118 ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for one or two years, when he can place them in their future 

 resting-place. In doing so, he can sow them as thickly as he 

 would peas, in quadruple rows, a foot or so apart, and an inch 

 deep. 



And here, it may be well to remark, that great care should 

 be used in selecting, not only the acorns of valuable species of 

 oaks, but, also, from large and vigorous trees. The care used, 

 in this respect, will amply repay the trouble. Of the species of 

 oaks to be recommended, of course the white oak stands first, 

 and, in good soils, it grows rapidly. We wish, however, with- 

 out excluding any but the red oak, which is useless as a timber 

 tree, to call the attention of our farmers to the chesnut and 

 rock chesnut oak, the latter of which grows upon the poorer 

 soils. We think these oaks have not received the attention 

 they deserve, both for their beauty, as well as for their value as 

 timber. They resemble, more than any of our oaks, the best 

 English oak, and we predict that the time will come, when 

 they will stand, side by side, at least in reputation, with the 

 white oak. 



In the estimate, which we have given of the result of an oak 

 plantation, we are aware that the profit seems too large to com- 

 port with our common experience of the value of land covered 

 with wood. But it must be borne in mind, that the land of 

 this nature, which we are in the habit of valuing, is of the nat- 

 ural growth, and most frequently the growth from the stump of 

 a previous forest. We must also recollect that the wood lands 

 which we are accustomed to look upon, have never received 

 care and attention, more especially in thinning at proper inter- 

 vals. To cultivate a wood plantation successfully requires the 

 same degree of care and attention in thinning out, as an onion, 

 carrot, or beet bed. If the trees are left to struggle with each 

 other, for the mastery, the vanquished will die, while the victors 

 will suffer severely from the effects of the struggle. The ob- 

 ject to be attained by thinning, is so to regulate the distance 

 of the plants, that they will not interfere with each other's 

 growth ; and, for this purpose, it is necessary that each plant 

 has snfiicient space of ground and air for the spread of its roots 

 and branches, proportionate to its size at any given stage of its 



