II. 1. THE OAK. 123 



which belong to the white oak group, are shy bearers. Those 

 allied to the red oak bear more freely. It is, however, uncom- 

 mon to find any bearing abundantly, two years in succession. 

 Most of them, except the shrub oaks, must be trees of consider- 

 able height and age before they begin to bear. But they 

 become more fruitful as they grow older, and continue bearing 

 to the last. 



The rate of growth of the oak is very different in the different 

 species, and depends much, like that of every other tree, on the 

 soil, and on the exposure. If raised from the acorn, it requires 

 much shelter when young, and on all except very rich soils, 

 makes slow progress at first, although stumps of young and 

 vigorous trees throw up shoots often of five or six feet in a sin- 

 gle year. As it is slow in the early stages of its growth, it 

 continues to make steady progress for many years, and requires 

 one hundred or one hundred and fifty years to come to perfec- 

 tion.* From measurements upon a great number of trees re- 

 cently felled, and from many specimens of the wood, of all sizes 

 and from various soils, I believe that the average growth of the 

 white oak is not far from two inches in diameter in ten years, 

 after it has been growing thirty or forty years ; the circles of 

 growth, after that age, being about ten in an inch.f Before 

 that age the growth is more rapid, but extremely various. An 

 oak of thirty years may be eight inches in diameter and forty 

 feet high. At or below this age it is commonly considered most 

 profitable to fell for fuel ; and it doubtless is so when it is to be 

 renewed from the stump. But an easy calculation shows, that, 

 although its apparent growth after that age is less than before, 

 the real growth of each individual tree is greater. In ten years 

 more it will be ten inches in diameter. Two inches will have 



* De Candolle found the circles in very old oaks, cut in the forest of Fontaine- 

 bleau, continued to increase to the thirtieth or fortieth year ; from thirty, to fifty 

 or sixty, diminished a little ; between fifty and sixty became nearly regular, and 

 so continued to the end. Past sixty, the increase is eight to ten lines in diameter, 

 in ten years ; two or three inches when between twenty and thirty, — indicating a 

 cutting every thirty years. 



t I give here memoranda of some of the oldest of these trees. On one, I counted 

 125 rings of growth in 11£ inches; on another, 147 rings in 12£ inches; on the 

 third, 150 rings in 2 Id inches ; on the fourth, 179 rings in 21 inches. 



