I was searching through the county registry for documents about a parcel in central Massachusetts. Its deeds through most of the 20th century had this in its description:
"THENCE S. 32?§ E. 60 1/2 rods by land of said [...] to a spruce tree or a stake and stones on the line of the old County Road;"
Was a surveyor uncertain about whether he was looking at a tree or at a stake and stones? Or was this a "spruce tree to be set," with its intended location temporarily marked by a stake and stones? ????
Yup.?ÿ Spruce tree to be set (TBS).?ÿ That's the correct interpretation.?ÿ Maybe the stake was made from a spruce tree.?ÿ With a little care and watering it might take root and grown into a real tree.
Don't laugh.?ÿ That's the story of how the cottonwood tree became the State Tree of Kansas.
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansas-state-capitol-cottonwood-tree/11746
Oh I have seen much much worse.
Thence northerly to the flat rock where the cows pee.
Thence to the hanging tree
And many more that would get me banned.
The best deed preamble I have ever seen was instead of a monetary value it was written "for continued sexual gratification".
Will spruce regrow from a stave like willow??ÿ If so, maybe it was a stake that the original surveyor figured would be a tree later on down the road.
@holy-cow I think that's it! It was a prediction about the future outcome of a healthy, viable spruce stake. ????
@just-a-surveyor Those are some real winners.
Good indication it was not surveyed in the field. I would assume the scrivener was combining descriptions from separate deeds. I had gathered deeds for a survey years ago, parcel on one side called for a large stone the other for a clump of trees. When I get to that corner location I found a 3'x3'x3' stone with at least a 1/2 dozen 1-2" inch trees growing from the cracks. Held it and proceeded to set a 4' 3/4" pipe and cap at the prescribed distance from it in the middle of a stream at 90?ø bend.
BTW, the "on line of" does not require the exact same location.
Paul in PA
@paul-in-pa While not so amusing as the other hypotheses, this does sound like the plausible explanation.
@john-putnam I don't know about spruce but I know that Privet will sprout from cuttings. We had done a survey for a sanitary sewer line and used flagged privet cuttings to mark the line. When we came back two or three years later to build the line almost all the line privet had sprouted roots.
Andy
Regarding spruce, willow, or privet stakes growing into trees:
/revision/latest?cb=20140202224126
Privet should be dozed up and burned over and over again because if once cut it comes back 10 fold of what it was before.
Its only purpose is to grow fast and create a barrier between areas and to reduce soil erosion.
Many trees such as most gums will sprout again from a stake when driven into the ground in the right direction.