ON PLANTING WITH OAKS. 153 
tion ‘T’his arises from the natural tenderness of the young shoots 
and early leaves of the oak, which, even m the south of Eng- 
land, are frequently destroyed or much mjured by frost in May,, 
while, in elevated situations, it is found that even the bark does 
not so easily separate from the wood of standing trees after a 
cold night Modern planters seem to be all agreed, that the best 
mode of producing shelter for the oak 1s, by first covering the 
surface with the Scotch pine, laich, or birch, the first being 
greatly preferred After the nurse-trees have grown to the 
height of four o1 five feet, openmgs should be cut in the planta- 
tions thus formed, at the rate of from three hundred to five hun- 
dred according to some, and of sixty to one hundred according 
to others, to the acre and im each of these openings an acorn, 
or an oak plant should be mseited, the soul having been duly 
prepared ” 
Young oaks are frequently mjured by late frosts in all the 
lower parts of Massachusetts, and the precautions directed 
above must be not less necessary in our chmate than in the 
compaiatively mild one of England Instead of the plants 
recommended by Loudon as nurses our pitch pme, hacmatack, 
and black, yellow or white birches, might be used all of which 
spring readily from seed 
“The patches are piepared by digging and manurme with 
lime, and each is planted with five acorns, one in the centie 
and four around it After two years’ growth, all the plants 
are removed but one, by cutting through ther 100ts, two inches 
or three inches below the giound, with a sharp chisel-like im- 
strument with a long handle, made on purpose, the plants re- 
moved not being mtended to be replanted As soon as the 
nurses overshadow the oaks, the plants that do so, or their 
branches, are to be 1emoved, but ‘all the Scotch pmes and 
laiches that will require to be taken out before they are sixteen 
years old,’ Mi Cruickshank says, ‘will not render the plantation 
thinne: than a thriving one of the same kind of trees would, 
for its own sake, need to be at twenty years after planting”’ 
When the oaks are five years old, they ale to be pruned for 
the first time, by cutting off the lowe: tier of branches close to 
the stem, and this operation is to be repeated every two years, 
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