i 
1885.] The Age of Forest Trees. 841 
' I have been a civil engineer and land surveyor since 1867, and 
as such have had occasion to examine many trees referred 
to in the field notes. The United States surveyed the land into 
sections of one mile square each, and drove stakes at the section 
corners, and also at the quarter section corners equidistant be- 
tween the section corners. They also blazed two trees near these 
corners about one anda half feet above the ground, cutting a 
small notch in the blaze, and gave in the field notes the size and 
species of the trees marked, and their courses and distances from 
the corners. 
About fifty years had elapsed between the date of the survey 
and my day as a surveyor. Many of these trees could be identi- 
fied at sight by the scar where the blaze was made. In other 
cases the tree would be so much larger than the size given in the 
field notes that the blaze would be obliterated by the spread of 
the bark, and the doubt would have to be settled by chopping 
into it at the place indicated by the notes. If we found the blaze 
and notch, we next counted the rings from the outside into the 
blaze. If the count of rings tallied with the date of the survey— 
all well. Mark a new tree and record it in what we call the sub- 
sequent field notes. 
In the year 1868 or 1869 I was making a survey in the eastern 
part of the county. Ata certain corner wanted, the field notes 
called for an ash three inches in diameter. The only ash near 
and answering to the locality, was about eighteen inches in diam- 
eter. Nobody expected to find so large a tree in the fifty years 
that had elapsed since it was marked. But on chopping into it 
we found the blaze and notch near the heart, revealing the un- 
mistakable fact that it was the real “ witness tree,” and that it had 
been marked by a left-handed chopper with a dull axe. A look 
at the ground and timber about the corner showed the further 
fact that just before the original (United States) survey was made, 
atornado had passed over that place and blown down all the 
adult trees, as all the present ones were young and thrifty, and 
the graves of the fallen trees were as plain as any mark could be. 
A tree-grave is easily known; as the tree falls the roots hold a 
considerable quantity of earth in their grasp, which leaves a large 
hole in the ground under where the tree stood. In time the body 
and roots will rot, leaving the dirt piled up on the side of the 
hole the tree fell on, and it looks as if a grave had been dug with 
