GROWING OAK TREES 



By EDWARD W, HOCKER 



IT IS no easy task to enlist tlie su])- 

 ])ort of farmers and other land- 

 owners in an nndertakin,^" the profits 

 of which cannot l)e realized until after 

 the lai)se of a century or more. IJut 

 some such undertaking' is necessary if 



wider variety of purposes than any of 

 the t)thers, usually is not available as 

 timlier for a i)eriod varying- from 120 

 to 200 years after the acorn has qemii- 

 nated. 



Poets sing' about the stanch old oak ; 



the oak and other American hardwood and there is something venerable, some- 



ti'i^ 





^^^:^ 

 -- 



■•^. 



'^mm 





Charles S, Mann and His Beds of Oak Seedlings 



trees are not to beconie so rare as to 

 forbid their use for the practical pur- 

 poses they now serve. 



Everywhere throughout the land the 

 increasing scarcity of the various kinds 

 of hardwood is lamented. Prices are 

 rising at an alarming rate, and it is 

 evident that the ([uantity consumed 

 yearly is three or four times as great 

 as that which becomes availaljle from 

 growing trees. Now, the hardwoods 

 nearly all come from slowly growing- 

 trees ; and the oak, which serves a 



thing well-nigh sublime, about an an- 

 cient tree of this variety. Poetry and 

 veneration, however, will not prevent 

 the oak from becoming extinct. A cani- 

 ])aign of education must be commenced 

 in behalf of the systematic growing 

 of oak trees. 



Under the aus])ices of the naticjnal 

 government and of some of the states, 

 attempts have been made to foster the 

 growing of slowly maturing trees in 

 the forest reserves ; but thus far few 

 individuals have been willing to de- 



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