^30 CULTUllE AND MANAGEMENT aE OAK. 



indispensable ingredient in this method of planting, 

 but the expense of it is so trifling (as a boll of un- 

 slaked lime will serve an acre), and it adds so much 

 to the growth of the plants, that there is a very 

 great advantage in using it. This manure, indeed, 

 imparts no new strength to the soil, but it quickens 

 it, brings its latent powers into action, and has 

 a very great effect in accelerating vegetation. It is 

 peculiarly favourable to young trees, of every des- 

 cription, by swelling and opening the land, it there- 

 by makes way for the young fibres, and enables them 

 to collect and decompose the nourishment, which is 

 naturally inherent in the soil. Here it may be ne- 

 cessary to remark, that it is not advisable to use 

 dung for this purpose. It operates in a manner 

 quite different from lime, imparting a positive nou- 

 rishment of its own, which is very different both in 

 strength and quality from what is naturally con- 

 tained in the land, especially in such land as that 

 in which wood is commonly raised. It is this that 

 torms the objection against applying it to oaks. The 

 plants would subsist on it as long as its strength re- 

 mained, and grow luxuriantly, but that strength 

 being exhausted, they would have henceforth to live 

 on a much poorer and quite different kind of nou- 

 rishment ; so that,^ in the end, they would be pre- 



