1804< ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



Woods, <^c., Dec. 1836." (See also the Bath Sonet^t Papers, vol. xv. p. + l— G7.; 

 and an iirticle entitled " Mmutcs on the Method cidoptctl by Mr. Robert 'Ihn-ncr 

 of raitiiifi Oaks, Sfc," by T. Davis of Warminster, and G. Sturge of Bristol, in 

 the 13th volume of the (hardener's Magazine.) 



Whether Oak Plants or Acorns ought to be used informing Oak Plantations is a 

 (juestion, respecting the answer to which planters are not fully agreed ; though, 

 upon the whole, we believe, plants are preferred. A doubt, it is probable, would 

 never have been raised on the subject, hud it not been found that, under ordinary 

 circumstances, the oak suffers more by transplanting than the elm, the ash, the 

 beech, and other similar trees ; which is partly owing to its natural delicacy, and 

 partly to its depending, when young, chiefly on its taproot, and from its not 

 producing, for some years, many lateral roots, unless forced to do so by art. 

 When, however, the oak has been two or three times transplanted in the nur- 

 sery before its final removal, it will produce a sufficient number of lateral roots 

 to insure its growth, if carefully removed; and, for this reason, we should, in 

 almost every case, prefer using strong transplanted plants to acorns. We 

 have already remarked that oaks, after they have attained a certain size, are 

 more successfully transplanted than seedlings of one or two years ; a fact 

 which will be found to hold good with all trees whatever which have taproots 

 of extraordinary dimensions when young. One reason which some give for 

 preferring acorns is, the alleged injury which oak plants sustain by the loss 

 of the taproot, which, it is said, they never regain. This opinion, however, is 

 well known to be erroneous ; it being as natural, in the case of seedling 

 oaks, for that part of the plant which is under ground to reproduce a leading 

 or tap root when that has been cut off, as it is for the part above ground to 

 reproduce a leading shoot after that has been removed. It is also equally well 

 known, that the taproot is only found, in oak and other trees, when in a young 

 state ; and that no oak or other tree, when cut down, was ever found to have 

 anything like a perpendicularly descending main root in any way com[)arable 

 to the perpendicularly ascending trunk of the tree above ground. The con- 

 sequence of sowing an acorn where it is to remain, and not cutting through 

 the taproot, is, that it remains a longer period before putting out any lateral 

 roots ; but whether these lateral roots are put out sooner or later, can have 

 very little influence on the growth of the tree under ordinary circumstances, 

 and certainly none on the value of the timber which it produces. It is easy to 

 conceive that, if the surface soil on which an acorn is planted is much richer 

 than the subsoil, something in rapidity of growth will be gained by cutting off" 

 the taproot, so as to force the i>lant to send out lateral roots sooner than it 

 otherwise would do ; but, though something is gained by this, something, also, 

 will be lost ; because the supply of water, so essential to all plants which 

 have naturally taproots, in a very young state, will be considerably diminished. 

 In warm climates, therefore, and in all cases where a saving of first cost is an 

 object, we should prefer acorns to plants ; but in tolerably moist climates, and 

 in deep alluvial or marly soils, or where the surface soil is rich, and where the 

 object is to produce oak trees as soon as possible, we should recommend strong 

 plants. 



The following judicious observations on the subject of the taproot were 

 communicated to the Bath and West of England Society by a planter and 

 manager of timber of very great experience, Thomas Davis, Esq., of Portway, 

 near Warminster. The taproots of young oak trees, Mr. Davis says, sui)po"rt 

 the trees during a given period, which may vary in the number of years from 

 various circumstances, soil, situation, &c., but is limited in effect by the ne- 

 cessities of the plant ; and so soon as as the lateral roots take firm hold of 

 the land, and are enabled to undertake the duty of support, from that time the 

 taproot ceases to be useful, and at no distant subsccjiicnt period ceases to in- 

 crease, and is very soon not distinguishable from the other roots. Mr. Davis 

 therefore concludes, — " 1st, That an oak seedling, or sapling, from 3 to 5 

 years old, planted out with tlie taproot cut off", will again root downwards ; 

 sometimes singly, sometimes forked. '<^dly, That the practice ofcutting off' the 



