5° FIELD AND FOREST. 



sippi. In crossing the Alleghanies westward through Maryland 

 and West Virginia, it is noticed to be very much more plentiful on 

 the western than on the eastern slope of that range, and that it increa- 

 ses both in size and abundance toward the Ohio River. There, among 

 the woods where the Coniferas are almost entirely wanting, this spe- 

 cies and the Chestnut ( Castanea Americana) are among the most char- 

 acteristic trees, while the '' Poplar" is by far the largest. From the 

 car windows one may notice numerous columnar trunks conspicuous 

 for their size and altitude, and it may also be observed by those ac- 

 quainted with the species in other localities, that here there is a charac- 

 teristic meagreness of top, there being but a few crooked, not wide- 

 spreading branches, on the summit of a very lofty dusky grayish column. 

 In the State of Indiana it reappears in the greatest abundance, the ex- 

 isting growth even surpassing in massiveness that of West Virginia ; and 

 a somewhat remarable fact is that its appearance and dimensions are the 

 same whether growing in low, wet bottom lands, subject to annual 

 inundation, or on the hilly lands where the conditions of the soil are 

 widely different. 



In the lower Wabash Valley the Tulip Poplar was originally 

 abundant, and is still a very common tree ; but so much destruction 

 has been caused by the numerous saw-mills throughout the country, 

 that no one can form an idea from the present remnant, of the gigan- 

 tic dimensions of the trees of this species which stood in those mag- 

 nificent forests before the axe began its depredations. Unfortunately 

 no record of the size of these trees has been kept until within a very 

 few years since, — too late, almost, to serve the purpose, 'though per- 

 haps the measurements taken, and here presented, may give a pretty 

 correct idea of the usual size of such trees as are now cut for lumber. 

 The subjoined table is the result of occasional opportunities for meas- 

 uring trees, rather than a systematic attention to the subject. It should 

 first be explained that each number denotes an actual careful mesure- 

 mettt by tape-line, not a single estimate being admitted; that the cir- 

 cumference is invariably above the swell at the base of the trunk, or at 

 a distance of from two to five feet from the ground, and that the 

 length of the trunk denotes the distance from the ground to the first 

 large limb, and not to the main fork, should there be a branch be- 

 low it. 



The first column of figures refers to the total length; the second to 



