ARBORICULTURE 



299 



Down on the Wabash. 



In preparing January Arboriculture 

 every illustration of catalpa trees was 

 taken in their winter garl); the true form 

 of the trees was thus apparent, not being 

 hidden by foliage. On June 24, in com- 

 pany with Mr. \V. D. Stern, we visited 

 several of the catalpa slashes down on 

 the Wabash. One tract of fifty acres, 

 in the river bottoms, we found five hun- 

 dred catalpa trees, varying I'rom thirty 

 to one hundred inches girth, all naturally 

 planted. It is safe to say not one is less 

 than eighty feet high, some being more 

 than one hundred feet. They are usu- 

 ally straight, and in size, symmetry and 

 general appearance equal to the oak, 

 white ash, shell-bark hickory, sycamore, 

 walnut, sweet gum and pecan, with which 

 they are associated in the slashes. 



On one farm we found a tree which 

 had grown from a catalpa stake in the 

 stake and ridered rail fence built in 1818, 

 when the prairie was first settled. At 

 one foot from the ground this tree meas- 

 ures six feet diameter, at six feet height 

 its girth being eleven feet. This tree, 

 being in a fence line, had been cut back 

 in early age, and formed a low, branch- 

 ing head; the main branches are two feet 

 through. There are many instances 

 where catalpa trees have grown from 

 posts, stakes, and even blocks of the 

 wood beneath buildings have taken root, 

 budded and arrown into immense trees. 



We saw a great many farms whicli 

 were fenced entirely with catalpa rails, 

 which still remain in tlie worm fences 

 after sevent}^ or eighty years' service, 

 and scarce a farm but which has miles 

 of fencing the posts of which are all 

 of catalpa ; many of these have been in 

 continuous use fifty, seventy and eighty 

 years. 



So valuable do the land owners con- 

 sider the catalpa that on some farms 

 rows of trees taken from the swam])s 

 are planted along every fence line, and 

 one may travel for miles along the public 

 highways beneath the shade of catalpa 

 avenues. Here and there are piled cords 

 of catalpa fence posts to season for fu- 

 ture use. 



Old men who have lived in the same 

 locality since the first settlement of the 

 prairies in the early part of the last cen- 

 turv, speaking of the durability of ca- 

 talpa wood, say, ^"Tt never rots, but wears 

 out with the weather." 



One man says he has used catalpa for 

 kindling his fires every morning for more 

 than sixty years, being better than pine. 

 On one large farm where there are sev- 

 eral miles of catalpa trees planted in 

 fence rows, trees for the early plantings 

 were dug from the slashes, while those 

 later planted were purchased from some 

 nursery. In every case these latter plant- 

 ings are worthless bignonoides, and, be- 

 ing now in bloom, are easily determined. 



It is so easy to gather vast quantities 

 of seed from the low growing, spreading 

 trees, like that sliown on the opposite 

 page, that seedsmen, tempted by low 

 l)rices and large profits, deal in these 

 worthless seeds, and after years of pa- 

 tient waiting the farmers learn the true 

 character of their purchase. 



To illustrate the persistency of the ca- 

 talpa, and that when once planted it be- 

 comes a permanent forest, we were 

 shown a pile of stumps which were dug 

 from the adjoining field last season. This 

 field was cleared forty-one years ago, and 

 the catalpa stumps have lived, sending 

 u)i fresh sprouts every season for forty 

 years, and had finally to be dug out. All 

 other stumps had decayed long ago. 



'^j'hcse stumps sprouted every year and 

 mad(> large growths, but the field was 

 required for cultivation and the owner 

 w.is comnelled to dig them out eventu- 

 ally. 



The views given in this number, as 

 well as those in the Januarv magazine, 

 were ])h()tographed by the editor and 

 were engraved expressly for Arboricul- 

 ture. We will give other illustrations 

 from time to time. Few people realize 

 the vast importance of this tree, and usu- 

 ally confound it witli the worthless 

 kinds, which are so common in every 

 locality. In our next number we will 

 give a colored plate of the flowers. 



