Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/65

VIII.] to the belief that these defects are less frequent in the Quercus Robur pedunculatei, whatever the situation or soil may be upon which they are grown.

There appears to be little difficulty in rearing the Oak tree ; it thrives in almost any soil, except that which is boggy or peaty; but to bring it to the greatest perfection, it is preferable to have a rich loam with a clayey subsoil. It will even spring up again from the old stool, or root, and without requiring any attention, produce, in time, one or more fine trees in place of that which was first cut down.

The following dimensions of nine Oak trees that were growing only a few years since (and possibly are so still) at Woburn Abbey Park, may be interesting, as showing the size they will attain upon a favourable soil. The particulars are taken from a small book, published in 1832, under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge:—