if. 1. THE OAK. 121 
only by the live oak. It was used for the frames of buildings, 
in preference to any other timber, until it became too scarce 
and dear. For strength, hardness, toughness, and durableness 
united, it is unsurpassed, although each of these properties sin- 
gly is found in a greater degree in some other wood. It is 
almost indispensable in the manufacture of implements of hus- 
bandry, and in all kinds of wheel-work. It makes the most 
valuable tables and chairs, and it would be used by the joiner, 
on account of its superior beauty, for the finishing of houses, 
were it not for the property which shows its superiority, its 
hardness. When employed for ornamental uses, the wood 
should be cut obliquely to exhibit the reddish silver grain. 
As an ornament to the landscape, or as a single object, no other 
tree is to be compared with it, in every period of its growth, for 
picturesqueness, majesty, and inexhaustible variety of beauty. 
The main root of the oak, where the soil is favorable, de- 
scends to a great depth, compared with its height, especially in 
young trees, and it stretches to a distance horizontally, and that 
at a considerable depth. equal to the spread of the branches, 
thus taking a stronger hold of the earth than any other tree of 
the forest. It does not often tower upwards to so magnificent a 
height as many other trees, but, when standing alone, it throws 
out its mighty arms with an air of force and grandeur, which 
have made it every where to be considered the fittest emblem of 
strength and power of resistance. And deservedly ;—no tree in 
New England is to be compared to the oak in this respect, save 
the tupelo, and that in very rare instances. Nothing gave so 
vivid an impression of the irresistible force of the wind, in the 
sreat hurricane of 1815, as its laying prostrate even the oak. 
For, commonly, the oak braves the storm, to the last, without 
yielding, better than any other tree. ‘The limbs go out at a great 
angle, and stretch horizontally toa vast distance. This, with 
the great size of the limbs, is its striking character, and what 
gives it its peculiar appearance. ‘They do not always go 
straight out, but crook and bend, to right and left, upwards 
and downwards, abruptly or with a gentlesweep. ‘The smaller 
branches preserve, in a considerable degree, the character of the 
limbs, and the spray varies with the species. So do the leaves; 
17 
