Freak Trees of the State of New York

Part 1

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FREAK TREES

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK

The New York State College of Forestry Syracuse University

FRANKLIN MOON Dean

1926

Issued by the EXTENSION DEPARTMENT New York State College of Forestry Syracuse, New York

Material Prepared by Prof. GURTH WHIPPLE

FOREWORD

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,” in fact, everywhere in the woods, whether pathed or pathless, is the dwelling of pleasure. In the woods abides romance, mystery, music, laughter, beauty, inspiration, awe, rapture. None can escape the broadening vision, the excitement of the imagination, the poetic inspiration imparted by contact with the teeming harmony of woods life. Even the occasional discords are only minor notes that become part of one universal rythm.

TREES SURPASSINGLY INTERESTING

Added to their pleasure-giving there are their health administrations. None, who go into the woods, fail to feel the forest-refreshment to body and mind. Trees have many values and many attractions. They present such a wide diversity that they may be said to surpass in interest all other products of the soil. Their traditions, their ancient lineage, their physical properties are thought-absorbing; their beneficence and human-like habits touch a responsive chord in man. Much about them is as deep a mystery as the farthermost star.

FREAK TREES ATTRACTIVE

Tree shapes are generally beautiful even in distortion. Freak trees attract the attention of all travellers. Probably they cause more comment and speculation than almost any other phase of the forest. They excite wonder; they challenge our power of scrutiny and observation; they cause the beholder to stop, to examine and to ponder. They are sometimes inexplicable. They defy natural laws, as we know them, that govern tree life, in a way that baffles our understanding.

Freak trees often save the camper, the hunter and the explorer from disaster. Trees that do not look like the vast majority of their fellows compel attention and impress the memory, identifying locations, streams and trails, and thus often lead the lost like a guiding hand safely from the wilderness. The true woodsman consciously and unconsciously is ever looking for freak trees when he is traveling in a new country. Freak trees are landmarks, good guides, good friends.

NATURE AND ACCIDENT CAUSE FREAKS

Why do trees take on abnormal shapes? Is it something in the character of the tree or is it due to accident? The results of this contest indicate that tree-freaks are due to both causes the same as in the animal kingdom. It would seem that a close parallel to the fortunes and misfortunes of humanity may be traced in trees, which of things inanimate are the constant and most useful companions of men. Trees, like ourselves are products of their surroundings. They are favored or injured in their development by the changes that time brings in its march of years.

The Freak Tree Contest was for New York State trees only. The contest covered the period of spring, summer and fall in 1925. Many lovers of the woods took part in the contest and sent photographs far too numerous to publish in one leaflet. We have, however, reproduced within these pages some of the most interesting pictures. The contest was intended to encourage observation of the forest, to arouse interest in trees and thereby aid in creating public concern for the protection and increase of the forest.

MANY SPECIES REPRESENTED

Hickory, beech, maple, elm, locust, poplar, birch, ash, cucumber, basswood, hemlock, pine, cedar, spruce, sumach, and apple were represented in the contest. While practically all of our common forest trees evidently take on unusual shapes under favorable conditions the tree apparently most given to abnormal growth is the elm. There were four times as many photographs of freak elm trees submitted as any other species. Maple comes next with beech and birch following closely.

No section of the State seems to be particularly favored with freak trees. It would appear that hardwoods or broad leaf tree families take on malformations and curious twists and turns more generally than the softwoods or conifers.

SELECTING WINNERS, BIG PROBLEM

Choosing the winners was rather a difficult problem. A marked divergence of opinion developed on the part of the seven judges who made the selections. The committee was composed of a forest botanist and pathologist, a wood technologist, a landscape architect, an expert in woodcraft and nature study, a professional forester, a collector of photographs of freak trees and a newspaper man.

The pictures were judged from the viewpoint of their shape and form that seemed to be contrary to the nature of the species the freak trees represented.

Prizes were awarded as follows: $5.00 for the first prize, $4.00 for the second, $3.00 for the third, $2.00 for the fourth, and four prizes of $1.00 each.

PRIZE WINNERS

G. W. Gotham, 89 River Street, Cortland, N. Y.

Part 2

Two elms, the larger tree appears to have absorbed the growth of the smaller tree.

Trunk of large tree is bigger above the graft.]

C. B. Cox, Adams Center, N. Y.

Elm, trunk runs along surface of earth in half circle 45 feet near Adams Center on North Harbor Road.]

A. Wilson Insley, 30 Eagle Street, Mt. Morris, N. Y.

Elm, one mile south of Conesus Lake.]

