262 cokylaceye. 



As compared with the larch, the Scotch fir, and others 

 of the pine tribe, or with the rapid-growing poplars and 

 willows, the growth of the Oak during youth is un- 

 doubtedly much slower, being only at one third the rate 

 of that of the white poplar, and even less of that of the 

 black Italian poplar ; the difference, however, in respect 

 to the ash, the elm, the beech, and some other forest- 

 trees, is not nearly so great, as we find from Vancouver's 

 observations in Hampshire that the relative increase of 

 various trees in that county, taking them at ten years 

 old, and fixing the Oak as a standard, was as follows ; 

 Oak ten, Elm sixteen, Ash eighteen, and Beech twenty. 

 In our own plantations, which are of considerable extent, 

 and upon which great care and attention has been bestowed 

 in regard to timely thinning, &c, the difference in the 

 rate of growth of the Oak, in respect to the ash, wych- 

 elm, sycamore, beech, &c, is not so great as above stated ; 

 indeed in some parts where the soil is particularly suitable 

 to the Oak, now that the trees have attained the age of 

 twenty-eight or thirty years, it is very trifling, and scarcely 

 perceptible, and we find that at this age, in consequence 

 of having planted the Oak in a larger proportion per 

 acre than can stand permanently, the thinnings of this 

 tree pay better than those of any other occupant except 

 the larch, as they are of size sufficient to cut up into 

 staves and other purposes to which the thinnings of the 

 other kinds of hard wood at this age are applied, at the 

 same time that the value of the bark, even at its present 

 reduced price, more than repays the whole cost of cutting 

 down and converting to use. 



At twenty-eight years'* growth we have several Oaks 

 three feet in circumference at eighteen inches from the 

 ground, a great number two feet four inches, and the 



