Chapter XII 



VERY manner of green 

 wood is a true land of 

 faery, but for subtilely 

 varied charm the oak 

 wood leads all. Oaks of 

 even the same sort are 

 individual to the degree 

 of idiosyncrasy. How 

 much more so then the lithe white oak 

 against the brash and burly red, the canny post 

 oak compared to the splendid unthrift of the 

 black ? Oaks all, in bark, in leaf, in fruit, 

 in manner of growth, touch, taste, smell, 

 color, they are as unlike one to another as to 

 all other trees. 



By their seat you may know them. Post 

 oak pre-empts thin gravelly ridges, and dis- 

 putes swampy flats with the water oak, and 

 swamp hickory, though you find it inter- 

 mingled wherever oaks have root. White 

 oak, on the other hand, loves a deep soil, warm, 

 light, well-drained, sloping, and full of pebbles. 



