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It was only a tree, a gnarled rock maple that stood for generations on the Tenney farm, and somehow survived what happened there on that September night in 1964.

Slow-growing, strong to resist damage by storm, clean in habit and beautiful the year round—this is our splendid rock maple.

My favorite kind is a rock maple chopping block, but I do wonder about the risk of bacterial contamination when cutting on a porous material.

Where there is no danger of roots damaging the subdrainage or the substructure of the road, some other favorite varieties would be elms, rock maples, horse-chestnuts, beeches, pines, and cedars.

It is on the line between Mr. Edwards' south field on one side, and the woods of our pasture where those big yellow birches and rock maples are, on the other.