SESSILE-FRUITED OAK. 261 



slower growth of the Oak, and the length of time 

 it requires to attain maturity and size to qualify it for 

 ship-timber, that they are likely to gain more and within 

 a shorter period, by plantations composed of other trees 

 without any admixture of Oak. Such an opinion we con- 

 ceive to be erroneous, at least with respect to all soils 

 in which this tree will thrive, for we believe that greater 

 advantages and equal profit may be obtained from mixed 

 plantations, in which the Oak has been introduced in 

 sufficient quantity to stand as an ultimate crop, for the 

 number of plants required for this purpose, and the room 

 they occupy when quite young and for many years after- 

 wards, is not such as to lessen materially the value of the 

 necessary aud periodical thinnings of the other occupants 

 which have been planted as nurses or rather secondaries, 

 and, after these are all cut out, a crop of valuable wood is 

 left, which, although it may not arrive at maturity during 

 the planter's life, greatly adds to the value of his property. 

 But the Oak, though it requires a greater length of time to 

 render it fit for naval and other purposes requiring a large 

 scantling and sound heart-wood than our other forest-trees, 

 is not of so slow a growth as many seem inclined to 

 suppose, for it is found that its rate of increase, when 

 planted in favourable soil and situation, and after it is 

 once fairly established, is from one inch to one inch and 

 three quarters in circumference annually, for nearly the 

 first century, and that it has frequently been known to 

 contain a ton of timber at the age of seventy ; after this 

 period, and until it attains its full maturity, or begins to 

 decay, its annual increase in circumference is not so great, 

 though its solid contents may be increasing faster, inas- 

 much as the square enlarges more rapidly by a smaller 

 addition to the increasing' diameter. 



