AMONG THE OAKS 123 



the seasoning. Shortly after girdling, the sap 

 throughout the whole of the tree above the 

 4 girdle ' becomes exhausted by the action of 

 the foliage. As the upward flow of sap from 

 the roots is thus quite cut off, the leaves very 

 soon wither and die. Gradually the bark loosens 

 its hold on the trunk and main branches, the 

 twigs and smaller branchlets decay and fall off, 

 while the dead stem remains gaunt and bare like 

 a blasted tree, becoming seasoned and dried by 

 sunshine and wind till it be felled and removed. 

 This would be no method for trees like pine or 

 spruce or ash, whose dead stems would soon 

 furnish breeding-places for swarms of noxious 

 bark beetles ; but it might prove advantageous 

 for the treatment of oak. At any rate it seems 

 worth a trial. The danger of damage from 

 insects would certainly be removed altogether if 

 ' girdling ' and stripping of the bark of mature 

 trees were undertaken simultaneously in spring. 



This is, of course, no new suggestion. In The 

 Woodlands, 1825, Cobbett says that * with regard 

 to the felling of OAKS, the OAK which is cut in 

 winter is much more valuable than that which is 

 cut in summer ; but as OAK wood is OAK wood, 



