Tree Rings

If one can truly tell the age of a tree by the number of rings, then the specimen above was about 81 years old.

It is one of the many being destroyed in what once was a forest behind me.



Apparently counting tree rings has a name: Dendrochronology. If you count the rings you will see that some are wide, some narrow. Apparently this tells about years of drought, etc. It's rather fascinating, although I'd rather have the tree to look at than the stump to examine.

I keep telling myself that the new sunlight upon the forest floor will result in a wealth of different vegetation. Maybe new blackberry bushes or something.

Eighty-one years is not a long time in the life of a tree, but it is longer than the person who instigated the cutting has been alive. The first tree would have been a young 11 years old when that person was born. It would have been slim and willowy and anxious to raise its branches toward the sky.

I would have guessed the tree to be older than 81, which goes to show you can't tell a tree's age by its girth.

In 1927, (81 years ago), the first transatlantic telephone call was made. The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later the FCC) began to regulate radio frequencies.

The Mississippi flooded (that sounds like today, doesn't it).

Saudi Arabia became an independent country, telling Britain goodbye.

Television was first demonstrated to a mass audience of 600 people.

The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later CBS) was formed.

The Ford Company unveiled the Model A.

And a little seedling in a field began to sprout, and grow and grow until the chainsaws came.