Don and Tim,
I'm not thinking that Hawks was drunk, just feeling impish and
in high spirits. Whether a big fish story or it's tree equivalent,
there's lots of fun to be had with the numerically naive - like a
newspaper reporter. A 300-foot tall tree would have stood out like a
proverbial you know what in the punch bowl. I'd want to see more
reports before accepting the reported tree as a genetic anomalie. It
is interesting to speculate about the possibility, though.
Bob
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 14, 2009, at 5:09 PM, DON BERTOLETTE <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Tim-
> Bob underestimates the ability of forester's to hold their liquor,
> wait, that's proving his point...
> Re 8 foot tall humans, from what I've seen of logging in the
> mid-1800's, they wouldn't even fuss with the butt swell portion of a
> tree, but instead, use springboards to access the more cylindrical
> portion of the bole, and axing their notch into a blessedly smaller
> diameter than down say at 2 feet height.
> And I believe that the size of the tree would have had those falling
> it and hauling it to mill, measuring it as accurately as they could,
> for that size of tree would have been very high value.
> Where the story breaks down is in the oral record...I'd believe a
> mill tally sheet, were it referred to or provided...but probably not
> a drunk logger's account...;>}
> -Don
>
> Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:53:01 +0000
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [ENTS] A Large Tree article in 1849
>
> Tim,
>
> I imagine it is possible. There are a few 8-foot tall humans. But
> something tells me that Mr. Hawks had just come out of the
> Charlemont Inn where he had enthusiastically imbibed for a long
> period of time and ran into a reporter from the Greenfield Gazette
> who was wearing a naive, trusting look. The rest is history.
>
> Bob
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Timothy Zelazo" <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 4:00:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada
> Eastern
> Subject: [ENTS] A Large Tree article in 1849
>
> ENTS:
>
> While I was doing some historic research on the cultural history of
> the Natural Bridge State Park, located in North Adams Massachusetts,
> I found an interesting article in the Weekly Transcript, North
> Adams, Mass., Thursday, July 12, 1849.
>
> A Large Tree. --- Mr. D. E. Hawks, of Charlemont, cut a Pine tree a
> short time since, of the following dimensions. It was 7 feet
> through 10 feet from the stump, and 5 feet through 50 feet from the
> stump. Twenty-two logs were taken from the tree, the average length
> of which were 12 feet. Fourteen feet of the tree were spoiled in
> falling. The extreme length of the tree from the stump to the top
> twigs was 300 feet! ---- Greenfield Gazette.
>
>
> I asked Robert Campanile if he thought this was possible and here is
> the response he gave me.
>
> TREE GENETICS
> There can be enormous variation among the different individuals of
> any one species and this is partly genetic. For instance, grain and
> figure may vary, just like human fingerprints. There may be no
> specific benefit from such variation. But if there is no great
> natural selective pressure not to vary, then variations will creep
> in. Genomes are not commandments, which say exactly what to do come
> what may. Genes present options. They operate in dialogue with the
> environment. So the same tree, grown under different circumstances,
> could grow in very different ways, and the effects of the different
> circumstances are reflected in the timber, height, width, etc. The
> growing timber responds to the stresses and strains and pressures
> just as the bone of mammals may do.
> In forests, trees grow straight and tall, anxious for the light.
> That and the resources needed to accomplish that growth will be
> factors in determining the height and shape of the tree needed to
> get the light. Conifers are generally light lovers. To this end they
> have a trick – many can grow very tall very quickly. This is why in
> the far north they tend to be very tall and thin – the sun is always
> low in the sky and so they get most of their light from the side. T
> he environment dictates the conditions and the challenge, and genes
> can sometimes help meet that challenge with the variance in growth a
> nd natural processes that the genetic code allows.
>
> Tim
>
>
>
> --
> Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
> Send email to [email protected]
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
> To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
>
> --
> Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
> Send email to [email protected]
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
> To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
> Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now.
> --
> Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
> Send email to [email protected]
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
> To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
--
Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
Send email to [email protected]
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
