148 THE OAK. 



forester usually gets over these difficulties by planting 

 beech, or silver fir, or some other species among the oaks, 

 but in such a way that the oaks are never completely 

 shaded by the other trees that is to say, he keeps the 

 trees at different ages, the beach, hornbeam, silver fir, 

 spruce, etc., only being allowed to just close in the forest, 

 leaving the leaf -crowns of the oaks to be fully exposed to 

 the light above. The oak grows faster than the beech 

 or spruce, for instance, while young, and so keeps its 

 head easily above the others for a time. Very often the 

 oak is cultivated pure at first, and then, when the oaks 

 are becoming too crowded and he has to thin them, the 

 forester puts in the silver fir or beech, which prevents 

 the light coming in to the lower parts of the young oak- 

 trees, and consequently prevents the development of 

 lower branches, which would give the spreading, squat 

 habit he wishes to prevent. For without light the 

 leaves of the lower twigs of course can not make the 

 materials to strengthen and thicken the latter into 

 branches, and so they die off, and the trunk remains a 

 straight, clean cylinder. 



Although oaks are often raised from seed, a number 

 of veteran trees being allowed to stand for many years 

 in order to scatter the acorns, yet in by far the greater 

 number of cases the plants are put in artificially, the 

 long tap-roots being first cut in order to make them 

 throw out lateral rootlets. It is also a common practice 

 to cut back oaks, and allow them to sprout into what is 

 known as coppice that is to say, numerous buds which 



