110 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



"On account of its uses, the white oak is the most valuable of our trees." 



The best white oak of our State is confined to the two southern tiers of 

 counties. Wagon-makers of Lansing tell me that it is with considerable diffi- 

 culty that they get good white oak spokes in the central or northern part of 

 the State. The best spokes come from Indiana and Ohio. 



Live oak (Quercus virens) has evergreen leaves much the shape of those 

 borne by the laurel oak. The species is confined to the southern States near 

 the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. It will not grow in the open air much north 

 of Virginia. It does not often attain a large diameter nor a great height. It 

 often branches near the groud. "The wood is very strong, and incomparably 

 more durable than the best white oak, and is highly esteemed in ship-building." 

 The wood is very heavy. The tenacity of the leaves of other oaks in winter in 

 the temperate zone shows a tendency to become evergreen. 



The English oak (Quercus robur) is much like our white oak in appearance 

 and value. 



"According to popular tradition, William Rufus was the first who is recorded 

 to have planted oak trees, when, in 1079, he formed the new forest in Ham- 

 shire." 



The acorns may be kept over winter in sand which is nearly dry, or in 

 sphagnum. It is usually the safest way to plant the acorns as soon as ripe 

 where the trees are wanted. 



If they are well transplanted when they are a year old, there is no difficulty 

 in moving them after that within five or six years. When moving it is a good 

 plan to dig deep and get a long top root. Root-pruned trees are the only trees 

 safe for transplanting except those which are very young. 



Oaks are not easily budded or grafted with success. Inarching is practiced to 

 propagate some of the most interesting varieties. 



As soon as acorns fall, especially have I noticed this in the white oak, the 

 radicle pushes out from the covering, and from its extremity a root descends 

 before winter for several inches into the soil. In the spring following, the 

 plumule pushes upward and begins to form the ascending axis. Oaks use the 

 materials of the thick cotyledons to get a good firm hold in the soil before 

 they venture to put forth leaves and branches. 



Oak grubs are very tenacious of life, as many a farmer knows. They may 

 sprout many times and still live. 



The oak grows slowly in the early stages of its life, and requires a hundred 

 or one hundred and fifty years or more to come to perfection and maturity. 

 "The average growth of the white oak is not far from two inches in diameter 

 in ten years after it has been growing thirty years." "After that age there 

 are about ten circles to an inch." "The red oak, after thirty-five years, 

 increases at the rate of about two inches in diameter every eleven years." 



The young growth of all oaks is impatient of spring frost. A thrifty oak 80 

 years old gains more in ten years than it did in the first thirty. In Great 

 Britain and on the continent of Europe, oaks grow and flourish for centuries. 

 At the Agricultural College, our scarlet oaks of three years growth from acorns 

 are much larger than the white oaks. The latter are still quite small and 

 straggling. Bur-oaks have grown a little faster than white oaks for a few years. 

 For posts, I should prefer growing red cedar or locust to growing white oak. 



This society can do a valuable work by encouraging, in all possible ways, the 

 planting of all sorts of hardy trees. They may be planted for screens, for tim- 

 ber, for ornament, or for study. The work is interesting and tends to elevate 

 and refine the person who watches and cares for the trees. The example of a 



