OAK-TREE. 
a ftem of forty, fifty, or fixty feet, dnd they may then be 
permitted to run to head without further pruning. But the 
particular arrangement here recommended may be varied ac- 
cording to any peculiarities of fituation, regard being con- 
ftantly had to the general and moft important principle of 
loofening the ground very deep aes to planting the 
By this mode of culture, oaks may be raifed in 
; but, where it is poffible, a loam ar marle 
Oaks thrive much the beft in fuch 
s to an imm Tt is 
d appearance of oak-tre 
denied the affiltance of art, and left to themfelves in the 
common way, would eid with ge ie a vigorous 
and rapid increafe rs plants under the ment h 
An 
beftowed upon them. After a ears, the produce of 
the timber plantation will be found very advantageous. The 
young trees that are to be removed yearly, will always find 
a ready market for a variety of purpofes, unneceflary 7 
pee in addition to thefe advantages by 
enching previous to planting, and’an- 
nual careful oie a the growth, timber can be pro- 
duced in abou y years of equal quality, and much 
fuperior in fize to that which has been above one hundred 
years growing i r manage or without the 
affiftance of cultivation ; it will doubtlefs be allowed that a 
moft beneficial, if not abfolutely the beft poffible method 
of raifing oaks, is here ted out and afcertained. But 
himfelf and ae a ae charitable relief. 
In fupport of this praétice it is ftated, that in 1750, at 
Ingeftrie in sea ee oe bes feat of lord Chetwynd, fome 
plantations were form managed in a great meafure ac- 
cording to thefe principles, and the growth of the plants 
was fo uncommonly rapid, and fo extraordinary, that it 
could not but attra& the notice of all concerned in the 
condu& of them 
On the whole it is concluded, from the ftatements made 
here, and from what may be feen in every part of the king- 
dom, in the chara&ter m1 appearance of oaks growing 
without cultivation, that it feems afcertained, that acorns 
fet with the fpade or dibble, cles digging or tillage, can 
never be depended on to ‘for ood timber ; and even in 
the mott favourable ian of this cafe, the growth 
will be exceedingly flow and precarious. 
Tranladtions of the Society for the Encouragement of 
Arts, &c. vol. xx. and the facts recorded by Mr. Majendie 
in the fame Tranfa@tions, ftrongly confirm the propriety of 
the above principles and practice. It is there ftated that 
he planted five thoufand three hundred oaks in two feparate 
inclofures, and that the firft plantation, containing four 
thoufand fix hundred oaks, was fo n part of the 
ancient Home Park, furrounding the caftle: the foil was 
dug one full fpit, and the turf inverted; the plants were 
two-years old feedlings, eave bea Lies greateft care from 
the feed-bed, by undermining the 
which they were careful to oe apegie and without 
doubling it: the tap-roots of thefe plants were fro 
eighteen to thirty-fix inches in length. Hi 
trees is of an inferior quality to that produced by fowing 
the acorn, Thefe facts were long fince well known to 
Millar and Hanbury. It is further ftated, that a common 
practice in planting oaks, is to fow the acorns in a bed; and, 
after one or two years to tranfplant the feedlings into rows 
in a nurfery, where they remain two or three years longer ; 
trees are taken up, and their tap-roots, 
e tree undergoes 
To avoid this, he ending to 
t once from the feed-bed, with an idea 
that, by their receiving only one check in nftead of tw, 
this at fo early an age, they w _ : oon recover it, fo as in 
the end to fuffer no fort of jeg is t; more particolarly as 
by saan their tap-roots enti, the trees pla 
as much as poflible in a natural ftate. And that, with foe 
it is not ee to plant out pcune oaks cine ie 
the feed-bed, but they are for the moft part ape a the 
a of removal; or, this operation is previoufly effe y 
n inftrument introduced beneath the foil that divides the 
en whilft the tree is ftill growing: after which it is fuf- 
fered to remain in the ground feveral years before ‘t is 
finally removed: but in both thefe inftances the intentions of 
nature in refpeé& to this t tree seats to be iaeirits — Would it 
e hardly, if all, felt: and 
until the queftion is decided, whether it is beft, in order to 
procure 
