Now that was an old oak...

[Dalmatian90]

Little wood **** for y'all while I sit here nursing the chest cold I came down with last night...

Took a quick walk around a local farm/forestry show yesterday...not sure if I hadn't seen this prop from the local large sawmill (Hull) or it just never clicked with me before...

The acorn started growing in 1786.

The tree was logged in 2008 -- 222 years later.

I've cut down oaks this size that wouldve barely qualified for membership in AARP!

It grew in Union, Conn. which was the last area of the state to be organized into a town, in 1734. While it was always among Connecticut's least populated towns so there wasn't as much land cleared for agriculture as other places, it is also remarkable it survived the 19th century charcoal industry. Charcoaling then would consist of cutting and piling up all the wood from about an acre (roughly 120' radius), covering with dirt, then burning it -- adjusting openings in the dirt to control the airflow. This industry was quite common in the uplands of my area.

(Union had modern charcoal kilns still in business until the early 1990s.)

When it was 152 years old, the 1938 Hurricane came along and released the tree -- but if you notice the right side grew faster than the left immediately after '38 so you can even tell which side which opened up the most.

 

[tla100]

Wow that is neat.....

 

[stihly dan]

1st 100 yrs was real slow. 2nd 100 yrs looks pretty fast growing. something must have changed to speed things up.

 

[srb08]

That's pretty cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[Wisneaky]

I want to see the picture, but it won't show up for me.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

How was the Expo?

Forgot all about it this year. Was Hull the only logging / forestry display or did any other businesses show up?

Did Hull give a location in Union where the oak was harvested? I think he owns about 10% of Union and Yale owns another 15-20% that Hull seems to get the contract for whenever a chunk comes up for bid.

Take Care

 

[buzz sawyer]

1st 100 yrs was real slow. 2nd 100 yrs looks pretty fast growing. something must have changed to speed things up.

Good observation. Maybe have been under the canopy of larger trees for at least part of that time.

 

[mn woodcutter]

Thanks for sharing that. I've always thought that would be a worthwhile project.

 

[DFK]

How wide is it???

David

 

[sweetjetskier]

That is very cool that they showcase a special tree like that.

If I remember correctly, there are only a few historic oaks left in CT, near West Hartford UConn being one place.

Link to Hull Forestry:

http://www.hullforest.com/

 

[Dalmatian90]

It's about 2' wide, maybe a couple inches bigger but certainly not smaller.

Reaching the top of canopy instead of always being in the shade was my guess for the increased growth between the late 1800s and 1938.

Other than a farmer who might have wanted some trees for timber, selective cutting wasn't practiced in the late 1800s till about WWII around here. Steam powered sawmills where moved to where the trees where, so pretty much everything marketable got cut and brought to the mill, and when it was no longer worth the time it took to haul the logs the sawmill was moved. After WWII, maybe a bit before, you finally had roads and trucks and skidders that made it practical to bring logs to a permanently located mill.

(Fires burning thousands, even tens of thousands, of acres in the brushy country left after the clear cutting, was not uncommon in Connecticut at the time, and it wasn't till the early 1960s that thousand-acre fires became a thing of the past. Now a hundred acre fire is very exceptional.)

Going back earlier, the last man publicly hung in Connecticut was hung a few hundred yards from my house in 1831. Reading his story, one of the things he used to do was start his water-powered saw mill sawing a board, then instead of tending farm business like other farmers would do would go visit his mistress. I have yet to find out more details on what must've been slow but pretty common up-and-down saw mills that could cut a board every few hours so the owner would just visit it a few times a day to set up for the next board then continue on to other chores. One of the incidents used to speak to his character was he was known to be cruel to his animals, once driving a team of oxen so hard trying to haul boards to market in summer that townsfolk who had been telling him he was driving them too hard finally stepped in and forced him to stop, but the oxen died a short time later.

