ARBORICULTURE 



III 



PROF. T. J. BURRILL, OF ILLINOIS INDUS- 

 TRIAL UNIVERSITY, says: 



"While collecting specimens of the 

 trees of Illinois, for the Centennial, I 

 found some boards sawed from a Catalpa 

 log two feet in diameter that was known 

 to have lain on the ground one hundred 

 years. The wood is still sound and sus- 

 ceptible of a fair polish." 



The theory held by eminent authorities 

 of early times, that artificial plantations 

 of forest trees should be as close as 4x4 

 feet in order to induce upright -growth 

 and to eliminate lower branches, has 

 proved a failure everywhere. The Ca- 

 talpa is so strong a grower, making enor- 

 mous demands upon its root system 

 which cannot develop and so dwarfs the 

 tree. 



Oriental gardeners grow oak trees in 

 tiny flower pots, by a process of starva- 

 tion. American planters have been 

 equally successful in producing 2,722 

 tiny fence posts by similar process, in 

 two decades, upon an acre of land. 



Nature, in the course of time, will kill 

 •ofif the weaker, and leave a proper 

 amount of space to the remainder, but 

 capital invested in forests demands 

 quicker returns, and a more rational 

 method must be employed in planting if 

 we expect financiers to invest money in 

 growing trees. 



In Kansas alone one million dollars 

 has been lost through this erroneous 

 over-crowding of trees. There is not a 

 forest in existence which has become a 

 success where planted 4x4 or even 6x6 

 feet, unless severel}- thinned within 8 or 

 10 years. 



The Farlington, Kan., plantation of 

 1.200 acres, planted in 1879, should at 

 this time be producing cross-ties by the 

 hundred thousands, yet its failure is'most 

 complete. No ties will be produced in 

 half a century without radical change in 

 management. In 1885, when six vears 

 old. Mr. Douglas reported that these 

 trees were 18 to 21 feet high. 12 to t8 

 inches circumference. They have not 

 grown as much in tlie 15 years subse- 

 quently ; very many are 110^ larger than in 

 1885. Neither water nor food can be 

 secured to sustain a growth. 



>:<»'i^^ ' ' r^Tyjg'.iU.jM&fcysgai 



CATALl'.V SPKCIOS.V AT TOPF.KA, KAXSA.S. 



Twenty years from seed, twice transi)lanted ; hoJKht. 45 

 feet; diameter, breast high, 14 inches. 



