Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1892 — It Lives 1,000 Years. [ARTICLE]

It Lives 1,000 Years.

The extreme limit of the age of the oak is not exactly known, but some sound and living specimens are at least 1,000 years old. Oak timber is not the heaviest, toughest, nor most beautiful, but it combines more good qualities than uny o'her kind. Its fruit is valuable food and its bark useful in certain industries. An oak pile submerged for 050 years in London bridge came up in sound condition, and there are specimens from the tower of London which date from the time of William Rufus. To produce a good oak grove requires from 140 to 200 year*. If an oak could be suspended in the air with all its roots and rootlets perfect and unobscurcd, the Ohio State Journal says, the sight would be wonderful. The activity of the root* represent a great deal of power. . They bore into the soil and flatten themselves to penetrate a crack in a rock. Invariably the tips turn away from the light. The growing point of a tiny outer root is back of the tip a short distance. The tip is driven on by the force behind it and searches the soil for the easiest points of entrance. When the tips are destroyed by obstructions, cold, heat or other causes, a new growth starts in varying direction*. The first roots thicken and become girders to support the tree, no longer feeding it directly, but serving us conduits for the moisture and nourishment gathered by the outer rootlets, which are constantly boring their way into the fresh territory. These absorb water charged with soluble earth*, salts, sulphates, nitrates, phosphates of lime, magnesia nnd potash, etc., which pass through the larger roots, stem and branches to the leaves, the laboratory of new growth. An oak tree may have 700,000 leaves, and from June to October evaporates 226 times It* own weight of water. Taking account of the new wood grown, we obtain some idea of the enormous gain of matter and energy from the outside universe which goes on eoch summer.