A thousand? acres of old oak wood.

November 9. 

November 9, 2020

12 m. – To Inches’ Woods in Boxboro.

This wood is some one and three quarters miles from West Acton, whither we went by railroad.

It is in the east part of Boxboro, on both sides of the Harvard turnpike.

We walked mostly across lots from West Acton to a part of the wood about half a mile north of the turnpike, — and the woods appeared to reach as much further north.

We then walked in the midst of the wood in a southwesterly by west direction, about three quarters of a mile, crossing the turnpike west of the maple swamp and the brook, and thence south by east nearly as much more, — all the way in the woods, and chiefly old oak wood.

The old oak wood, as we saw from the bare hill at the south end, extends a great deal further west and northwest, as well as north, than we went, and must be at least a mile and a half from north to south by a mile to a mile and a quarter  possibly from east to west.

Or there may be a thousand? acres of old oak wood.

The large wood is chiefly oak, and that white oak, though black, red, and scarlet oak are also common.

White pine is in considerable quantity, and large pitch pine is scattered here and there, and saw some chestnut at the south end.

Saw no hem lock or birch to speak of.

Beginning at the north end of our walk, the trees which I measured were (all at three feet from ground except when otherwise stated) : a black oak, ten feet [ in ] circumference, trunk tall and of regular form ; scarlet oak, seven feet three inches, by Guggins Brook ; white oak, eight feet ; white oak, ten feet, forks at ten feet ; white oak, fifteen feet ( at two and a half feet, bulging very much near ground ; trunk of a pyramidal form ; first branch at sixteen feet ; this just north of turnpike and near Guggins Brook ) ; white oak, nine feet four inches ( divides to two at five feet ) ; white oak, nine feet six inches ( divides to two at five feet ) ; red oak, eight feet ( south of road ) ; white pine, nine feet ; a scarlet or red oak stump cut, twenty and a half inches [ in ] diameter, one hundred and sixty rings.

I was pleased to find that the largest of the white oaks, growing thus in a dense wood, often with a pine or other tree within two or three feet, were of pasture oak size and even form, the largest commonly branching low.

Very many divide to two trunks at four or five feet only from the ground.

You see some white oaks and even some others in the midst of the wood nearly as spreading as in open land.

Looking from the high bare hill at the south end, the limits of the old oak wood ( so far as we could overlook it ) were very distinct, its tops being a mass of gray brush, — contorted and intertwisted twigs and boughs, — while the younger oak wood around it, or bounding it, though still of respectable size, was still densely clothed with the reddish - brown leaves.

This famous oak lot — like Blood’s and Wetherbee’s – is a place of resort for those who hunt the gray squirrel.

They have their leafy nests in the oak-tops.

It is an endless maze of gray oak trunks and boughs stretching far around.

The great mass of individual trunks which you stand near is very impressive.

Many sturdy trunks (they commonly stand a little aslant) are remarkably straight and round, and have so much regularity in their roughness as to suggest smooth rougher and darker bark than Wetherbee’s and Blood’s, though often betraying the same tendency to smoothness, as if a rough layer had been stripped off near the ground.

I noticed that a great many trunks (the bark) had been gnawed near the ground, — different kinds of oak and chestnut, — perhaps by squirrels.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, November 9, 1860

At least a mile and a half from north to south by a mile to a mile and a quarter possibly from east to west. Or there may be a thousand? acres of old oak wood.  See November 10, 1860 ("I have lived so long in this neighborhood and but just heard of this noble forest, - probably as fine an oak wood as there is in New England, only eight miles west of me. Seeing this, I can realize how this country appeared when it was discovered - a full-grown oak forest stretching uninterrupted for miles, consisting of sturdy trees from one to three and even four feet in diameter, whose interlacing branches form a complete and uninterrupted canopy")