GROWING GOLD. 



95 



consequence, overgrow the family of oaks 

 which they were intended to nurse. 



Yet, even under the unnatural, mixed 

 system, there is ample proof of a great rate 

 of growth, equal in circumference to the 

 pines ; the latter grow to a greater length of 

 stem, but in this stormy climate it is in reality 

 no advantage; in fact, it furnishes strong 

 reason against their general adoption. They 

 certainly cannot arrive at maturity as single 

 trees, nor indeed in numbers so small as 

 have been experimented upon on many oc- 

 casions. They do not become bush headed ; 

 nor do they recoil from the wind, and continue 

 to grow slowly, like oaks which are some- 

 times found to have adapted themselves to the 

 situation in which they are placed, but they 

 decay and die. 



The leading shoot of a healthy young oak 

 tree, of one year's growth, requires to be 

 described, and it will at once be seen that 

 the advice as to the necessity of shelter 



