178t AUliORETUM AND FUUTICETUM. PART III. 



soil for tlic oak, by deeply trenching it, by planting acorns, and not plants ; 

 and by keeping them |)runed till they arrive at a proper height, double the 

 quantity of timber may be obtained in about .jO years, that is now produced 

 in 100. Mr. Yates's mode of cultivation (for an account of which he received 

 a premium from the Society of Arts) will be found in a succeeding paragraph. 

 (See Gnil. i^fag., vol. l.xxiv., for J804, p. G2G.) 



The following table of the progressive growth of nine oaks in the New 

 Forest, was communicated by T. Davies, Esq., of Portway House, Wiltshire : — 



Average increase in 8 years, .■>! in. per 

 tree in circumference. 



Increase of timber in 12 ft. in length 

 of trunk, 1 ft. 9 in. 



Average increase in $ years, 5} in. per 

 tree in circumference. 



Increase of timber in 12 ft. in length 

 of trunk, 1 ft. 7 in. 



Relative Growth of Oak Wood, as eonipnred with that of other Trees. The result 

 of observations by Vancouver in Hampshire, as to the relative growth of wood 

 in that county, was, taking the trees at 10 years' growth, and fixing the oak 

 as a standard, as Ibllows : — Oak, 10; elm, 16; ash, 18; beech, 20 , white 

 poplar (P. alba), 30. It will thus appear that the oak, which is the slowest- 

 growing forest tree indigenous to Britain, increases only at the rate of one 

 third part of the white poplar, which is tlie most rapid-growing indigenous 

 forest tree in Britain. 



The growth of the oak, as compared with that of the larch, is exemplified 

 in a tree of each growing at \yimbush, in Essex. In 1792, the oak, which is 

 called Young's Oak, at 5ft. from the ground, was 8 ft. 5^ in. in girt; and a 

 larch, at the same place, only 12 years old, at the same height from the ground, 

 girted 2 ft. 4 in. In 1805, 13 years afterwards, the oak had increased only 

 4^ in. in girt, while the larch had increased 2 ft. 9 in. ( Vou>ig\s Essex, ii. 

 p. 151.) 



Poetical Allusions. The most celebrated poetical description of the oak, 



as well as, perhaps, one of the oldest, is that of Virgil in the second Gcorgic, 



which has been thus rendered by Dryden : — 



" Jove's own tree. 



That holds the woods in awful sovereignty, 



Requires a depth of lodging in the ground. 



And, next the lower skies, a bed profound. 



High an his topmost boughs to heaven ascend. 



So low his root* to hell's dominion tend ; 



Therefore nor winds, nor winter's rage, o'crthrows 



His bulky body, but unmoved he grows. 



For length of ages lasts his happy reign. 



And lives of mortal men contend in vain. 



Full in the midst of his own strength he stands. 



Stretching his brawny arms, and leafv hands : 



His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands." 



The following lines are from the JEiwid : — 



" As when the winds their airy quarrel try. 

 Jostling from every quarter of the sky, 

 This way and that, the mountain oak they bend. 

 His boughs thry shatter, and his branches rend ; 

 With leaves and falling mast they spread the ground ; 

 The hollow valleys echo to the sound : 

 Unmoved the royal plant their fury mocks, 

 Or, shaken, clings more closely to the rocks ; 

 For as he sln>ots his towering head on high. 

 So deep in earth his fixetl foundations lie." 



ViRuiL. .Ert., Dryden's trans. 



