240 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK. 



four beds exhibited as many diiTerent degrees of for- 

 wardness. The plants from the acorns in the limed 

 bed had some of them made shoots of eighteen 

 inches long ; the largest growths made by those in 

 the other bed were several inches shorter ; the 

 transplanted oaks in the limed bed had not grown 

 half so much as the last mentioned, but w^ere percep- 

 tibly before their brethren that had received no ma- 

 nure. The most forward of the transplanted oaks, 

 therefore, though they had a year's advantage in age, 

 were now far behind the most backward of the others. 



Having sown the acorns too thick, it was neces- 

 sary, in order to carry on the experiment, to thin 

 them when they were two years old. This I ac- 

 cordingly did, leaving only four of the best plants in 

 each bed. Though the transplanted ones, from 

 their having grown less than the others, were not 

 too much crowded, yet to give them equal justice, 

 so that there might be nothing doubtful in their 

 final result, I thinned them out to the same dis- 

 tances. The third summer exhibited the same re- 

 spective differences in the growth of the plants, as 

 the preceding one had done. Of those raised in 

 their present situation from acorns, the limed ones 

 grew most ; those in tiie unlimed bed were next in 

 order ; the limed transplanted were third in the 



