1784 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



soil for the oak, by deeply trenching it, by planting acorns, and not plants ; 

 and by keeping them pruned till they arrive at a proper height, double the 

 quantity of timber may be obtained in about 50 years, that is now produced 

 in 100. Mr. Yates's mode of cultivation (for an account of which he received 

 a premium from the Society of Arts) will be found in a succeeding paragraph. 

 (See Gent. Mag., vol. ixxiv., for 1804, p. 626.) 



The following table of the progressive growth of nine oaks in the New 

 Forest, was communicated by T.Davies, Esq., of Port way House, Wiltshire : 



The circumference taken in 

 inches at 6ft. from the ground. 

 1814. 1816. 1818. 1820. 1822. 



5 TrPPQ niani i.*. *"? t "? /t 003 I Average increase in 8 years, 3f in. per 



a ^No. 3. 82* 85 85| 86* 87* i *>e in circumference. 



IAJ years. j No. 4. 41 42J 42i 42| 43f Increase of timber in 12ft. in length 



j of trunk, 1 ft. 9 in. 



fNo. 6. 28| 30i 32 &3f 35f ") Average increase in S years, 54 in. per 



4 Trees planted, ) No. 7. 27 28| 29f 29f 32 ( tree in circumference. 



60 years. I No. 8. 28 29f 30$ 31$ 32f f Increase of timber in 12 ft. in length 



CNo. 9. 33| Sif 35| 37$ 39 Jof trunk, 1 ft. 7 in. 



Aggregate 117| 



Relative Growth of Oak Wood, as compared with that of other Trees. The result 

 of observations by Vancouver in Hampshire, as to the relative growth of wood 

 in that county, was, taking the trees at 10 years' growth, and fixing the oak 

 as a standard, as follows : Oak, 10; elm, 16; ash, 18; beech, 20 ; white 

 poplar (P. alba), 30. It will thus appear that the oak, which is the slowest- 

 growing forest tree indigenous to Britain, increases only at the rate of one 

 third part of the white poplar, which is the most rapid-growing indigenous 

 forest tree in Britain. 



The growth of the oak, as compared with that of the larch, is exemplified 

 in a tree of each growing at Wimbush, in Essex. In 1792, the oak, which is 

 called Young's Oak, at 5ft. from the ground, was 8ft. 5f in. in girt; and a 

 larch, at the same place, only 12 years old, at the same height from the ground, 

 girted 2 ft. 4 in. In 1805, 13 years afterwards, the oak had increased only 

 4^ in. in girt, while the larch had increased 2ft. 9 in. (Young's Essex, i\. 

 p. 151.) 



Poetical Allusions. The most celebrated poetical description of the oak, 

 as well as, perhaps, one of the oldest, is that of Virgil in the second Georgic, 

 which has been thus rendered by Dryden : 



" Jove's own tree, 



That holds the woods in awful sovereignty, 



Requires a depth of lodging in the ground, 



And, next the lower skies, a bed profound. 



High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend, 



So low his roots to hell's dominion tend ; 



Therefore nor winds, nor winter's rage, o'erthrows 



His bulky body, but unmoved he grows. 



For length of ages lasts his happy reign, 



And lives of mortal men contend in vain. 



Full in the midst of his own strength he stands, 



Stretching his brawny arms, and leafy hands: 



His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands." 



The following lines are from the Mneid : 



" As when the winds their airy quarrel try, 

 Jostling from every quarter of the sky, 

 This way and that, the mountain oak they bend, 

 His boughs they shatter, and his branches rend ; 

 With leaves and falling mast they spread the ground ; 

 The hollow valleys echo to the sound : 

 Unmoved the royal plant their fury mocks, 

 Or, shaken, clings more closely to the rocks ; 

 For as he shoots his towering head on high, 

 So deep in earth his fixed foundations lie." 



VIRGIL. JEn., Dryden'* trans. 