I've been told where I live used to have a sawmill, which didn't make much sense to me -- except I do have enough water flowing to power something that instead of a continuously turning wheel it could fill up a "bucket" then when enough weight was built up trip and rotate to power a single stroke of of a saw and advance the log. I'd love to find more info on this style of old, small sawmill.

Show was like it's been for years...Woodmizer, Logrite, and Hull pretty much the only commercial forest-related exhibitors. Bunch of the local guys who compete in the Game of Logging show they put on. For the folks who haven't been, it's mostly put on for the general public as an agriculture appreciation day -- you can get a hayride tour of the oh probably a 1000 head dairy farm next door, some animals on exhibit, antique and modern tractors on display. It's not bad for a free show and to spend an hour walking around before heading out on the rest of the morning errands.

There is a charity raffle that the two top prizes are a Dolmar and a cord of wood...but I couldn't stay till noon when they start drawing the tickets and you had to be present to win. Wished you could leave a "wish list" and I wouldn't have minded buying a ticket.

 

[mn woodcutter]

We have a live oak on our property that we figure was around well before MN became a state. Beautiful tree! It's amazing to think about all that has happened in that amount of time. Oaks grow so slow in our area that based on the DNR's estimation it could be over 300 yrs old.

 

[olyman]

1st 100 yrs was real slow. 2nd 100 yrs looks pretty fast growing. something must have changed to speed things up.

gorebull warming..........

 

[DFK]

Would have figured it to be bigger than 2'...??
That tree did grow slow.
When my Day was 13, 60 years ago, he planted a Water Oak.
That Water Oak is now 3' across at 4' above above the ground.
And, It seems to be growing much faster now than it did 20 years ago.

David

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Little wood **** for y'all while I sit here nursing the chest cold I came down with last night...

Took a quick walk around a local farm/forestry show yesterday...not sure if I hadn't seen this prop from the local large sawmill (Hull) or it just never clicked with me before...

The acorn started growing in 1786.

The tree was logged in 2008 -- 222 years later.

I've cut down oaks this size that wouldve barely qualified for membership in AARP!

It grew in Union, Conn. which was the last area of the state to be organized into a town, in 1734. While it was always among Connecticut's least populated towns so there wasn't as much land cleared for agriculture as other places, it is also remarkable it survived the 19th century charcoal industry. Charcoaling then would consist of cutting and piling up all the wood from about an acre (roughly 120' radius), covering with dirt, then burning it -- adjusting openings in the dirt to control the airflow. This industry was quite common in the uplands of my area.

(Union had modern charcoal kilns still in business until the early 1990s.)

When it was 152 years old, the 1938 Hurricane came along and released the tree -- but if you notice the right side grew faster than the left immediately after '38 so you can even tell which side which opened up the most.

White Oak?

 

[Dalmatian90]

White oak was my assumption.

It was actually interesting, Hull sets up a display of logs of various species and grades and their value...no white oak this year. Red and Black Oak, Hickory, Ash, Soft Maple, Birch, and probably a few others I forgot. While I'm sure they had some White Oak somewhere on their lot, clearly there wasn't so much that it was handy to get to for the display.

I've read before Connecticut's shifted from White Oak in the 1970s to Red Oak today being the most common tree...Whites do better long-term against drought and other stress, but Reds germinate better following disturbances. Between high-grading taking out a higher proportion of Whites and other factors, the Reds have become more common.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

White oak was my assumption.

It was actually interesting, Hull sets up a display of logs of various species and grades and their value...no white oak this year. Red and Black Oak, Hickory, Ash, Soft Maple, Birch, and probably a few others I forgot. While I'm sure they had some White Oak somewhere on their lot, clearly there wasn't so much that it was handy to get to for the display.

I've read before Connecticut's shifted from White Oak in the 1970s to Red Oak today being the most common tree...Whites do better long-term against drought and other stress, but Reds germinate better following disturbances. Between high-grading taking out a higher proportion of Whites and other factors, the Reds have become more common.

I think you use white oak for whiskey barrels. Looks like that was Hull's start.