CO-EVAL WITH COLUMBUS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1752, 17 May 1913, Page 3

CO-EVAL WITH COLUMBUS.

SPECIMEN OP TOTABA TREE. A tree which sprouted above ground about the time tliaJt Columbus discovered America would be expected to be a mammoth in the twentieth century, but the size (it seems) depends entirely on the kind of tree. Professor Kirk has a section of a Mara tree—not'a very large section—in his room at Victoria College, and lie has marked upon various rings in the wood which grew in the years that great events in the history of the "world occurred. Ho estimates that the tree began to giow about tho time that Columbus sailed on't looking for his new way to India, and lie has marked how much the tree had grown by the time that Charles I was beheaded, and so on. The slow growth of these grand trees is in marked contrast to that of the rapidgrowing conifers, which are now being planted by the Government, somo of which increase in diameter at tho rate or from an inch to two # inches in ono year. But there is tho consideration of cost and oompound interest on tho cost of laiiid and labour to be taken into account when planting for profit. Calculation will shtow that tho ultimate cost of a timber tree which takes 80 years to grow to a milling size, as compared with that of a tree which grows to the same sira in 40 years, is ncit twice as much, but about seven times as much, so great is the cumulative effect of compound interest.