Man and Nature; Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human ActionMarsh, George P. (George Perkins)
Science
Man and Nature; Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action
Marsh, George P. (George Perkins)
Conservation of natural resources; Human geography; Nature -- Effect of human beings on; Physical geography
The remaining forests of the Northern States and of Canada no longer
boast the mighty pines which almost rivalled the gigantic Sequoia of
California; and the growth of the larger forest trees is so slow, after
they have attained to a certain size, that if every pine and oak were
spared for two centuries, the largest now standing would not reach the
stature of hundreds recorded to have been cut within two or three
generations.[248] Dr. Williams, who wrote about sixty years ago, states
the following as the dimensions of "such trees as are esteemed large
ones of their kind in that part of America" [Vermont], qualifying his
account with the remark that his measurements "do not denote the
greatest which nature has produced of their particular species, but the
greatest which are to be found in most of our towns."
Diameter. Height.
Pine, 6 feet, 247 feet.
Maple, 5 " 9 inches, }
Buttonwood, 5 " 6 " }
Elm, 5 " }
Hemlock, 4 " 9 " }
Oak, 4 " } From 100 to 200 feet.
Basswood, 4 " }
Ash, 4 " }
Birch, 4 " }
He adds a note saying that a white pine was cut in Dunstable, New
Hampshire, in the year 1736, the diameter of which was seven feet and
eight inches. Dr. Dwight says that a fallen pine in Connecticut was
found to measure two hundred and forty-seven feet in height, and adds:
"A few years since, such trees were in great numbers along the northern
parts of Connecticut River." In another letter, he speaks of the white
pine as "frequently six feet in diameter, and two hundred and fifty feet
in height," and states that a pine had been cut in Lancaster, New
Hampshire, which measured two hundred and sixty-four feet. Emerson wrote
in 1846: "Fifty years ago, several trees growing on rather dry land in
Blandford, Massachusetts, measured, after they were felled, two hundred
and twenty-three feet. All these trees are surpassed by a pine felled at
Hanover, New Hampshire, about a hundred years ago, and described as
measuring two hundred and seventy-four feet.[249]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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