GOOD EFFECTS OF THINNING. 



155 



ill '/ 



first sawn longitudinally right through the centre ; and 

 when this was done, it presented the most unusual and 

 unaccountable appearance of anything of the kind we 

 had ever before seen or heard of. See fig. 4, showing 

 an end section. The united con- 

 centric growths of seventy - three 

 years only measured 3 inches diam- 

 eter of the tree, some of them so 

 very minute that they could not be 

 seen by the naked eye. After that 

 date, beginning with the seventy- 

 fourth year's growth, the annual 

 zones at once increased from that of 

 less than the thirty-second part of 

 an inch, to that of fully one-eighth 

 of an inch, and some years to fully 

 one -seventh of an inch; and this 

 increased growth was maintained tQl 

 the one hundred and seventh year 

 of its age, when the tree, as already 

 stated, was cut down. At first we 

 were quite at a loss to account for 

 these moat extraordinary phenomena, 

 both in the excessively small zones 

 at first, and those unusually great at 

 last. The tree, as we afterwards dis- 

 covered, had been originally planted 

 in the centre of four hardwood trees, 

 probably ash or elm, but which could 

 not be determined, owing to the ad- 

 vanced state of decay of the stools. Four of the 

 stools were found within 4 feet of the larch on all 

 sides. The hardwoods in question had evidently been 

 cut down about thirty -three years previously, and 



Fig. 4. 



