itself, some goodly oaks
have been noted to grow upon ground, which has been as it were a rock of
ancient cinders, buried there many ages since. It is indeed obser'd,
that oaks which grow in rough stony grounds, and obstinate clays, are
long before they come to any considerable stature, (for such places, and
all sort of clay, is held but a step-mother to trees) but in time they
afford the most excellent timber, having stood long, and got good
footing. The same may we affirm of the lightest sands, which produces a
smoother-grain'd timber, of all other the most useful for the joyner;
but that which grows in gravel is subject to be frow (as they term it)
and brittle. What improvement the stirring of the ground about the roots
of oaks is to the trees, I have already hinted; and yet in copses where
they stand warm, and so thicken'd with the underwood, as this culture
cannot be practis'd, they prove in time to be goodly trees. I have of
late tried the graffing of oaks, but as yet with slender success:
Ruellius indeed affirms it will take the pear and other fruit; and if we
may credit the poet,

The sturdy oak does golden apples bear.{39:1}

And under elms swine do the mast devour.{39:2}

Which I conceive to be the more probable, for that the sap of the oak
is of an unkind tincture to most trees. But for this improvement, I
would rather advise inoculation, as the ordinary elm upon the
witch-hazel, for those large leaves we shall anon mention, and which are
so familiar in France.

6. That the transplanting of young oaks gains them ten years advance,
some happy persons have affirmed: From this belief, if in a former
impression I have desired to be excused, and produc'd my reasons for it,
I shall not persist against any sober man's experience; and therefore
leave this article to their choice; since (as the butchers phrase is)
change of pasture makes fat calves; and so transplantations of these
hard-wood-trees, when young, may possibly, by an happy hand, in fit
season, and other circumstances of soil, sun, and room for growth, be an
improvement: But as for those who advise us to plant oaks of too great a
stature, they hardly make any considerable progress in an age; and
therefore I cannot encourage it, unless the ground be extraordinarily
qualify'd, or that the oak you would transplant, be not above 6 or 7
foot growth in height: Yet if any be desirous to make tryal of it, let
their stems be of the smoothest and tendere