WHITE OAK 235 



period, and the harvest would probably not be worth enough 

 more to make up for care and interest on the investment. 



The natural reproduction of White Oak must come either 

 through seed-scattering by animals mice, squirrels, and 

 birds or by sprouting from the stump of a cut tree or 

 the roots of a decaying one. The acorns are too heavy to 

 be blown by the wind and they naturally spread no farther 

 than the limbs of the tree extend, and if they germinate 

 there they will not thrive for want of light ; and thus we 

 are left mainly to the animals named for the scattering of 

 the seeds of this tree, as we are for all the heavy-seeded or 

 nut-bearing trees. 



Sprout reproduction cannot be depended upon to any 

 great extent, although cut stumps and decaying trees will 

 throw up some shoots, but the habit is not general. Its ten- 

 dency to do this is much overestimated, through a misun- 

 derstanding of the causes which frequently result in two or 

 more trees springing from one and the same root system, 

 which are mistaken for sprouts. Such are not necessarily 

 sprouts, as the term is generally understood, nor do they 

 produce an increase of useful timber. The seedling White 

 Oak has a slow and frail growth for the first three or four 

 years, while the tap-root is running deep into the ground. 

 If an injury occurs to the terminal bud of the tender stem, 

 the lower buds will be forced into growth by the strong and 

 vigorous root system which has been developed, and two or 

 more stems will spring from the same root, each struggling 

 to be leader. Sometimes and quite frequently a one- or 

 two-year-old seedling will develop two terminal buds at the 

 end of the season, and the next year both will grow. Fre- 

 quently one of these will outgrow the other. Such growth 

 is not " sprouting," nor is it reproduction, for all are of the 

 same age, and from the same roots. Genuine sprout growth 

 is weak at best, and timber suitable for anything larger 

 than railroad ties, fence posts, or cordwood should not be 

 expected from it, and one crop of sprout timber will so 

 weaken the root system that it will either die outright or 



