rSfDiAlfA iiOEtlCtJLTtJRAt SOCIETY. 565 



able manhel-, and i am certainly pleased to hear that something is beiilg 

 done, t have seeh the greAt barren sti-etches of pine lands, the blis^ 

 teted, barren portions of Michigan. I have also seen on the Pacific coast 

 sights such as these, and it is enough to malje us shed tears to see 

 such places, but perhaps if we should manage these places correctly they 

 would soon be clothed with verdure and with the native forests, 



One point was spolvon of a short time ago in regard to how many 

 trees should be planted to the acre. I look to what nature does, and 

 nature is certainly a great teacher. I have in mind a region in Vir- 

 ginia, which I noticed when I lived there for a shott time, where the 

 prevallirg timber is two species of pine. It is astonishing how quickly 

 nature will reforest a barren place. It was so down In Carolina, but 

 more so in Virginia than any place I have ever seen. If you would 

 plant a corn field and a potato field there and let them go for five 

 years, it would bo a solid mat of little pine trees just as thick as the 

 hair on a dog's back— just as thick as they could stand. There at© 

 millions and billions of pine shoots. They grow not five hundred to the 

 acre, or five thousand to the acre, but about five millions to the acre. 

 You have them there in all stages from the infant to the yearling. These 

 trees gradually die out. They are so thick that some of them must 

 die in order to give the others a chance. It is simply the survival of the 

 fittest. The decayed matter around the roots is a source of the growth 

 of the ti'ee. In the hilly country of ^ irginia after a heavy rain there wilJ 

 be gullies washed out where you might bury a horse and wagon. Nature 

 will cover these places and they will grow up. 



Now in regard to the catalpa I want to say that I think it has been 

 overestimated. It is a good forest tree. It grows well in the lands 

 along the Wabash, on the hills of the Mississippi, etc. I have seen 

 them two feet thick, but it is only along these ai'iivial lands that they 

 will attain any such proportions. If they are not artended to correctly 

 they will branch out and take the form of an orchard, and the trees 

 will be almost worthless. The wood is very durable, b'ut its durability 

 has been exaggerated. It has been stated that the old forts that Gen- 

 eral Harrison built in the southern part of this State— at Vincennes— 

 were made of catalpa posts, but I was fortunate enough to see one of 

 these on exhibit at the State Fair one year, and I said to my friend, Mr. 

 Regan, who was with me, "I don't believe that is a catalpa post." So I 

 took my knife and cut off a piece and it was a mulberry. The catalpa 

 will not last as long as the mulberry. 



Mr. Harvey: Must we go into the thickets and clean them out, or 

 allow the undergrowth to develop? 



Prof. Roth: I just want to suggest one thing to you folks here and 

 that is this. You folks here in Indiana are most fortunate, and I would 

 suggest that you take under consideration a law, and "Worfe for its pas- 



