II. 3. THE CHESTNUT. 169 
at six feet. The trunk was undivided for twenty-four feet, 
where it put forth several large but short branches. A third was 
a perfectly vigorous tree, rising to eighty or ninety feet, with 
many large branches, at all heights above fifteen feet. It was 
eighteen feet nine inches at the surface, fifteen feet three inches 
at three feet, and thirteen feet two inches at six. A fourth, 
which measured nineteen feet eight inches at the surface, fifteen 
feet nine inches at three feet, and fourteen feet three inches at 
six, at nine or ten feet, threw out some large crooked branches, 
and then towered to eighty or ninety feet, with a magnificent, 
full, branchy head. In the near vicinity, on land of widow 
Rhoda Houghton, are many noble trees, three of which deserve 
to be recorded. One, a vigorous, well-branched tree, seventy 
or eighty feet high, measured, at the surface, at three and at six 
feet, twenty-two feet three inches, seventeen feet one inch, and 
fourteen feet ten and one-half inches. A second, beginning to 
decay, measured, at the same points, twenty feet five inches, 
sixteen feet two inches. and fourteen feet ten inches. A third, 
which at six feet divided into two main trunks, seventy or 
eighty feet high, measured, in like manner, twenty-two feet six 
inches, seventeen feet one inch, and sixteen feet seven inches in 
circumference. 
In the stump of a tree recently growing on the same land, 
which measured four and one-half feet or fifty-four inches in 
diameter, one hundred and twenty circles were counted, indi- 
cating an annual growth of nine-twentieths of an inch. At the 
same rate, the largest of these trees may be a hundred and 
seventy or a hundred and eighty years old. ‘T'wo trees in Hop- 
kinton, on land of Mr. Valentine, measured, in 1826, one twenty- 
five and one-half feet, the other twenty-three feet at the ground. 
South-east of Monument Mountain, near the road leading to 
Sheffield, in a pasture, an old chestnut measured, in September, 
1844, at the ground, thirty feet two inches in circumference; at 
two feet, twenty-four feet seven inches, at four, twenty-one feet. 
At sixteen feet, it throws out several large branches, which form 
a top of sixty feet across. Some of the branches are decaying 
and ruinous. 
Such fine old trees as these, wherever found, ought to be 
23 
