160 A GARDEN DIARY 



we do not ourselves keep pigs, we hope that 

 another season we may be less blessed ! 



Biologists have a theory they would call 

 it a law which they call the law of "Multi- 

 plication in Geometrical Progression." By that 

 law the plants of any region would, under 

 favouring conditions, increase from a hundred to 

 a thousandfold every year. Happily for people 

 who wish to walk about they never really do 

 anything of the sort ; on the contrary, the 

 population of any given district, apart from 

 man's interference, remains for the most part 

 all but stationary. Until a parent is considerate 

 enough to die, and make way for it, every green 

 child that is born is bound to die in its infancy. 

 These little oaks of ours are an excellent example 

 of that fact, as well as of the summary fashion 

 with which Nature is in the habit of wielding 

 her maternal sceptre. They are, as anyone 

 can see, as hale and as vigorous as could be 

 desired ; hearts of oak, every one of them, and 

 they know it. Not an oaklet amongst them but 

 sees itself in nightly visions as an umbrageous 

 giant, lifting high in air a mighty trunk, and 

 spreading out branches that all the fowls of the 

 air could lodge upon with comfort. Alas, for so 

 much prospective dignity ! Every one of these 

 youthful monarchs is doomed to an early death, 

 and it is merely a question of what stage of im- 

 maturity he will be called upon to perish at ! 



