The Red Oak is the largest of the genus belonging to American woods, and
the least useful for any purposes except those of shade and ornament. It
is very regular and well proportioned, having a remarkably wide spread,
and branches comparatively but little contorted. It is taller than the
white oak, and does not branch so near the ground; but it possesses in a
high degree that expression of majesty for which the oak is celebrated.
The scarcity of trees of this species by our roadsides is remarkable,
since they display the union of so many of the qualities which are
desirable in a shade-tree. The Red Oak thrives well on a poor soil, and
grows with great rapidity; its foliage is very beautiful, and deeply
cleft, like that of the scarlet oak, though larger, and its
reddish-purple tints in the autumn are hardly inferior. Perhaps the
scarcity of oaks in general by the wayside is owing to the peculiar
shape of their roots, which extend to a great depth in the soil, and
render the trees very difficult to be transplanted. Hence the wayside
oaks are such as have come up spontaneously in the places they occupy,
and were there when the road was laid out.