admirable illustrations of the growth of young oaks from seed, and of the result of converting oak coppice wood into standards, by leaving all the best poles uncut, and carefully thinning out the weakest at intervals. This process, owing to the great fall in the value of oak bark, to the production of which large areas of oak coppice in the west and south-west of England were mainly devoted, has become very generally desirable; but if the stools are old, it is best to grub them, and replant the ground with seedlings mixed with other trees, as has been largely done on the estates of the Duke of Bedford near Tavistock.
With regard to the effect of transplanting oaks on their future growth and height, opinions differ as much as on any subject. The late Sir James Campbell, who managed Dean Forest for many years, often told me that the oftener you transplanted an oak the better it grew, and he communicated a paper with measurements of some trees in Dean Forest to the International Forestry Exhibition at Edinburgh in 1884 in proof of this; but Mr. Smith, who quotes and refers to these measurements in the paper on oaks above referred to, agrees with me that they do not prove the case; and Mr. Philip Baylis,[1] who succeeded Sir J. Campbell at Dean Forest, writes me as follows:—
"At one time I was of the opinion, founded on the above measurements, that trees were benefited by being transplanted, but have long ago given up that opinion. It is true that for a time after the tree has recovered from the shock of moving, you may, in consequence of the greater number of fibrous roots produced by the moving, get a stimulated growth; but I am convinced that the tree which eventually produces the finest timber tree is the one which is never moved from the place where the seed first germinated."
In this opinion I entirely agree, and believe that though oaks, like other trees, may be drawn up to a considerable height when surrounded closely by other trees, especially the beech, yet that their straight upward growth largely depends on the depth to which the main roots can descend. I do not know that it has ever been proved at what age the tap root decays, and this no doubt depends very largely on the subsoil; but though one may see very large spreading oaks on a thin soil, I never saw a very tall and straight one except on deep land.
In an appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, published as a blue-book in 1812, will be found (p. 143) some very interesting and valuable observations on the sowing and transplanting of oaks, in which instances are quoted from several places which go to show that oaks on some soils at least, as at Moccas Court, in Bere Forest, and in the Forest of Dean, will grow as fast or faster when transplanted at 8 to 10 feet high, or even more, than when sown in situ.
In another appendix to the same report, on page 141, are some further observations, made by men of great experience on the growth of oaks from the stool, which prove that when the stools are young and sound and the land good, sound oak trees of as much as 160 cubic feet may be so produced; but that when the stool has
- ↑ Mr. Baylis sends me a very interesting photograph showing the difference between the roots of transplanted and untransplanted oaks.
