88 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



in the year of 891. This was at the time Alfred 

 the Great was slowly welding the rough Anglo- 

 Saxons into the first beginnings of the England 

 of to-day. It was not until 600 years later that 

 the first European was destined to set foot on these 

 American shores. From th$ American standpoint 

 this makes me a prehistoric tree. I am more Ameri- 

 can than the Indians themselves, and I regard them 

 somewhat in the same light that you regard the 

 immigrants that land here to-day. 



"By a careful counting you can easily fix a num- 

 ber of important facts in my life. When I was 

 a vigorous but willowy sapling of twenty-five some 

 heavy object, probably a dead neighbour, fell upon 

 me and almost gave me curvature of the spine. 

 After some five years of struggling I succeeded 

 in throwing off the encumbrance and gradually 

 resumed my natural and upright position. For 

 almost a century after that I went through a period 

 of even, rapid growth while I climbed my way into 

 the upper air and light. My rings grew sym- 

 metrically on all sides with the pith in the centre, 

 indicating that there were no crowding neighbours 

 to hamper my development. Exceptionally thick 

 rings tell of moist, sunny seasons. Occasional 

 thin ones indicate severe droughts or cold spells. 



"About 1056 a great accident occurred. My 



