Research ‘GENSHERMAN’ or Gen Sherman. It has a relation with the trees on the borders of the card. Some trees look way older than others by the way. Remember the quote from Hint#1?
Solution of this Step
General Sherman (Gen. Sherman) is the biggest tree of the world, measured by volume. It was named in 1879 after soldier William T. Sherman who served in the American Civil War. The tree is located in California. Previously we found the text ‘GEN SHERMAN START AT NAMEDAY’. Therefore one of the previous facts is truly important, the year the tree General Sherman received its name (its nameday). That year is 1879. The text ‘start at’ indicates that we should count something. This has a direct link with all the trees on the borders of the card with different ages. The quote from Hint #1 told us that you can evaluate the age of a tree by counting the rings […] formed by the expanding central trunk. That’s exactly what you should do, count the number of annual rings for every tree, and add that to the starting year of 1879. This should give you the following years, starting at the left bottom and moving clockwise: 1900, 1889, 1898, 1889, 1893, 1903, 1885, 1896, 1887 and 1892. Now this is a lot of work of course, so to go on with the puzzle you would only have had to calculate one or two of these years (depending on your research skills).
Cards of Confound