426 EXPERIMENTS ON THE DISEASES, &C. 



Although I do not mean to enter at large 

 on the culture and management of forest-trees ; 

 yet, as the following observations on raising Oaks, 

 and directions for planting Chesnuts for under- 

 wood, may be of considerable service I shall, with- 

 out any further apology, lay them before my 

 readers. 



The best Way of raising Dales. 



It is a generally received opinion, that when an 

 Oak loses its tap-root in transplanting, it never pro- 

 duces another 5 but this I have proved to be a 

 mistake, by an experiment which I made on a bed 

 of Oak plants in the year 1789. I transplanted 

 them into a fresh bed in the forementioned year, 

 cutting the tap-roots near to some of the small 

 side-roots or fibres shooting from them. In the se- 

 cond year after, I headed one-half of the plants 

 down, as directed for Chesnuts, and left the other 

 half to nature. In the first season, those headed 

 down, made shoots six feet long and upwards, and 

 completely covered the tops of the old stems, leav- 

 ing only a faint cicatrix, and had produced new tap- 

 roots upwards of two feet and a half long. One 

 of these trees I left at the Land Revenue Office, 

 for the inspection of the Commissioners, and to 

 shew the advantage of transplanting and heading 

 down young Oaks, when done in a proper manner. 

 By this mode of treatment, they grow more in one 



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