1244 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



black oak, takes a prominent place among the supplies of hardwood timber east of 

 the Mississippi river, particularly in their northern area. 



Isolated trees in the open in Massachusetts do not appear to attain as great a 

 height as they do in England, those mentioned ' as noteworthy for size being the 

 Charlemont oak, 58 ft. by 14^ ft., the Beaman oak, 70 ft. by 17 ft. 8 in. The Caster 

 oak, the height of which is not stated, growing at Lancaster in this state is 18 ft. 

 5 in. in girth. 



The red oak reproduces freely from coppice shoots, which often attain 6 ft. in 

 their first season. Where natural regeneration cannot be relied on, or where new 

 land is being planted, in America, acorns are sown in situ, as the seedling is not 

 easy to transplant, on account of its long tap-root. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



The red oak has been tried as a forest tree on a considerable scale on the 

 Continent. In Prussia 2 the area under cultivation at thirty-two different experi- 

 mental stations was about 100 acres in 1900; and it has shown very rapid growth in 

 youth, averaging 7 to 10 ft. high at five years old, 16 to 25 ft. at ten years old, 

 25 to 35 ft. at fifteen years, and 40 to 50 ft. at twenty years. It succeeds well on 

 poor land, thriving even on soil considered to be third class for growing the common 

 pine. It is used for underplanting pine woods, and for filling up gaps in broad- 

 leaved plantations. 



In Belgium thousands of trees of this species have been planted with the 

 greatest success. Wesmael 3 reported in 1890, that trees forty-five years old had 

 attained on an average a height of 60 ft. and a girth of 5 ft. 11 in. He claimed for 

 the tree that the wood was excellent for carriage-building and cabinet-work, and 

 that it grew well on light porous soil, where the common European oak remained 

 dwarfed and stunted. At Tervueren near Brussels M. Bommer showed me in 1909 a 

 plantation of red oaks thirty years old, on fairly good sandy soil, the average height 

 of which was about 50 ft., and the average girth 16 to 24 in. They formed a good 

 cover with straight clean stems, and had recently been underplanted with beech. 



Introduced into France as long ago as 1740, and grown by Miller in England 

 in 1739, the red oak is the best known and the most generally successful of the 

 American oaks in England. It ripens its acorns in the south, and self-sown seedlings 

 are occasionally found on the warm light soils which it requires to enable it to 

 become a large tree. It does not, however, seem to be a very long-lived tree, most 

 of the oldest which we have seen already showing signs of decay. 



The colour of its foliage in autumn is so beautiful that it should be planted in 

 conspicuous places in all pleasure-grounds and parks, and if sheltered by other trees 

 when young, and on deep well-drained soil, it grows rapidly and soon produces the 

 best effect among other foliage. I have raised seedlings from a tree in Lord Ducie's 



1 In Garden and Forest, iv. 586 (1891). 

 * Schwappach, Anbauvcrs. fremdl. Holzart. 72 (1901). 3 Cf. Garden and Forest, iii. 129 (1890). 