George J. Wiedmaier, 222 King Street, Dunkirk, N. Y.

Maple, 14 inches in diameter arched 7 feet and anchored in birch tree near Arkwright, N. Y.]

H. L. Tayntor, McGraw, N. Y.

Double beech, near Homer, N. Y. Graft 18 feet in length and 8 inches in diameter.]

W. S. Broad, Morrisville, N. Y.

Twin beeches, Morrisville Swamp.]

Zack Carman, Prattsville, N. Y.

Elm lyre tree, near Prattsville, N. Y.]

Augustus C. Merle, R. F. D. 2, Attica, N. Y.

Elm tree, near Attica.]

HONORABLE MENTION

Elm tree, ½ mile south of Wolcott, N. Y.]

Small cedars said to be exactly portrayed. The illustration is from a photograph of a painting and was therefore not eligible for a prize.

Location—At the foot of Buck Mountain on east shore of Lake George. ]

Limbs of a Hickory tree joined about seven feet from ground. Near Ramapo, N. Y.]

Three Maple trees “Grandfather’s Chair.” Located at Protection, N. Y.]

Beech and Maple grown together, Harrisburg, Lewis Co., N. Y.]

Soft Maple tree near the village of Franklin, N. Y.]

Miss Faustina Dunn, Oswego Normal School, Oswego, N. Y.

Elm, “The Lyre Tree.”]

Lombardy Poplars, grown over and enclosed an old board fence. Standing along the shore of Lake Champlain a little south of Plattsburgh, N. Y.]

L. A. Lamouree, R. R. No. 2, Box 215, Saugerties, N. Y.

Part 3

Basswood or Linden tree with young tree growing out of hollow trunk of mother tree. Blue Mountain, Saugerties, N. Y.]

Mrs. W. C. Schlax, 57 Henry Ave., Newburgh, N. Y.

Pine tree, Central Valley, N. Y.]

Beech tree, Sacandaga river, town of Day, Saratoga Co.]

Arthur Burdick, Glenfield, N. Y.

Red Birch tree, Greig, Lewis Co., N. Y.]

“Eddy” Faulks, 821 University Ave., Syracuse, N. Y.

White Spruce near Cranberry Lake, opposite Ranger School.]

Apple tree, five distinct trunks, large early green apples.]

M. J. Witson, 333 Warburton Ave., Yonkers, N. Y.

Black Birch trees, Oakland Valley.]

Pine tree.]

Twin Beech, Peterboro Swamp, Madison Co., N. Y.]

Edna A. Fenska, 226 Kensington Road, Syracuse, N. Y.

Sugar Maple, near Constantia, N. Y.]

Hemlock in crevice of a high cliff of traprock, near Tuxedo, N. Y.]

Miss Dorothy D. Van Gaasbeek, Hill St., Saugerties, N. Y.

Locust trees form a gateway.]

2 Beech trees connected with branch farm woodlot west of Rochester, N. Y.]

Miss Margaret Glennon, 114 Lewis Ave., Elmhurst, L. I., N. Y.

Elm tree, about 3½ miles out of the village on the main road, Urlton, Green Co., N. Y.]

Beech, Brown’s Gorge, near McGraw.]

Cedar, eight trees growing from one stump, 15 to 20 feet high, Putnam, N. Y.]

Mountain Ash, six feet tall, limbs wound around each other such that they form a dense tangle, Scio, N. Y.]

N. W. Van Nostrand, Jr., 802 Carroll St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Elm, between Berlin and Petersburg, N. Y.]

Beech trees, 5 feet apart, limb grown into the other tree.]

Alice E. Barnes, 511 W. 112th St., New York City.

Part 4

Birch tree. On the shore of Oquaga Lake.]

Pine left, oak right, in New Hampshire. Not eligible.]

Frances E. King, 134 Franklin St., Auburn, N. Y.

Elm tree, Port Byron, N. Y. Growing from old stonework.]

Near Skyland, Calif. Not eligible.]

J. O. Wadsworth, 213 W. Adams St., Syracuse, N. Y.

Banyan tree at the United States Army Barracks, Key West, Florida. Not eligible.]

TREES NOT ELIGIBLE

English Spruce tree grafted upside down in England about 20 years ago, shipped to Smith Nursery at Amarack, N. Y., purchased 2 years later by Wm. R. Searles Mt. Kisco, N. Y.]

Finds sustenance in a small tuft of moss and huckleberry bushes on top of a boulder.]

Hornbeam trees naturally grafted.]

Beech trees near Alden.]

J. B. Lyon Co., Printers, Albany, N. Y.

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