BRITISH OAKS — THEIR SPECIES, VARIETIES, USES, AND CULTURE. 
53 
should be taken in preparing the pits for them, than is usually done, for few operations in 
their culture are performed in a more careless and slovenly manner than that of planting 
forest trees. Although we see the splendid larch forests of Athol, Breadalbane, and 
throughout all the Highlands of Scotland, flourishing in a wonderful degree ; and knowing 
from experience (having superintended the planting of some square miles of the Grampians 
myself), that the roots were thrust in the soil (where there was any), and when not, 
between the fragments of half decayed micaceous rock, with the diamond-pointed dibble, as 
spades in my case could not be used, in a very careless manner ; still we see the trees in a 
thriving condition, not excelled in Europe : but those were in many cases two-year old 
seedlings, and in most only one year transplanted. The roots again of the Coniferae extend 
horizontally and not perpendicularly, hence less need for preparing the soil. 
The case is wholly different with the Oak, whose roots descend in a perpendicular 
direction naturally, and when prevented from doing so by the hand of man sustains a 
serious injury at the outset, which few of them overcome. The pits, whether for the 
reception of the tree, or (when filled in) for the seed, should be loosened as deep as possible, 
and the ground, if not trenched or ploughed, made as open and pervious as the nature 
of the soil will admit. The trees, if a forest or profitable wood be intended, should be 
planted young, 'say two-year old seedlings — but not small trees, the cuttings of the over- 
grown seedbeds, resembling the others only in size. Trees of this size require less 
protection because they are surrounded with rough herbage, and probably a sprinkling of 
furze, the best of all shelter, as when the trees grow up the furze disappears, and allows a 
free circulation of sun and air into the plantation. Cattle, however, must be excluded by 
proper fencing. 
It has been a favourite practice to crowd the ground planted with Oaks, with larch, 
Scotch fir, or, indeed, with anything that will grow ; or to plant them in jungles, already 
too crowded with brushwood and brambles. Here the second great error creeps in, and 
which is even as bad as the first ; if the situation intended to be planted with Oaks be so 
cold as to require protection, it were better not to attempt it at all, but to substitute larch 
for it. The word “ nurse,” as it is called among planters, ought to be expunged from their 
vocabulary. If the Oak were more tender and less capable of resisting cold when young 
than it is when old, then there might be some propriety in affording it shelter ; but as 
such is by no means the case, keep out nurses altogether, which only act as robbers of the 
soil, and deprive the Oaks of their necessary amount of light and air, and this every year 
increasing just in proportion as the Oaks require it more. Another and very general evil 
attends the nursing system ; they are left too long either from inattention, for a cover for 
game, or from a desire to make something of them when of a large size ; the Oaks, which 
ought to be the chief object in view, suffering all the while. 
Again, when these said nurses are removed, in what condition are the Oaks to withstand 
the cold ? They have in youth been nursed up in a warm sheltered place, one-half being 
suffocated from want of air, and the remainder weakened in constitution from starvation ; 
and in that debilitated state they are exposed to the same degree of cold that they were 
considered incapable of bearing in youth. If the ground be covered with heath, fern, or 
pretty rough herbage, these are all the protection young Oaks require ; and even these, it 
may be observed, if not attended to during the first three or four years after planting or 
sowing, may be as injurious as artificial planted nurses. The trees will not, under these 
circumstances, be drawn up like ship-masts, each striving with the other to catch a glimpse 
of the sun by even its topmost branches ; but they will attain their natural character, and 
develop themselves in full proportion, making more growth of timber in three years than 
others will in five. From the well-known rules followed in cultivating every species of 
vegetable, it has been abundantly proved that a given area of surface can only maintain 
a certain amount of the food of plants, and the same will hold good in regard to light 
and air. 
Draining, in all soils where required, should not be neglected ; in undrained soils the 
Oak will not flourish. The sj^stem of draining will, depend on local circumstances. Still 
it is probable that no system is better than that of tiles, for open drains are objectionable ; 
