TURKEY, OR MOSSY-CUPPED OAK. 291 



most of our plantations, and all of which, from their 

 habit and mode of growth, are inimical to the progress 

 of the Oak, we would recommend, in their stead, the 

 free admission of this tree, as it is not only a less inju- 

 rious neighbour to its congener, but grows as rapidly, 

 perhaps even more so than any of those above-men- 

 tioned, and would, within the first thirty years, return 

 as great a profit by its thinnings, which make excellent 

 barrel staves, and are applicable to various other purposes ; 

 when large, or at its prime, which is at seventy or eighty 

 years of age, it would produce a wainscot for cabinet and 

 other internal work, superior in beauty and appearance to 

 that of the common Oak, and, if kept dry, equally as durable. 



It may, perhaps, be objected to such an extensive cul- 

 tivation of the Cerris, that plants could not at present be 

 procured from the nurseries in sufficient numbers, or that 

 their cost would not permit of their being used to the same 

 extent as the Wych elm, ash, &c. To this we answer, 

 that there is little doubt but that the supply would in- 

 crease with the demand, and that means would be taken 

 by the nurserymen to procure whatever seed might be 

 required, if not at home, at least from the Continent, 

 where the tree abounds, and that an extensive sale and 

 steady demand would soon reduce the price of plants to 

 a rate that would allow them to be introduced in any pro- 

 portion required. 



The Turkey Oak, in its mode of growth, differs greatly 

 from the British species, for, even as a single tree, it 

 generally shoots up to a great height, with a straight 

 continuous trunk to which the branches are subordinate, 

 rarely divaricating, or throwing out such huge limbs as 

 the common Oak. 



The branches, also, which are remarkable for their ex- 



