166 REARING UP AND THINNING 



the trees raised from the acorn sown in the forest 

 ground, grows, for the first few years, more rapidly 

 than the others, and is brought into the proper form 

 of a tree with very httle artificial aid as regards 

 pruning ; but I have found also, that where much 

 game exists, as is almost always the case upon gen- 

 tlemen's estates, it is almost an impossibility to get 

 the young tender shoots of the plants, as they rise 

 above the ground, kept from being eaten down by 

 hares and rabbits. About four years ago, I was very 

 much inclined to commence the sowing of acorns in 

 all our plantations where oaks were required to be 

 raised upon the estate of Arniston; being convinced, 

 from a former trial, in another situation where I 

 was, in which I was very successful, that they, when 

 got up without any damage befalling them, formed 

 the handsomest and fastest growing specimens, I 

 was the more bent upon making another trial upon 

 an extensive scale. Having communicated the 

 scheme which I then had in view to an old forester 

 of forty years' experience, asking liis opinion pre- 

 vious to making the attempt, he advised me strongly 

 not to sow acorns immediately in forest ground, with 

 the view of raising trees in any new situation, until 

 I had proved the utility of the system, by sow- 

 ing first upon a small scale. Acting upon his ad- 

 vice, for he was a man of the soundest judgment in 

 all forest matters, I sowed acorns in pits dug by the 

 spade for the purpose, and had the pits, in the act 



