PLANTING, 135 



SECTION VI. 



On Sowing Acorns among Planted Forest Trees* 



IT is a fact which admits not of doubt, that 

 Oaks, sown where they are to remain, outdo 

 planted ones in growth, and also become the 

 most graceful trees, unless the latter be 

 headed down to the ground about the third or 

 fourth year after planting. If we enquire 

 into the cause, it will be found owing to the 

 Oak being a tap-rooted plant, bearing trans- 

 plantation with less patience than most other 

 forest-trees, and from the check it receives 

 in removal, being afterwards prone to grow 

 crooked in the stem, and squat in the head. 

 Those who are advocates for planting ra- 

 ther than sowing Oaks, endeavour to obviate 

 these objections thus : Tapping in 'the nur- 

 sery ; by which their roots, ever after, have a 

 horizontal tendency ; nor are liable to injury 

 by insinuating themselves downward into 

 bad soil ; and a plentiful planting of nurses, 

 to draw them upright, preventing the neces- 

 sity of kepding down. 



K 



