152 THE OAK 
Of course there are very many other details to be 
considered in the technical cultivation of the oak, but 
enough has been said to give the reader a general 
account of the procedure, and I now pass to the subject 
of the dangers and diseases which threaten the tree at 
various periods in its development, and the timber 
afterwards. 
The diseases and injuries to which the oak is subject 
are very numerous and various, although, compared 
with some other indigenous trees, it suffers remarkably 
little from the different dangers which await it at all 
stages in the course of its long life from the seedling 
to the aged tree. Some of these are referable to the 
exigencies of the non-living environments—the climate, 
soil, &c.; others are due to the attacks of living or- 
ganisms, both vegetable and animal—from the weeds 
which smother the young seedlings by keeping the 
light from them, to man himself, who injures the trees 
in various ways. ‘The earliest struggles of the young 
seedling are with the weeds, slugs, and insects of 
various kinds that invade the territory on which the 
acorn has germinated, and of course the baby plant 
has also to contend against any inclemencies of climate 
or unsuitableness of soil that it may meet with. Owing 
to such vicissitudes very many of the seedlings never 
obtain the dimensions of a plant at all, and in some 
seasons the mortality is enormous. Other destructive 
agents during these early phases of the life of the 
oak are cattle and deer, which not only tread down 
