1G8 REARING UP AND THINNING 



when I found great difficulty in tracing out the 

 exact spots where they had t)een sown — the grass 

 and weeds which were natural to the soil had 

 grown rapidly, and almost hidden the red earth. 

 I immediately had the weeds, &c., all cut away from 

 about the pits, and at the same time had the surface 

 of the pits weeded by the hand ; but there was no 

 appearance of any oaks as yet in them. About the 

 middle of June I again had the surface of the pits 

 weeded, when I observed about twenty young oak 

 plants rising upon a whole acre of ground; and 

 before the autumn, there were none left excepting 

 two, which I protected, which are indeed doing well 

 now, but not a great deal better than others which 

 were transplanted about the same time, in the usual 

 manner, from the nurseries. 



Besides what I have detailed relative to my 

 attempt to rear oaks from the acorn in the natural 

 forest ground, I have also since then sown in many 

 places of our woods without digging the ground 

 at all, merely paring away the turf from the sur- 

 face of the ground shghtly, and then putting 

 in the acorns with a common garden dibble ; 

 and I did this with the view of disturbing the 

 natural soil as little as possible, thinking that 

 the rabbits and mice would not be tempted to 

 burrow in the soil when they found it firm. The 

 ultimate issue, however, was the same ; for what 

 plants were allowed to come above ground, and 



