CHAP. CV.

coryla'cehs. que'rcus.

1783

White, in his Natural History ofSelborne (see Brown’s edit., p. 195.), mentions,in a letter to Mr. Pennant, an oak in Newton Lane, which, on a misty day inOctober, 1775, dropped so fast, that the cartway stood in puddles, and theruts ran water, though the ground in general was dusty.

Progress of Oaks from the Acorn. An oak, sprung from an acorn set by RobertMarsham , Esq., at Stratton Strawless, near Norwich, A. d. 1719, measured, inthe spring of 1743, when 24 years old, 1 ft. 7 in. in girt at 5 ft. from the ground ;and in 1758, when 41 years old, its girt at the same height was 2 ft. 8^ in.;having increased 1 ft. ljin. in girt, and something more than 2 ft. 3 in. in solidcontents, during 15 years. This oak,we are informed by Robert Marsham , Esq.,the grandson of the planter of the tree, was, in December, 1836,13 ft. in circum-ference at 5 ft. from the ground, and 17 ft. at 1 ft.; with a trunk 19 ft. long clearof branches, and a remarkably handsome head; it was 64 ft. high. Two oaks,planted by Mr. Marsham in 1720 and 1721, in 1743 measured 2 ft. 9f in., and 2ft.

11J in. in circumference at 5 ft. high ; and had increased 1 ft. 1l-J in. and 2 ft.

2 in. respectively in girt, and 9 ft. 1 in. and 10 ft. 3 in. in solid contents, during15 years; while two oaks, about 60 or 80 years of age, which, in 1743, girted6 ft. 3| in. and 9 ft. 44 in., measured, in the autumn of 1758, 7 ft. 8f in., and10 ft. 1 in.; having increased only 1 ft. 5 in. and 8J in., in their respective cir-cumferences, in 15 years ; although their solid contents exceeded in increasethe younger trees, being, in the sixty-year oak, 12 ft. 1 in., and in the eighty-year oak, 16 ft. 1 in. and upwards; the height of this tree in February, 1837,Mr. Marsham inform us, was exactly 92 ft. An acorn, writes Dr. Plot, whichwas set in a hedgerow, between Colton and Blithfield, by Ralph Bates, grewto a stout oak, being 2 ft. square at the but end, within the life of its planter,who outlived its felling. The first 10 ft. were sawn into boards, and used forbuilding: it contained nearly a ton of timber. An oak which was planted atDenham Rectory, Bucks, in 1750, girted, at its smallest part, 8 ft. in 1817,being then but 67 years of age : the total height was 50 ft., and the diameterof its head about 70 ft. In the garden at Sheffield Place, Sussex, stands afine oak, which was set in the year 1745; and in 1815, when 70 years old, itstrunk was 12 ft. in circumference, its clear bole 10 ft.; at which height itdivided into branches that overspread an area of 75 ft. in diameter. Anacorn was sown at Rickett, the seat of Lord Barrington, on the day of hisbirth in 1717. In November, 1790, it contained 95 ft. of timber, which, at 2s.per foot, would sell for 91. 10s. The top was valued at about U. 15s. Thegirt, at 5 ft. from the ground, was about half an inch more than 8 ft. Theincrease of the girt, in the two las! years, was 44 in. It grows in rich land,worth 1/. 5s. an acre. (Bath. Soc. Pap., &c.)

Pate of Growth of the Oak. An oak, in a good soil and situation, will, in75 years from the acorn, contain a ton of timber. ( South in Bath Soc. Pap.,h. p. 37.) The same oak,, at 150 years of age, will contain upwards of 8 tonsof timber, or about 12 loads of square timber. (Id., p. 38.) An oak, plantedby Mr. Marsham in 1720, was, in 1794, 74 years afterwards, about 8 ft. incircumference at 14 ft. from the ground. The soil had been prepared andmanured. In the first 36 years of its growth, this tree gained 14 in. in cir-cumference yearly. The growth of a middle-aged oak is generally from 1-J in. to1 m. in circumference yearly ; between its twentieth and its hundredth year, itsometimes exceeds this measure, and, in its second century, falls within it;but, as the solidity of the shaft consists less in its length than in the squareot diameter in the girting place, a small addition to the diameter there en-larges the square abundantly. Wherefore, though the circumference from thelUOth to the 150th year may not increase so fast as it did to the 100th,solid contents will be increasing faster; for, as the square of the diameter(40=1600) exceeds the square of 24=576, so will the contents in the 150thyear exceed the contents in the 100th, when its annual enlargement was 4 in.greater. (Id., p. 50.) According to the Rev. Richard Yates, writing aftera sedulous and active experience of 50 years,” by choosing a deep loamy