318 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



am almost afraid to tell you the number of feet they did grow, for it was 

 enormous and almost sounds incrodiljlo, hut t hoy grew nine feet. They 

 grew until in December. They could be grown where nothing else of 

 value could live. You can plant catalpas in the river valleys and the 

 overflow will not luut (lie Ireos. but will benefit them and they will 

 grow the faster. I called tlie attention of the government to this mutter 

 as being a possible solution of reclaiming those river bottoms, especially 

 the lower Mississippi River Avhich has been such a tremendous cost to 

 the government. 



Mr. Shoemaker: I thinlc that nil of us did not understand the paper. 

 It stated that there were two varieties of the catalpa, and that one was 

 not any better than apple. The varieties are bignonoides, which is not 

 durable, and the speciosa, which is very durable. When we are speaking 

 of these tiecs we should designate what variety, for if we don't it will 

 lead to confusion. 



]Mr. Jno. C. Thomas: I have so much confidence in the catalpa that 

 I am planting them all around my farm for posts. I don't expect to live 

 to see them ready for use, but when they are ready they will make excel- 

 lent posts. 



Mrs. Stevens: We made a great mistake in setting out the catalpa. 

 Mr. Stevens never likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake, so 

 he just keeps quiet. We put out five or six hundred of the trees. They 

 are planted on excellent ground, and we can't show a fair specimen today. 

 It can't he on account of the variety, for we have both. There are so 

 many worms on the tici-s that they look as if tliey were almost dead. 

 Paris green will kill tlie worm. l)ut it seems that in killing the first 

 brood the second brood is not destroyed for they come back again. Possi- 

 bly we do not go over them thoroughly the first time. 



Mr. Little: The people down in Posey and Gibson counties told me 

 that these trees wei-e defoliated every year. 



Mr. Teas: I have never seen anything like defoliation on these trees 

 in my life, and I have been over this country for fifty years. It is a 

 native of the American coast from New .Tersey south to Florida, and 

 extends west into Kentucy. Wherever it grows I have been told that the 

 worms are troublesome, but I have never seen a worm on a tree in my 

 life. I just wonder if Mrs. Stevens has the wrong variety. You know 

 there are two. 



Mrs. Stevens: We have both kinds, and ours are ten or twelve years 

 old. 



Mr. Hobbs: I have been recommending this tree as one to be planted 

 around the barn-'lot, but I hardly know what to say now. The sheep 



