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SECTION II. 



ON THE DEFECTS AND EllIlORS OF THE COMMON 

 METHOD OF PROPAGATING OAK- 



Total failures in attempts to raise oak in some 

 districts of the country, and its slow growth in 

 others, have gradually given rise to an opinion, that 

 this tree is too delicate for our soil and climate ; 

 and, consequently, that it can never be rendered a 

 lucrative object of cultivation to the grower of tim- 

 ber. That this opinion is founded on misappre- 

 hension, and entirely groundless, the author has al- 

 ready endeavoured to prove. In the present sec- 

 tion, which is intended as an introduction to the new 

 plan of raising oak, submitted to the reader in the 

 subsequent part of this volume, he will have an op- 

 portunity of explaining the true causes of the fail- 

 ures in question, and of demonstrating, from the na- 

 ture of the tree, as w^ell as from actual experiment, 

 that these causes lie wholly in erroneous and defec- 

 tive modes of culture. 



The most important characteristic of the oak, in 

 studying it with an eye to ascertain the method of 



