GROWING OAK TREES 



By EDWARD W. HOCKER 



IT IS no easy task to enlist the sup- 

 port of farmers and other land- 

 owners in an undertaking the profits 

 of which cannot be realized until after 

 the lapse of a century or more. But 

 some such undertaking is necessary if 

 the oak and other American hardwood 



wider variety of purposes than any of 

 the others, usually is not available as 

 timber for a period varying from 120 

 to 200 years after the acorn has germi- 

 nated. 



Poets sing about the stanch old oak ; 

 and there is something venerable, some- 



Charles S. Mann and His Beds of Oak Seedlings 



trees are not to become so rare as to 

 forbid their use for the practical pur- 

 poses they now serve. 



Everywhere throughout the land the 

 increasing scarcity of the various kind- 

 of hardwood is lamented. Prices are 

 rising at an alarming rate, and it is 

 evident that the quantity consumed 

 yearly is three or four times as great 

 as that which becomes available from 

 growing trees. Now, the hardwoods 

 nearly all come from slowly growing 

 trees ; and the oak, which serves a 



thing well-nigh sublime, about an an- 

 cient tree of this variety. Poetry and 

 veneration, however, will not prevent 

 the oak from becoming extinct. A cam- 

 paign of education must be commenced 

 in behalf of the systematic growing 

 of oak trees. 



Under the auspice.- of the national 

 government and of -ome of the state-, 

 attempts have been made to foster tin- 

 growing of slowly maturing trees in 

 the forest reserves; but thus far tVu 

 individuals have been willing to de- 

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