SESSILE-FRUITED OAK. 281 



liable to perish and moulder away when exposed to the 

 alternation of dryness and moisture, and no treatment 

 has hitherto been discovered* (unless Ryan's solution should 

 prove to be so) to render it as durable as the deeper- 

 coloured heart-wood. 



In respect to the age at which the Oak ought to be 

 felled, to produce the greatest profit, that must in a great 

 measure depend upon soil and climate, as well as upon 

 the demand for Oak timber of this or that description 

 and quality in each respective neighbourhood ; it may, 

 however, Loudon observes, be taken as a rule, that when- 

 ever a tree has reached that period of its growth, that 

 the annual increase does not amount in value to the in- 

 terest of the money which, at the time, the tree would 

 produce if felled, then is the most profitable time to take 

 it down. For ship timber, Oak of ninety years growth, 

 in the most favourable situations as to soil, &c, such as 

 the weald of Kent, is considered by Mr. Larkin,*f* an emi- 

 nent purveyor of naval timber, as the most profitable age 

 for cutting, for although larger scantlings are produced 

 at one hundred and thirty years growth, the increase 

 in the forty additional years will scarcely pay two per 

 cent. 



As a hedge-row tree, the Oak is generally allowed to 

 be superior to any other, producing, in this situation, not 

 only the most valuable timber and the thickest bark, but 

 interfering less, from the downward direction of its roots, 

 with the tillage of the ground in its immediate vicinity ; 

 its shade and drip also are less injurious to the undergrowth 



* We have since been informed that, in Gloucestershire, white or sapwood 

 Oak is rendered durable by immersion in water for six or eight months, previously 

 to its being cut up for use. 



f " Gardener's Mag." vol. xi. p. 690. 



