PARK AND CEMETERY. 
273 
years old, forty feet high and three feet seven inches 
in circumference. English gardeners tell me that 
my English oaks do better and are growing faster 
than they do in England. There, they are very 
slow to start. Here they are a desirable tree.” 
A number of other authorities have made the 
same declaration as to the rapidity of growth of 
oaks. Most important may be given the testimony 
of Thomas Meehan. “ \t one time the oaks had 
the reputation of being of slow growth. While this 
may be true of them in Europe, it is not so here. 
In our nursery they grow as fast as any other ordin- 
ary trees.” 
Some measurements were made at the Arnold 
Arboretum of a group of trees fifteen years old, 
all thrifty, planted at the same time, and growing 
under the same conditions. The heights appeared 
about the same except that the white oak was some- 
what smaller, the ash much so, and the maple hollow. 
Their circumferences speak for themselves: 
White Oak. . . 
.22 inches. Laurel Oak.. 
■• 23 ^ 
inches. 
Chestnut Oak. 
.17 “ White Birch.. 
..24 
it 
Bur Oak 
.16 “ Ash 
■ ■U'A 
it 
Pin Oak 
.30 “ Chestnut 
it 
Sugar Maple. ... 15 inches. 
The oaks here seem to have grown fully as fast 
as the other trees and one, the pin oak, surpassed 
them all. Moreover, they were all sizeable trees, 
set not a very long time and abundantly large 
enough to be enjoyed. The popular impression that 
he who plants an oak plants only for posterity does 
not appear to be true here. 
While the oak may grow rapidly enough under 
proper circumstances, two conditions presented them- 
selves as essential, suitable treatment at and before 
transplanting, and proper preparation of the soil. 
The latter, of course, implies that sufficient plant- 
food is to be prepared in a thorough way to feed the 
young tree as it pushes upward. Perhaps the best 
statement as to how this may be accomplished came 
from John Boetcher of Oakwood cemetery, Troy, 
N. Y., whose trees prove that his faith is justified 
by his works. He says: “The oaks, like all other 
trees require about one and the same treatment. 
Prepare the ground by digging a hole about eight 
feet square and four feet deep. Turn the sub-soil 
in the bottom of the same, and fill in with the rest 
of the earth, mixed if too poor, with some better 
earth. No manure need be used, but the roots 
should be properly spread, and all broken parts 
carefully trimmed. The same rule may be applied 
to any tree-planting.” 
More important because less known is treatment 
in preparation for permanent setting. All oaks with 
the exception of the pin oak have one long tap-root 
which grows directly and deeply into the ground. 
If this is cut off after having become of any size, the 
tree is maimed for life and deprived of its means 
of food-supply. The practice of nurserymen, where 
it does not seem best to plant the acorn where the 
tree is desired to stand, is to transplant the young 
oak when two years old, cutting off the tap-root as 
much as is necessary. This causes an additional 
growth of fibrous roots before the tree has become 
too old. The practise is continued frequently un- 
til the time comes to make a permanent setting. A 
large part of the ill-success in transplanting and set- 
ting oaks is said to be due to the failure to trans- 
plant the seedlings often enough in the nursery. 
The pin oak forms naturally a growth of fibrous 
roots to which is due in large measure its popularity 
because easily transplanted. 
The popular prejudice against transplanting the 
oaks was found in part to have foundation. The 
oaks do grow slowly or fail utterly unless given the 
little more care in transplanting and setting that 
their worth demands. With proper cultivation of 
the soil and sufficient frequency in transplanting, 
they grow as rapidly as any tree. Their youthful 
beauty is charming. In old age they are grand. 
Beautiful at any time, they amply repay the little 
extra thought required by them. 
A. Phelps Wyman. 
It is remarkable that the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
especially the latter, appear to have known as much 
about propagating roses as the most successful growers 
of modern times. In the Old World the practice is to 
go into the woods, collect good strong plants of the Dog 
Rose, Rosa canina, plant them in the nursery, and then 
graft, or rather bud them, with kinds desired; and it 
seems that this was exactly the practice pursued by the 
ancient Romans. When we look at the many remain- 
ing works of the ancients in the various lines of human 
action we know that civilization must have been very 
much in the advance, even in those early times. When 
we talk, therefore, of civilization, it simply means that 
we have advanced in other lines than those which the 
ancients occupied. 
* * * 
Plant-growers well understand that when there is a 
change of the green color of leaves to variegation the 
leaf power seems weakened. Even hardy shrubs, when 
they are variegated, are always dwarfer, and grow in 
every way with less vigor than the plants with foliage of 
a normal color. Singularly enough, this is not the case 
with purple-leaved varieties. As a general rule they are 
much more vigorous than the green-leaved forms from 
which they have sprung. The reason for this is clear, 
but it would be a good subject for a thesis in some of 
our horticultural colleges. — Meehan's Mo?ithly for De- 
cember. 
