The Oak. 



which our bread is made ; but how to take an acorn, and 

 go to work with it in that way which is best calculated for 

 the producing of the timber and the bark, is not so well and 

 so generally known : it is my business, therefore, to com- 

 municate to my readers the knowledge which I possess on 

 the subject, reserving an account of the different sorts of 

 Oaks, and of their different qualities, to follow the direc- 

 tions which are applicable to all. 



422. The Oak is raised from seed, and from seed only ; 

 and that well-known seed is the acorn. Acorns are to be 

 picked up under the Oak trees in the month of November; 

 but you must take special care that the pigs have not been 

 under the trees before you; for if they have, and if the 

 quantity be not much greater than they can devour, they 

 will, as in the case of the Beech nuts, leave you not a 

 single acorn that will grow. The best way is to try them 

 in the manner directed in the case of the Beech, to which 

 the reader will now please to refer. 



423. Acorns might be sown as soon as picked up, were it 

 not for the mice ; but, except in very well guarded situa- 

 tions, they would, if sown in the fall, be nearly all devoured 

 before the spring ; and even if sown in the spring, in an 

 open field, or any unguarded spot; any spot where the mice 

 would find near and convenient shelter, as in a bottom of 

 a hedge, or in rough grass, they would generally leave but 

 few of the acorns untouched. If, therefore, you have a 

 mind to succeed in the raising of Oak plants, you should 

 make your beds in a piece of ground, which has no such 

 shelter near it. 



424. The spot having been chosen judiciously, the next 

 thing is to prepare the ground well, and then to lay it out 



