187 
■>’ 
' ON THE DECREASE OF THE OAK IN BRITAIN. 
has taken place, and which must he apparent to every one—and seeing the pre¬ 
judicial effects of this decrease in every point of view, the cause remains to be 
considered which has apparently induced us to forget all claims of posterity—the 
cause of that want of foresight in which, in other respects, we are by no means 
deficient. 
The principal cause is probably this: The object of the land-owner and planter 
lias been to cultivate trees that will produce timber or wood, in his lifetime; now, 
unfortunately, the Oak will not do this: 
“ Jam qusB seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos, 
Tarda venit, seris factura nepotibus unibram.” 
The Larch has therefore been brought in, and the growth of this tree, naturally 
quick, has been increased by cultivation. In a few years the planter sees with 
gratification the rapid progress it has made. But the timber, if such it can be 
called which is produced by this rapid growth, is of a very inferior nature; for it 
is a well-known maxim, that the excellence of timber is in the inverse ratio to 
the rapidity of the growth; yet the wood, bad as it is, answers the purpose of 
the grower; he can plant, cut down, and plant again, during his life. 
But it is not entirely to him who plants for gain, that our loss is to be attri¬ 
buted ; it is not altogether the decrease in quantity of which we have to complain, 
but also the inferiority in quality. Those who do plant Oak, do so merely for 
ornament. 
“ Most species of forest trees are so long in coming to maturity, that the grand 
incentive to planting them is ornament, and not use. Even the man who 
accumulates for posterity, in reality seldom does so in his own feeling of the 
matter: for he who leaves the most to others when he quits the world, did not 
collect it for them, but for himself—^for the gratification of his desire of posses¬ 
sion. The man who plants wishes to have something to look at, and to have it 
as speedily as possible, and that, with the other circumstances that have been 
noticed, conspires to cover the rich districts of the country with growing rubbish, 
which, when it comes to be cut down, is fit only for fire-wood, and very 
inferior for that.”— Mudie. 
And in consequence of the inferiority of the timber thus planted, it has been 
argued, that the Oak cannot be cultivated—that it must be sown and grow by 
the hand of Nature, that the acorn must drop from the parent tree, and spring 
spontaneously into life; in short, that any interference on the part of man is 
injurious: this excuse, for the conduct of those who destroy, but never plant, 
is vain and futile, for— 
“ If people have been able to cultivate animals into greater size and strength 
and beauty, and also to make them have better flesh and finer wool; if they have 
been able to improve by culture the beauty of flowers, and the nourishing quali- 
No. 10, Vol. II. 
c 
