PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 



529 



profitable than it really is, I shall only farther observe, that, 

 in most cold, hilly situations in Scotland and Wales, it will 

 produce upwards of £ .2., and in more favourable situations up- 

 wards of £S. each statute acre annually * ; and I do not hesitate 

 to add, that the profit would exceed these sums in both cases, 

 were proper attention given to the plants when young. This 

 profit is independent of that of the timber-trees ; and if we 

 suppose fifty, or even forty only, are cut every fifty years from 

 each acre, at £ 1. 5s. each, this is £ 1. more, or in all from £3. to 

 £5. each acre annually for oak woodsy and I believe no one 

 acquainted with the subject will allege that these calculations 

 are over-rated. Another consideration which ought to operate 

 as some inducement to plant oaks, is the easy charge with 

 which it may be accomplished, at least in very extensive plan- 

 tations. From the plantations at Wei beck, and the writings of 

 Mr. Marshall and Colonel Emerich, and the remarks in 

 Sect. 3. Chap. II., it is evidently the best method to raise 

 oaks from the acorn f, by sowing them where they are 



* At Moccas Court, in Herefordshire, the seat of Sir George CornewaJI, Bart, 

 it affords upwards of two guineas annually each English acre. 



f An acre of oaks affords a greater quantity of vegetable product than the same 

 space occupied with any other tree. This is owing to the tap-root of the oak pe- 

 netrating many feet below the surface, and deriving the principal part of its nou- 

 rishment in the bowels of the earth, where no other tree can reach. It is from the 

 tap-root principally that this tree increases in size, although it will live many years, 

 with horizontal roots only. These facts deserve the attention of planters. — See 

 Miller's Diet. art. 2uercus. See also Hunter's Georgical Essays, Vol. VL 

 p. 442, &c. 



