Large black birches.

June 29.

All the large black birches on Hubbard's Hill have just been cut down, — half a dozen or more. 

The two largest measure two feet seven inches in diameter on the stump at a foot from the ground; the others, five or six inches less. The inner bark there about five eighths of an inch.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 29, 1854

All the large black birches on Hubbard's Hill have just been cut down . . .See April 24, 1855 ("I see the black birch stumps, where they have cut by Flint’s Pond the past winter, completely covered with a greasy-looking pinkish-colored cream . . ., yet without any particular taste or smell,—what the sap has turned to.")