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most barren sands, is often short and disposed to rot and decay. On the 

 more tenacious soils, the tree is a rapid grower, but may be considered as 

 short lived, seldom showing an age much above 50 yaars. When it grows 

 rapidly, the wood is coarse-grained, but not very porous, yellowish brown, and 

 is highly esteemed for fuel, and prefer.'ed to white oak for that purpose. 

 Grown at the rate of 640 to 1280 trees to the acre, and cut whenever the 

 tree begins to show signs of dying, say at 30 years, it would probably pro- 

 duce as large an amount of timber and fuel as could be procured from any 

 other oak ; and a new growth might be expected from the acorns which 

 would have before sprang up, and formed strong grubs over the ground, 

 many fine clumps of timber, of these oaks, have grown from what were mere 

 scrubby bushes at the first settlements of Wisconsin. The timber is consid- 

 erably used as building material, and especially as hewed sticks. It is full as 

 durable as white oak for fence posts, and rails, and railroad sleepers. 



There are several other species of oaks natural to the state, but for general 

 cultivation these are all that can be recommended. Oaks are easily and 

 best obtained from the acorns, which must be kept as described for chest- 

 nuts, and should be planted where the tree is wanted. If they are grown in 

 tbe nursery they must be dug up and transplanted at the end of the first 

 year, as they will then have produced a large fleshy tap-root ; and unless this 

 is shortened there will' be no lateral roots, but the root will continue to pen- 

 etrate the ground, as it often does to the depth of several feet. This makes 

 the tree a good neighbor to other trees and plants. Of all our forest trees, 

 the oaks have the fewest faults and most virtues. 



CASTANEA. (Ohustnut). 



This is another of the cupuliferae, with leaves oblong-lanceolate — point- 

 ed, serrate with coarse pointed teeth, smooth and green on both sides, 

 strongly straight veined. The flowers appearing later than the leaves ; the 

 sterile ones near the ends of the branches, in long and naked cylindrical 

 catkins ; fertile flowers at the base of the sterile, 2 or S together in an ovoid 

 scally prickly involucre. Nuts coreaceous, ovoid, three together or two or 

 one by abortion, in the hard coriaceous and very prickly involucre ; cotyle- 

 dons very thick, somewhat plaited, cohering, remaining under ground in 

 germination. The centre nut is flattened on both sides, if the three mature, 

 if two mature they are flattened on one side, if but one it is ovate. The 

 American variety of castanea vesca bears a smaller but sweeter nut than the 

 European. The clasioal name is derived from the town of Castanea, in 

 Thessally, famous for its chestnuts. 



This well know tree is not, as it is thought, a native of Wisconsin, but 

 many suppose it may thrive on the sandy, gravelly hills of the southern coun- 

 ties and that trials to that effect should be made. It has been planted and 

 produced nuts in some places in the state ; yet it may require the pro- 

 tection of other trees. It is worth the attention of every land owner in the 

 state who is possessed of a piece of ground suitable to its growth, to make 

 the experiment. Though it does not grow equally -well upon all kinds of soil 

 like the oak, still it is found growing over so wide a range that suitable soil 



