156 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



cient thickness of earth to exclude the weather. If the acorns 

 are to be transported from one country to another, the same 

 mixing with dry sand or dry moss, and exclusion from the air, 

 is adopted: but the more certain mode of retaining the vital 

 principle in acorns is, to mix them with moist earth, or with 

 moist live moss {Sphagnum) : in either of the latter mediums, 

 they will germinate during a long voyage; but no evil will 

 result from this, provided they are sown immediately on their 

 arrival. When acorns are to be sown in a nursery, the soil 

 ought to be thoroughly prepared and rendered fine ; and, after 

 the earth is drawn off the beds, or the drills opened, the acorns 

 may either be scattered over the beds, or along the drills, so 

 that the nuts may be about two inches apart ; and, to regulate 

 this distance with greater certainty, the sand may be separated 

 from the acorns with a sieve. In either case, the acorns, before 

 covering, must be patted down with the back of a spade in the 

 beds, and with the back of a wooden-headed rake in the drills. 

 The covering, which ought to be of well-broken soil, should 

 vary in depth, according to the size of the acorn ; one and one- 

 half inches being enough for those of the largest size, and one half 

 inch for those of the smallest size. No mode of depositing acorns 

 in the soil can be worse than that of dropping them in holes." 

 It is often asked why young trees, generally, and oaks in 

 particular, when imported from the nurseries in England, suc- 

 ceed more certainly and grow more rapidly than similar plants 

 taken from woods or open grounds in the neighborhood. One 

 reason probably is, that all the oaks throw down a long tap- 

 root, and for the first few years have very few lateral fibres.* 



* Another reason is, that young trees taken from a nursery, have been some- 

 what exposed to the sun's direct light, and to the wind. Whereas, when taken 

 from the forest, they are often transplanted from completely sheltered situations, 

 where they have been protected from sun, wind and cold, and have, in conse- 

 quence, a thin, delicate bark, inadequate to protect them in a new and more ex- 

 posed situation. Young trees should be taken, for transplantation, from openings 

 in the forest or from the edges, where they have been somewhat exposed, and 

 thereby prepared to sustain the exposure to which they will be subjected. Other- 

 wise they suffer, just as the young of any other living beings would, which, after 

 having been nurtured delicately and in seclusion, should be suddenly exposed, 

 unprotected, to the inclemencies of the elements. 



