40 S Y L V A BOOK i 



Which I conceive to be the more probable, for 

 that the sap of the oak is of an unkind tincture to 

 most trees. But for this improvement, I would 

 rather advise inoculation, as the ordinary elm 

 upon the witch-hazel, for those large leaves we 

 shall anon mention, and which are so familiar in 

 France. 



6. That the transplanting of young oaks gains 

 them ten years advance, some happy persons have 

 affirmed : From this belief, if in a former impression 

 I have desired to be excused, and produc'd my reasons 

 for it, I shall not persist against any sober man's 

 experience ; and therefore leave this article to their 

 choice ; since (as the butchers phrase is) change of 

 pasture makes fat calves ; and so transplantations of 

 these hard-wood-trees, when young, may possibly, 

 by an happy hand, in fit season, and other circum- 

 stances of soil, sun, and room for growth, be an 

 improvement : But as for those who advise us to 

 plant oaks of too great a stature, they hardly make 

 any considerable progress in an age ; and therefore I 

 cannot encourage it, unless the ground be extraordin- 

 arily qualify'd, or that the oak you would transplant, 

 be not above 6 or 7 foot growth in height : Yet if any 

 be desirous to make tryal of it, let their stems be of 

 the smoothest and tenderest bark ; for that is ever an 

 indication of youth, as well as the paucity of their 

 circles, which in disbranching and cutting the head 

 off, at five or six foot height (a thing, by the way, 

 which the French usually spare when they transplant 

 this tree) may (before you stir their roots) serve for 

 the more certain guide ; and then plant them imme- 

 diately, with as much earth as will adhere to them, 

 in the place destin'd for their station ; abating only 



