122 



ARr.oRirrLTrRK 



BRIEF HISTORY OF KAII.UAV I'l.ANTlN'G. 



llie high vahie of the Catalpa for rail- 

 \va\' uses was known to the earhest rail- 

 way engineers : its extreme (hirahihty as 

 compared with other woods. U>r cross 

 ties liail been proven fifty years ago. Ad- 

 vanced thinkers among the railway of- 

 ficials recognized at that time the ap- 

 l)roaching period whai Catalpa would he 

 the timber which must he used in future. 



The first railway in Indiana, from 

 Madison and Jefifersonville to Indian- 

 apolis, was largely tied with red cedar. 

 Many of these ties are still in use as fence 

 ])Osts by farmers along the line. Some 

 Catalpa was also used, but their identity 

 was lost in changes of management, and 

 no trace of them now can be found. 

 These two woods were chosen because 

 of their recpiiring less frequent renewals. 

 The Iron Mountain Road passing 

 through the Latalpa region in South- 

 eastern Missouri, made use of all the Ca- 

 talpa obtainable. Two hundred acres 

 near Charleston, Mo., were planted with 

 Catalpa, about i860. Changes in officials, 

 carelessness of the plantation managers 

 and worse the planting of the worthless 

 kind of trees, coml)ined to make them a 

 failure. It was abandoned, and used as 

 a farm. 



When the plantation was made, seed 

 was bought in oj)en market, a large quan- 

 tity having been Oriental seed, while 

 much was bignonoides. 



From this lot of trees a thousand 

 pounds of seed were gathered, (piarter of 

 a century ago. and distributed throughout 

 the land. The vast number of crooked, 

 dwarf, and worthless trees of the United 

 States may be traced to this source, and 

 this has given rise to the impression 

 among many, that all Catalpa trees are of 

 this character. 



The h'arlington plantation mafle 1)\ llic 

 K. C, Ft. S. & Cnlf Ky. and Mr. 11. 11. 

 Munnewell are mentioned f#n another 

 page. 



About 1883 the Pennsylvania Railway 

 planted 200.000 Catalpa trees along its 

 line through Ohio and Indiana. This 

 was done by Tlmeral J. F. Miller, at that 

 time superintendent of the line, deneral 

 Miller being promoted, the care of the 

 trees devolvecl upon others and thev have 



been mutilated by telegraph linemen — 

 their value destroyetl. Yet many of 

 these trees are of size to bear out the 

 general rule, one inch diameter increase 

 per annum. 



The Fvansville (S: Terre Haute Ry. 

 about the same time planted a grove at 

 Sullivan. Ind., and one near Decker Sta- 

 tion. Also set many trees along right- 

 of-wa\ . An examinaton of these prove 

 them to be mostly the bignonoides. 



This seems strange since C. speciosa 

 was abundant in the vicinity, but this 

 is explained by the large quantity of seed 

 jjroduced by low growing bignonoides, 

 and the ease with which it may be col- 

 lected, while C. speciosa produces very 

 few pods, which are high in the tall for- 

 est tree and are gathered only by great 

 labor and at much greater cost. 



The grove at Sullivan is 4x4 feet dis- 

 tant, not cultivated, and are now, after 

 twenty years, stunted and dwarfed and 

 choked with briars and grass. A few 

 trees planted at the same titne at the sta- 

 tion grounds are fine large trees, ten 

 times larger than those in the grove. 

 They have had ample room, but no culti- 

 v^ation. 



During the lifetime of M. A. Torrey, 

 chief engineer Michgan Central, that of- 

 ficial took much interest in the Catalpa 

 and several thou.sand were planted. 

 There was a good growth and proved the 

 hardiness of llu- trees in Michigan. 



About thirty years ago the C, U. & Q. 

 ky. made several experiments in Western 

 Nebraska. It seems that most of the 

 trees were planted on the right-of-way 

 particularly on the banks near heavy cuts, 

 lor the ])urpose of snow protection. As 

 the trees increased in height the snow 

 was collected at a greater distance than a 

 four-f(K)t faice would do, and the cuts 

 were fille<l with snow. In this regarfl, 

 they were, of course, faihn-e, InU enough 

 has been demonstrated to prove the value 

 <»f the Catalpa in Western and Central 

 Xebraska. 



Account of the Santa l"e experiment 

 is given on a .separate page. 



The C, C, C. & St. l". Ry. in 18(98 

 planted 35.000 Catalpa trees on one of 

 their tracts of land near T.rightwood, 

 Ind., three miles from Indianajxjlis. 



