January 21

Cutting the Big Elm

Four men, cutting at once, began to fell the big elm at 10 a.m., went to dinner at 12, and got through at 2.30 p. m. They used a block and tackle with five falls, fastened to the base of a buttonwood, and drawn by a horse, to pull it over the right way; so it fell without harm down the road. One said he pulled twenty turns.

I measured it at 3 p.m., just after the top had been cut off . It was 15 feet to the first crotch. At 75 feet, the most upright and probably highest limb was cut off, and measured 27 inches in circumference. As near as I could tell from the twigs on the snow, and what the choppers said who had just removed the top, it was about 108 feet high.

At the ground the stump measured 8 4/12 one way, 8 3/12 another, 7 1/2 another. It was solid quite through at butt (excepting 3 inches in middle), though somewhat decayed within, and I could count pretty well 105 rings, to which add 10 more for the hollow and you have 115.

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