Common Oak 301 



admirable illustrations of the growth of young oaks from seed, and of the result of 

 converting oak coppice wood into standards, by leaving all the best poles uncut, and 

 carefully thinning out the weakest at intervals. This process, owing to the great 

 fall in the value of oak bark, to the production of which large areas of oak coppice 

 in the west and south-west of England were mainly devoted, has become very 

 generally desirable ; but if the stools are old, it is best to grub them, and replant the 

 ground with seedlings mixed with other trees, as has been largely done on the 

 estates of the Duke of Bedford near Tavistock. 



With regard to the effect of transplanting oaks on their future growth and 

 height, opinions differ as much as on any subject. The late Sir James Campbell, 

 who managed Dean Forest for many years, often told me that the oftener 

 you transplanted an oak the better it grew, and he communicated a paper with 

 measurements of some trees in Dean Forest to the International Forestry Exhibition 

 at Edinburgh in 1884 in proof of this ; but Mr. Smith, who quotes and refers to 

 these measurements in the paper on oaks above referred to, agrees with me that 

 they do not prove the case ; and Mr. Philip Baylis,^ who succeeded Sir J. Campbell 

 at Dean Forest, writes me as follows : — 



" At one time I was of the opinion, founded on the above measurements, that 

 trees were benefited by being transplanted, but have long ago given up that opinion. 

 It is true that for a time after the tree has recovered from the shock of moving, 

 you may, in consequence of the greater number of fibrous roots produced by the 

 moving, get a stimulated growth ; but I am convinced that the tree which eventually 

 produces the finest timber tree is the one which is never moved from the place 

 where the seed first germinated." 



In this opinion I entirely agree, and believe that though oaks, like other trees, 

 may be drawn up to a considerable height when surrounded closely by other trees, 

 especially the beech, yet that their straight upward growth largely depends on the 

 depth to which the main roots can descend. I do not know that it has ever been 

 proved at what age the tap root decays, and this no doubt depends very largely 

 on the subsoil ; but though one may see very large spreading oaks on a thin soil, 

 I never saw a very tall and straight one except on deep land. 



In an appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, published as a blue-book in 1812, will be found (p. 143) some very 

 interesting and valuable observations on the sowing and transplanting of oaks, in 

 which instances are quoted from several places which go to show that oaks on some 

 soils at least, as at Moccas Court, in Bere Forest, and in the Forest of Dean, will 

 grow as fast or faster when transplanted at 8 to 10 feet high, or even more, than 

 when sown in sittt. 



In another appendix to the same report, on page 141, are some further observa- 

 tions, made by men of great experience on the growth of oaks from the stool, which 

 prove that when the stools are young and sound and the land good, sound oak trees 

 of as much as 160 cubic feet may be so produced; but that when the stool has 



■ Mr. Baylis sends me a very interesting photograph showing the difference between the roots of transplanted and 

 untransplanted oaks. 



