4i66 Cruiclcshqnk's Practical Planter. 



clopcedia of Gardening, art. Arboriculture ; and we would ask 

 Mr. Cruickshank, how it has happened that, while he found 

 in that work the alleged error in respect to nurseries, he did 

 not also find Yule, Sang, and the other authorities there, in 

 favour of raising the oak from acorns put in where they are 

 finally to remain ? 



The author agrees with Pontey, " that an indifferent soil, 

 properly sheltered, is capable of producing more oak timber 

 than a good one without this advantage." Subordinate causes 

 of failure are, neglect of pruning, and suffocation by surround- 

 ing trees. The " new method of rearing oak " is, first to 

 provide shelter by filling the ground with the Scotch pine or 

 larch ; or, " what is still better, with a proportion of both." 

 The plants may be two years old, and put in at the distance 

 of 4 ft. from each other. No acorns are to be planted until 

 the pines or firs have risen to the height of about 4 ft. from 

 the ground, which will require from 4 to 7 years. The man- 

 ner in which these nurses will screen the oaks from the wind 

 is evident ; but less so how they prevent the bad effects of 

 perpendicular frosts. 



IC To explain this, it may be necessary to state, that the deleterious 

 effects of spring and autumnal frosts arise chiefly from the leaves being sub- 

 jected to a sudden change of temperature, from the freezing chill of the 

 night to the strong heat of the rays of the morning sun. When the thaw 

 takes place gradually, the injury done is comparatively insignificant. Seve- 

 ral undoubted proofs of this can be adduced. Agriculturists have found, 

 by long experience, that their crops are never so much hurt by frost, when 

 the sun rises clouded, and rain succeeds, as when the night is followed by 

 a morning of bright sunshine. And it always holds good, that corn which 

 is shaded from the first rays, by wood or otherwise, is never so much injured 

 as that in other parts of the same field. The late Rev. Dr. Skene Keith, 

 in his Agricukicral Survey of Aberdeenshire, recommends that, in situations; 

 much exposed to autumnal frosts, belts of trees should be planted along the 

 east side of the field, to ward off the early rays of the sun. ' In many cases,' 

 says that writer, ' the rays of the morning sun may be, with propriety, ex- 

 cluded, by a belt of plantation in the east ; for, though these are friendly to 

 an early harvest, yet, in an unfavourable or late season, if a mildew or rain 

 in the evening be succeeded by frost at night, and if the sun dart his rays 

 in the morning on the wet corn, when in flower, or on the peas, beans, or 

 potatoes, before they are fully ripe, the effects are generally fataL The 

 only remedy, namely, that of two persons going very early, with a rope, 

 between the furrows of a ridge, and shaking off the rain or dews, cannot 

 be practised on a large scale, though it may save the potato crop of the 

 industrious cottager to know this, and put it in practice, when he sees 

 the hoar-frost in the morning. A more permanent remedy is, to have a 

 small belt of planting on the east, to prevent the sun's rays from injuring 

 the crop, which is usually dry before the sun appears in the south-east ; for 

 the danger is over as soon as the moisture of the night is dried up.' 

 {Agricultural Survey of Aberdeenshire.) " — Prac. Plan., p. 224. 



The art of preserving young oaks, then, consists in shading 

 them from the morning sun, in spring and autumn ; and this . 



