TELLING TREES’ AGES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 15, Issue 37, 10 May 1904, Page 7

TELLING TREES’ AGES.

The only accurate way to estimate a tree’s age is '• b*v the measurement of its girth,” said a botonisl. “The counting of the rings of exogenous trees can only be applied to such as are cut down in their prime, for these trees when they begin to die, cease to add their yearly rings. Girth measurement is the only safe guide to the age of trees. Hence all over the world, botanists have now for some years been measuring trees of known and unknown age, compiling thus a volume of statistics that will bfceomc more and more valuable as it increases in size. ” The yew is the longest-lived of trees. Three feet a century, our statistics show, is its normal growth According to this ruie, the Fortingal ,yew, of Scotland, which was 56ft. in girth in 1769 must have lived over 1,800 years. The Tisbury yew, in Dorsetshire, is 37ft. in girth and should therefore be 1,200 years old. ” There is tabic of the age of oaks that differs from this. It is not a very satisfactory table, but it is compiled from trees of known age, and therefore it is statistically very valuable, According to it a 40-year-old oak had a circumference of Bft. ; 83 years, 12ft. ; 100 years, 18ft. ; 200 years, 20ft. ; 260 years, 27ft. ; 300 yeafs, 33ft. ”