000 years ago. 



During logging operations in the 

 Converse Basin of Fresno County, 

 a clear boled symmetrical bigtree 

 was being cut, and, much to the 

 astonishment of the sawyers, black 

 sawdust appeared at several different 

 intervals. When the tree finally suc- 

 cumbed to their efforts, it was found 

 that at different times fire had burn- 

 ed through the bark and charred the 

 wood. But the tree with infinite 

 patience had each time enclosed the 

 wound with new growth and left the 

 trunk perfect as far as outward ap- 

 pearance was concerned, except for 

 one fire scar. 



The tree in question was 2,171 

 years old. It began its exist- 

 ence 271 B.C. At the beginning 

 of the Christian Era it was al- 

 ready about twelve feet in cir- 

 cumference. When 516 years 

 of age (^A.D. 245) a burning oc- 

 curred three feet wide on the 

 trunk. It took 105 years to heal 

 this wound. Then for 1196 years 

 it grew without injury. When 

 1712 years old ( A.D. 1441) two 

 fire scars were made, the heal- 

 ing process taking 139 years. 

 Again 217 years of growth fol- 

 lowed without injury, until in 



1797, when the tree was 2068 

 Years old, a great fire ate away 

 the bark and attacked the wood 

 in a scar 18 feet wide and nearly 

 30 feet in height. 



During the following 103 years 

 before it was cut, four feet of this 

 scar had been covered with fresh 

 growth. If the tree had not been cut 

 we might have expected it to entirely 

 heal over about the year 2250. Thus 

 it would have taken four and one- 

 half centuries to repair the damage 

 wrought by one forest fire. 



Any other tree would have been 

 attacked by decay and completely 

 destroyed after any of these fires; but 

 the Sequoia, with its thick protective 

 bark, and its equally wonderful dis- 

 ease resisting wood, stands out among 

 trees and man as having the greatest 

 vitality of any growing thing. 



Why in Groves'l 

 We are absolutely certain that 

 many individual trees are at least 

 3250 years old. Many may be be- 

 tween 4,000 and 5,000 years old. 

 Why, then, do we find them still re- 

 maining in the small isolated groves 

 where the ice age left them? Why, 

 as in the case of the pines and firs, 

 did they not reach out and take their 

 place, scattered all over the great for- 

 ests of the Sierras? They bear mil- 

 lions of seeds and wind and water 

 scatter these about the forest. Yet 

 century after century they have 

 grown in the same spot. A few 

 young trees grow up to take the 

 place of those which die, but still 

 in sight of the same little spot of 

 earth where their parent tree, per- 

 haps, is standing to-day. 



*■— " 



A TREE 4,000 YEARS OF AGE 



When one of the big trees in California fell, John Muir counted 

 4,000 rings from the heart out. That meant the tree was forty cen- 

 turies old. Thus it was a strong young tree when Abraham went into 

 Egypt; it was bearing seed when Sodom and Gomorrah were des- 

 troyed; it was old as America when Joseph was sold into Egypt, nearly 

 a thousand years old when David slew Goliath, and older when Christ 

 was born than the Christian religion is to-day! 



