LXX. CORYLA'CE^E : QUE'RCUS. 847 



they should be made perfectly dry in the sun ; or in an airy shade mixed with 

 dry sand, in the proportion of three bushels of sand to one bushel of acorns, 

 or with dry moss ; and then excluded from the air and vermin, by being put 

 into barrels or boxes, or laid up in a cellar, or buried in heaps, and covered 

 with a sufficient thickness of earth to exclude the weather. If the acorns 

 are to be transported from one country to another, the same mixing with 

 dry sand or dry moss, and exclusion from the air, are adopted ; but the 

 more certain mode of retaining the vital principle in acorns is, to mix them 

 with moist earth, or with moist live moss (Sphagnum) : in either of the 

 latter mediums, they will germinate during a long voyage ; but no evil will 

 result from this, provided they are sown immediately on their arrival. When 

 acorns are to be sown in a nursery, the soil ought to be thoroughly prepared 

 and rendered fine ; aad, after the earth is drawn off the beds, or the drills 

 opened, the acorns may either be scattered over the beds, or along the drills, 

 so that the nuts may be about 2 in. apart; and, to regulate this distance 

 with greater certainty, the sand may be separated from the acorns with a 

 sieve. In either case, the acorns, before covering, must be patted down with 

 the back of a spade in the beds, and with the back of a wooden-headed 

 rake in the drills. The covering, which ought to be of well-broken soil, 

 should vary in depth, according to the size of the acorn; l^in. being enough 

 for those of the largest size, such as those of the groups 726bur, A'lbas, &c. ; 

 and Jin. for those of the smallest size, such as those of the groups 7 x lex, 

 Phellos, &c. No mode of depositing acorns in the soil can be worse than 

 that of dropping them in holes made by a dibber. The acorn drops into 

 the hole, and becomes wedged by its sides before it gets to the bottom ; and, 

 if the upper extremity of the acorn should be downwards instead of upwards, 

 it can hardly be expected to grow. For this reason, the dibber should only 

 be used in pulverised soils ; and the point of the instrument should be of a 

 diameter greater than the length of the largest acorn which has to be dropped 

 into the hole. As acorns are greedily devoured by vermin, and especially by 

 land rats and mice, they ought to be sown in an open part of the nursery, not 

 near hedges, ditches, or hous.es ; and where, whether in nurseries or in fields 

 intended to become oak woods, much danger is apprehended from vermin, thev 

 ought not to be sown till late in March, so as to lessen the period between the 

 depositing of the acorn and its becoming a plant. 



As all oaks, when young, are remarkable for throwing down long and vigo- 

 rous taproots, and producing few lateral ones, they ought to be sown where 

 they are finally to remain, especially if the subsoil be good, and other cir- 

 cumstances not unfavourable ; but, as this cannot always be the case, it is 

 customary among nurserymen to transplant the oak at one or two years' 

 growth, removing great part of the taproot ; some of them, however, shorten 

 the taproot without removing the plant, by inserting the spade obliquely 

 in the soil, so as to cut through the roots, at from 6 in. to 8 in. beneath 

 the surface ; an operation most conveniently performed when the oaks are 

 sown in drills ; because in that case the spade can first be inserted all along 

 one side of the drill, and then all along the other. The French nurserymen, 

 when acorns, walnuts, and other tree seeds which send down very long tap- 

 roots, are to be reared with a view to being transplanted, sometimes germinate 

 them in moist earth, or in sawdust, placed in a temperature of 50 or 60 ; 

 and, after the radicle has been protruded two or three times the length of the 

 acorn or nut, pinch off its extreme point before the seed is committed to the 

 soil. This treatment, which is applicable, as we have seen in the case of the 

 horsechestnut (see p. 125.), to most large-seeded trees, has the effect of im- 

 mediately causing the taproot to throw out numerous lateral fibres ; which 

 is highly favourable for transplantation, though it is not so for the rapid 

 growth of the tree for the first year or two afterwards. To counteract its 

 effect in this respect, when the tree is planted where it is finally to remain, and 

 has grown there two or three years, it ought to be cut down to the ground ; 

 after which it will throw up vigorous shoots, and send down perpendicular 



