The Oaks 283 



Oaks should be planted acorns — never 

 transplanted. They strike a strong taproot 

 down, down. Transplanting destroys it. Per- 

 haps the fact accounts for the old "gentle- 

 man's superstition " against digging up an oak, 

 though the assigned reason was that either 

 the planted or the planter, the tree or the 

 man, was bound to die within a year because 

 of the planting. A sprouting acorn may be 

 lifted almost carelessly, dropped in the pocket, 

 kept there all day, then planted, yet thrive 

 afterward. 



Red oaks are, as becomes yeomen, sturdily 

 adaptable, growing branchy where they can, 

 slim and tall where they must. They thrive 

 upon land of every sort except swamps and 

 sour crawfishy spots — there water oaks 

 crowd them out. They are further quick- 

 growing, making thick new layers of sapwood 

 each year, to replace the sap-layer mysteri- 

 ously changed to heart. The sap is clear 

 white, the heart richly ruddy. Both chip 

 freely, and split still more freely. The 

 puncheon floors, which were signs of luxu- 

 rious enterprise in pioneer cabins, were almost 

 invariably split from red oak trunks. It is 

 the coarse grain due to free growth which 

 makes red oak timber split so much more 

 readily than white or post oak. The bastard 

 white oak, which is a true white oak, except 



