> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ralph Walter
> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 11:40 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Morev preservation secrets
>
>
> Would somebody please explain to me how you know when the tree was cut
> without having the outermost layer of wood (and therefore the
> bark) still in
> place?  I understand how you can determine the sequence of years before it
> was cut, but without the bark, how do you know you're not looking at some
> sequence long before it was cut?  Huh?

I'm sure this science is presented somewhere on the web more cogently than I
can for those not so lazy about doing their own research, but because I'm a
nice guy, I'll share my understanding of it for you.

Basically, it is the pattern of the thickness of the rings, how they
alternate from fat (good growing season) to narrow (dry season); by
comparing these patterns to the pattern of core samples taken from trees of
known age (ie., a tree still living with its bark), you can determine age.
It requires developing databases of like species in a particular area that
share the same general climate pattern.  Then you just overlay the pattern
of rings, essentially sliding them around until they match, and viola...you
can count years to the rings where the trees were cut.

What is really fascinating is that they can go back further and further in
time as the database becomes more complete.  One timber's rings will overlap
on the older part of its core with the rings on the younger part of another
timber that is being analyzed, and you begin to develop a continuous ring
record further and further back as you test more timber.

This is analytical work computers were made for!
_____________________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Executive Director     "The workman ought often to
Raleigh Historic                              be thinking, and the thinker
Districts Commission                      often to be working."
[log in to unmask]                                            -- John Ruskin