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November 17, 1994 - Warning Signs from the Great Recycler8hti 'the 8 ffolk'Cimes`o November 17, 1994' ' ' Warning Signs from the Great Recycler By Paul Stoutenburah Back yards, front yards, side yards. All have a story to tell. Right now I'm looking over our front yard — or is it our back yard? The building code de- fines the front yard as the side of the house that faces the road. With that bit of wisdom I'd better change my state- ment to read: Right now I'm looking over my back yard and a hickory tree stump is blossoming with a large cream - colored fungus. A year or so ago we had one of our wild winter storms that raised havoc with anything that stood in its way. Of the 13 or 14 hickory trees in our "back yard," all were battered. One was blown completely down while the rest stood the onslaught but suffered considerable damage. Tops were twisted off, limbs were broken and hanging and, of course, the lawn was littered with leaves and dead branches that made the lawn look as if it were part of a forest. We built here almost 40 years ago and never before have we seen such damage. Ev- ery tree had its dangling limbs, some four to five inches in diameter. Hickory is one of the great woods of our eastern seaboard. It was prized by the early settlers because of its ability to withstand the breakage. Its fibers hold together like no other wood. Any good adz, ax, sledge or mallet handle had to have its hickory to make it a true work- ing tool. Those who split wood for the fire know its ability, when green, to re- sist. Let the wood sit for a year or two and decay starts to break down those resisting fibers and the wood is more easily split but even then it's a hassle. Always the Best The fuel value of hickory ranks among the highest and somewhere I read that a cord of hickory wood is al- most the equivalent in thermal units to a ton of anthracite coal. In smoking fish, hams or other meats, hickory is hard to beat. It was the preferred wood for smoking of our early settlers and still is today. Without refrigeration in those days, meats not used immediately would have spoiled without smoking. Even today on some of our old farms you can still see that once all- important Focus on Mature smokehouse now neglected and often in shambles. The old Hallockville Museum Farm homestead just west of Laurel has recently reconstructed a typical old smokehouse on the original foundation just off the back kitchen. It was placed there close to the house because the smoking fires needed continual attention. Not too hot. Not too cold. Should the fire get too warm, wet sawdust would soon quench the fire and create the desired smoke. When we built here in Cutchogue many years ago most of the hickories around the house were six to seven inches in diameter. Today they are a foot or more across. Well do I remember those early days when the bulldozer came in to dig the cellar. How the operator cussed the hickories. Not only are they tough above ground but they hold deep within the earth a huge taproot that resembles a giant carrot. The stumps had to be dug around rather than pushed out as could be done with most other trees. After the storm I mentioned previously that raised such havoc with my hickories, we thought the only thing to do would be to bring in a professional tree person and have the broken, twisted limbs removed. One limb couldn't wait for our contractor to do the trimming and it fell on our car, breaking the windshield and denting the hood. When the tree man finished our trees, they looked naked and dilapidated, so much so we decided to take three of them down. Besides, we had enough trees to spare in our back yard. But when all was done and cleaned up there still remained the three stumps standing about 21/2 feet above the ground, and it is on one of these the shelf fungus I spoke of earlier grows. When you see a mushroom, puffball or other fungus growing on a tree or around its base, you can rest assured that the tree's days are limited. In some instances it will take only a year or two. Others will linger on longer. What is i_es9w ■_wwL nwwL 82 Years Ago Nov. 16, 1912 Phone Rates To Rise: Considerable consternation has arisen in Orient village over the announcement that telephone rates are going up. The rates have been advanced to $18 a year for private residences, and $24 for business places and houses listed as such. Many of the subscribers have signed a petition, declaring that they will take their phones out rather than pay the increased rate. The telephone company claims that the entire service is to be improved, and that the regular rate is not to be advanced — merely, adjusted to the same price as it is in other villages in the county. Orient News: It is stated today that license has been granted for the opening of a saloon in the building formerly used as a bowling alley. The village is pretty much stirred up over the announcement. 50 Years Ago Nov 17, 1944 Baymen Protest Change in Scallop Law: A group of about 30 baymen, all of whom are members of the County Baymens Protective Association, met in the Green - port Village Hall on Monday evening of this week to protest a proposed change in the existing scallop law. It was Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh SHELF FUNGUS — Whenever you see any fungus growing on a tree or limb you can rest assured the tree's days are limited. It's nature's way of recycling organic material. taking place within the roots and trunk of the tree is tiny filaments called mycelium that are working their way through the wood and breaking the cellulose down. It's this sort of unanimously voted that a letter be sent from the association to the Long Island Fishermen's Association protesting the proposed change in the scallop law which would limit the scallop season from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1. The change would remove all limits to the amount of scallops caught, would lift the ban of the taking of scallops with power and would allow scalloping both day and night on all state -owned land under water. A committee consisting of Albert Conklin, Nathan Warn- er and Howard Raynor was appointed to confer with Alfred Tucker, the newly appointed superintendent of Marine Fish- eries, regarding the catching of bug scallops in certain sec- tions of the bay. 25 Years Ago Nov 21, 1969 New Scout Troop Forms: More than 30 boys have signed up to participate in the new scouting troop being organized by the Greenport Rotary Club. The Ameri- can Legion has agreed to donate use of their hall as a meet- ing place. The first meeting will be on Dec. 2. These advances toward making a reality of a Greenport scout troop come hard on the heels of obtaining a volunteer leader, when Gabriel Grilli Jr. offered his services in that capacity last week. decomposition that goes on in our compost piles, the breaking down of vegetable matter into nutrient -rich soil. It's how the forest fertilizes itself by recycling its leaves, branches and eventually the whole tree. From where I'm sitting each day the shelf fungus, which is actually the flowering and reproduction parts of the fungus, grows a bit more. When it's fully developed its ripened spores (seeds) will fall free from beneath the shelf and drift off into the wind. So tiny are these particles that they will drift miles away or even thousands of miles to fall on some other tree or limp that's ripe for growing. There they will stay for a day, a month or perhaps years until all the conditions of temperature, moisture and food supply are just right and then they will start their job of breaking down the fibers within. Eventually there will be nothing left but the rich duff of the forest floor. Nature has completed one of its most important jobs of destroying matter. To the connoisseur of mushrooms this fungus would be a delicacy and perhaps (if it weren't so beautiful and interesting in the center of our lawn) I too would indulge, but for now it will remain the centerpiece for all to see and observe. My hope is that those who see it will start to understand this remarkable story of life and death that happens to all in the end.