258 IN AUTUMN. 



being sixty-five inches. As it is, including the 

 three somewhat stunted trees, the growth (cir- 

 cumferential measurement) has been sixty 

 inches in fifty-four years ; an annual increase of 

 one and one ninth inches.* 



These pines stand upon a bluff, composed of 

 compact ferruginous sand of great depth, and are 

 exposed to the full sweep of the western and 

 northern winds. In the matter of soil and ex- 

 posure they have had equal chances. It is not 

 readily seen, if at all determinable, why more of 

 these trees should not have reached the maxi- 

 mum size, and become stately trees, which, in a 

 sadly deforested landscape, are commanding ob- 

 jects. 



A year later two wild cherries were planted 

 near the pines by the same person. " These trees 

 were very small," he writes me, "as I pulled 

 them up with my hand and carried them to 

 the yard, as one would a walking-stick. Prob- 

 ably neither was more than an inch in diameter." 



* Since the above was written, one of these pines has 

 been felled, and the rings of annual growth carefully 

 counted. They are sixty in number, which accords with 

 the history given above of the planting, now nearly fifty- 

 five years ago. It may be well to add that, while each 

 ring is distinctly defined, there are several much larger 

 than the others, and a general increase of the width of 

 the rings upon the southeastern side of the trunk. 



