On raising Plantations of Oak. 277 



Mrs. Latour of Craven Hill has clothed the stems of some 

 delicate sorts of standard roses of rare sorts; and magnolias, 

 and other American trees, about Paris and Rouen, are fre- 

 quently protected without any other covering than what is 

 applied to their stems or trunks, taking especial care to cover 

 well the collar at the surface of the ground, being that part 

 which joins the trunk to the root, and in which, more than in 

 any other, the principle of vegetable life seems to reside. — 

 Cond. 



Art. IX. On raising Plantations of Oak from the Acorn. 

 Abridged from a Communication by Mr. Thomas Allen. 

 F.H.S. 



Where the oak is be grown for timber, a deep soil, not 

 gravelly, or abounding in springs, is essential to success; 

 where it is to be grown as coppice, a deep soil is less neces- 

 sary. Oak timber is much injured by being cut down in the 

 spring for the sake of peeling the bark, while the sap is in 

 motion. It is found better for the timber to peel the tree 

 while it is yet standing, and not cut it down till the following 

 winter. But as a colonial substitute for oak bark is found in 

 the extract of Mimosa of New South Wales, it will probably 

 supersede, in a great degree, the necessity of felling oak tim- 

 ber at an improper season. 



The ground being chosen for an oak plantation, lay it out 

 into rows five feet apart ; and either straight or crooked, so as 

 they may be in the direction of the slope of the ground. Dig 

 the line of row one spit wide, and one spit deep ; then dig a 

 drain in the middle between the rows, and parallel with them 

 two spits wide, and one spit deep, laying the earth so pro- 

 cured over that dug for the row ; dividing each spit of earth 

 vertically, that is with the spade turned edgeways, for when 

 turves are divided horizontally, that is, with the spade held 

 flatways, they soon re-unite. Round off the ridglet of good 

 surface soil so formed, and cover it with the subsoil taken out 

 of the bottom of the drain, which being free from the seeds 

 and roots of weeds, will, if beaten smooth after the acorns are 

 sown, produce few or no weeds for a year or two. A section 

 of ground so prepared (fg. 72.) will, show the surface soil 

 under the intended row about ^ 72 

 two and a half times the aver- 1 

 age depth, which will admit of| 

 the acorns sending down a powerful tap root, and insure 



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