CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEZ. QUE’RCUS. 1783 
White, in his Natural History of Selborne (see Brown’s edit., p. 195.), mentions, 
in a letter to Mr, Pennant, an oak in Newton Lane, which, on a misty day in 
October, 1775, dropped so fast, that the cartway stood in puddles, and the 
ruts ran water, though the ground in general was dusty. 
Progress of Oaks from the Acorn. An oak, sprung from an acorn set by Robert 
Marsham, Esq., at Stratton Strawless, near Norwich, a. p. 1719, measured, in 
the spring of 1743, when 24 years old, 1 ft. 7 in. in girt at 5 ft. from the ground ; 
and in 1758, when 41 years old, its girt at the same height was 2 ft. 81 in. ; 
having increased 1 ft. 14 in. in girt, and something more than 2 ft. 3 in. in solid 
contents, during 15 years. This oak,we are informed by Robert Marsham, Esq., 
the grandson of the planter of the tree, was, in December, 1836, 13 ft. in circum- 
ference at 5 ft. from the ground, and 17 ft. at 1 ft. ; witha trunk 19 ft. long clear 
of branches, and a remarkably handsome head ; it was 64 ft. high. Two oaks, 
planted by Mr. Marsham in 1720 and 1721, in 1743 measured 2 ft, 94in., and 2ft. 
11} in. in circumference at 5 ft. high ; and had increased 1 ft. 112 in. and 2 ft. 
2in. respectively in girt, and 9 ft. 1 in. and 10 ft. 3in. in solid contents, during 
15 years; while two oaks, about 60 or 80 years of age, which, in 1743, girted 
6 ft. 3in. and 9 ft. 44 in., measured, in the autumn of 1758, 7 ft. 82 in., and 
10 ft. 1 in. ; having increased only 1 ft. 5 in. and 83 in., in their respective cir- 
cumferences, in 15 years ; although their solid contents exceeded in increase 
the younger trees, being, in the sixty-year oak, 12 ft. 1 in., and in the eighty- 
year oak, 16 ft. lin. and upwards; the height of this tree in February, 1837, 
Mr. Marsham inform us, was exactly 92 ft. An acorn, writes Dr. Plot, which 
was set in a hedgerow, between Colton and Blithfield, by Ralph Bates, grew 
to a stout oak, being 2 ft. square at the but end, within the life of its planter, 
who outlived its felling. The first 10 ft. were sawn into boards, and used for 
building: it contained nearly a ton of timber. An oak which was planted at 
Denham Rectory, Bucks, in 1750, girted, at its smallest part, 8 ft. in 1817, 
being then but 67 years of age: the total height was 50 ft., and the diameter 
of its head about 70 ft. In the garden at Sheffield Place, Sussex, stands a 
fine oak, which was set in the year 1745; and in 1815, when 70 years old, its 
trunk was 12ft. in circumference, its clear bole 10 ft.; at which height it 
divided into branches that overspread an area of 75 ft. in diameter. An 
acorn was sown at Rickett, the seat of Lord Barrington, on the day of his 
birth in 1717. In November, 1790, it contained 95 ft. of timber, which, at 2s. 
per foot, would sell for 9/. 10s. The top was valued at about l/. 15s. The 
girt, at 5 ft. from the ground, was about half an inch more than 8 ft. The 
increase of the girt,in the two last years, was 43 in. It grows in rich land, 
worth 1/. 5s. an acre. (Bath. Soc. Pap., &c.) 
Rate of Growth of the Oak. An oak, ina good soil and situation, will, in 
75 years from the acorn, contain a ton of timber. (South in Bath Soc. Pap., 
vi. p- 37.) The same oak, at 150 years of age, will contain upwards of 8 tons 
of timber, or about 12 loads of square timber, (Zd., p. 38.) An oak, planted 
by Mr. Marsham in 1720, was, in 1794, 74 years afterwards, about 8 ft. in 
circumference at 14ft. from the ground. The soil had been prepared and 
manured. In the first 36 years of its growth, this tree gained 14 in. in cir- 
cumference yearly. The growth ofa middle-aged oak is generally from 12 in. to 
1 in. in circumference yearly ; between its twentieth and its hundredth year, it 
’ sometimes exceeds this measure, and, in its second century, falls within it; 
but, as the solidity of the shaft consists less in its length than in the square 
of diameter in the girting place, a small addition to the diameter there en- 
larges the square abundantly. Wherefore, though the circumference from the 
100th to the 150th year may not increase so fast as it did to the 100th, 
the solid contents will be increasing faster ; for, as the square of the diameter 
(40 = 1600) exceeds the square of 24==576; so will the contents in the 150th 
year exceed the contents in the 100th, when its annual enlargement was 2} in. 
greater. (Id.,p.50.) According to the Rev. Richard Yates, writing after 
“a sedulous and active experience of 50 years,” by choosing a deep loamy 
