4 THE OAK. 



my readers will make a trial of. The expense 

 of preparing the ground, previous to sowing 

 the acorns, as laid down in many works on 

 the subject of planting and pruning, etc. etc., 

 deters many landed proprietors from planting 

 many hundred acres on their estates, from which 

 neither their forefathers before them nor they 

 in their own time have received any rent or 

 benefit whatever. From my own experience, I 

 am inclined to recommend the acorns from dis- 

 tant counties, in preference to our own growth. 

 The chief of my own planting were raised from 

 acorns which I obtained through the kind- 

 ness of the late George Wilbraham, Esq., of 

 Delamere Lodge, Cheshire, from oaks in the 

 park of the Earl of Fortescue, in Devonshire, 

 who told me he should follow my example on 

 some of his allotments which he received under 

 the award of the Delamere Forest Inclosure 

 Act Commissioner. Those I planted forty 

 years ago or more, having never been pruned 

 or requiring it, are beautiful specimens of 

 growing oak timber; and the oaks in one of 



