108 



l lll- rUACTIt \L GAKDKM.R. 



early ages a king would have feasted on, the beggar now re- 

 tuses, and the acorn is scarcely known as atKording nourish- 

 ment to the human species, even among the wandering vagrants 

 who pitch their tattered tents, and cook their scanty tare 

 beneath the branches of the trees that produce them. 



" Acorns continued to be of so much importance, for many 

 ages after they had been relinquished as tl\e food of man, that 

 a failure of them frequently caused a famine, as the swine, 

 which our woods and forests maintained, formed a principal 

 part of the food of our ancestors. The author of the Saxon 

 Chronicle, after describing the extraordinary famine and mor- 

 tality of the year UK) records particularly the failure of masts 

 in that year. 



We find that, as early as the end of the seventh centiUT, 

 our Saxon ancestors had a law, and particular directions given 

 them by King Ina, respecting the fattening of swine in woods, 

 since his time called jxiirnage or pu/magc. Elfhelmus reserves 

 the pannage of two hundred hogs for his lady in part of her 

 dowry ; and acorns are particularly mentioned about the middle 

 of the eleventh century, in a donation of Edward the Confessor. 



Before the Con(|uest, the Wealds of Sussex were one 

 continued forest from Hampshire to Kent, principally of oak- 

 trees, that were only valued by the number of swine which 

 the acorns maintained ; and so accurately was the survey taken 

 in William the Conqueror's time, that woods are mentioned in 

 Doomsday Book, of one hog." The Romans, in the time of 

 Strabo, were supplied principally with hogs fatted in the woods 

 of (laul, and with us, to this day, acorns are used for the same 

 purpose, as well as for the fattening of deer. 



Acorns are often sown immediately after being gathereil, and 

 in that way succeed perfectly well ; they are also often kept 

 in sacks or on a dry floor till February, when they are also 

 sown with nearly the same success. In gathering the seeds, 

 choice should be made of the finest specimens of trees, which 

 has been already noticed, as they are more likely to produce a 

 healthy and vigorous progeny than those which arc ill grown 

 and stinted in their growth. 



At whatever season the seeds are sown, whether in autumn 

 or spring, a much less diflerence will attend the result than is 

 allowed by some ; if the seeds have been carefully selected. 



