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Show Search for Tree That Is Oldest Who has the oldest tree in town? Who has the biggest tree? ivocal pride in trees has touched off a series of contests and searches search-es in which garden clubs, civic groups, schools and city officials have joined. East Orange, N. J. has just discovered dis-covered its oldest tree is a 200- year-oid swamp oaK. i ne age was established by scientific methods. It turned out to be 25 years older than most residents had guessed. The tree will be marked with a suitable plaque. ' So popular was the search that neighboring Rutherford, N. J., has begun a similar oldest-tree contest. And in Vermont, Bennington County Coun-ty is holding a Big Tree contest to determine who has the largest tree. In some contests, a city forester or tree warden acts as judge, with the aid of tree experts. An increment in-crement borer which does the tree no harm is driven into the center of a tree and a core of wood about a quarter of an inch in diameter is extracted. By count-, ing the number of annual rings on the core, the tree's age can be determined de-termined exactly. Width of the rings also give a clue as to weather conditions in the preceding years even 300 to 400 years ago. |
