MISC. PUBLICATION 295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Tatum Oak (white oak) , at Mantua Grove, about 4 miles from 

 Woodbury, has a circumference of 25% feet at 4 feet above ground, 

 above all enlargement caused by roots. It is 94 feet tall and has 

 a branch spread of 121 feet. Its estimated age is about 1.000 years. 

 This information is contained in letters from John A. Whitall, 

 president of the Gloucester County Historical Society, New Jersey, 

 to the Forest Service, dated August 22. 1916, and January 10. 1917. 

 Also Alfred Gaskill, then State forester, is quoted as claiming that 

 this is the largest white oak tree east of the Alleghenies. 



The same letters report a white oak at Mantua (6, 54) on a knoll 

 on the bank about 3 miles farther up the creek than Tatum Oak, 

 which has a circumference of 20 feet 1 inch 4 feet from the ground. 

 The spread of its branches is given as 118 feet. 



A sassafras at Madison has been reported by the owner. Henry 

 Hentz, as having a circumference of 12% feet 6% feet above the 

 ground, a height of 75 feet, and a branch spread of 50V 2 feet. Cor- 

 respondence and photograph in files of the Forest Service. 



A black walnut on Hanover Neck with a circumference of 24 

 feet has been listed among the largest individual hardwood trees by 

 Lamb (£, -54). 



NEW YORK 



New York is represented in this hall of fame by three notable 

 elms: The Gowanda, the Elm of Italy Hollow, and the Markham 

 Elm. The Gowanda Elm, "New York's Greatest Tree." has a cir- 

 cumference of more than 30 feet. Simmons (85, pp. 9-12), says: 



The Gowanda Elm is 39 feet in circumference near the ground, and is with- 

 out limbs to 50 feet from the ground, at which height its girth is 20 feet. The 

 tree is 100 feet tall and contains 17,000 board feet of lumber, sufficient to make 

 1,800 barrels. 



Records submitted in a contest for the largest tree in New York, 

 organized by the State College of Forestry at Syracuse and the New 

 York State Forestry Association, in 1921, gave this tree the prize as 

 having a circumference of 34 feet 2 inches. 



Elm of Italy Hollow, near the town of Middlesex, carried off the 

 prize in a big-tree contest sponsored in New York State in 1920 by 

 the State College of Agriculture. Its circumference is given as 32 

 feet and it shades an area of 8,650 square feet. (See Trees asso- 

 ciated with the building of the Nation, p. 33.) 



A giant elm, whose long life has almost run its course, is the Mark- 

 ham Elm ('/i, pp. 42-^3) on the estate of that name 2 miles north 

 of Avon. The circumference of the trunk has measured 40 feet, but 

 it is much decayed and as far back as 1893 a part of the huge tree 

 blew down, making it possible to saw a section" across and count the 

 annual rings, which showed that the tree was then about 600 years 

 old. (See Trees associated with the building of the Nation, p. 33.) 



At the home of Ellis Parker Butler, at Flushing, Long Island 

 (65) there is a white oak with a circumference of 17 feet. It is 

 only 54 feet tall and has a branch spread of 90 feet. Its real 

 claim to distinction is its age, estimated by the botanist, Asa Gray, 

 as 600 years. Since Gray died in 1888, his estimate of the tree's age 

 must be increased by about 50 years. 



