218 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK. 



when we consider that the thinnings of woods, even 

 when of the minimum age at which the operation is 

 required, generally do more than cover the expense. 

 Were it not that it might be deemed invidious, I 

 could mention many plantations in which the oaks, 

 after having overcome every other kind of bad manage- 

 ment, have been ruined by want of thinning alone. 



The errors which have now been pointed out, ac- 

 count, it is hoped sufficiently, for the difficulty that 

 has been found in raising oak in Scotland, and the 

 consequent scarcity of that valuable species of tim- 

 ber, without having recourse to a theory so totally 

 irreconcileable with known facts, as that our soil and 

 climate are not capable of producing it ; firsts It is 

 subjected in its very infancy to a mode of treatment 

 which nature has not qualified it to bear ; secondly, 

 It is not provided with shelter ; tJiirdly, The prun- 

 ing of it is generally neglected ; and, in the Jhut^th 

 place. It is often suffocated, by allowing thickets of 

 other trees to deprive it of the necessary supplies of 

 air. Some of these misfortunes, indeed, on the im- 

 perfect system of raising wood now practised in 

 Scotland, are common to the oak with all its bre- 

 thren of the forest. But the evils which it suffers 

 from transplantation are peculiar to itself, and it sus- 

 tains more damage from exposure than any other 



