ARBORICULTURE 



45 



"Within tlie past five or six years Catalpa 

 has been quite extensively planted by several 

 railroads for the purpose of producing tie 

 material. That they will not meet with the 

 expected success seems certain, for almost the 

 entire basis of the many varied statements 

 made concerning Catalpa in plantations and 

 its value for railroad ties is founded on 

 theory rather than f act " 



The humorous theoretical "Barnacle" 

 wishes to obstruct the practical work of 

 forest planting and the perpetuation of 

 America's forests by making frivolous 

 imaginary objections to the use of a wood 

 of which he knows nothing, yet he offers 

 no stibstitute, points otit no other tree 

 which can be grown in a brief period, and 

 which will be better than the Catalpa spe- 

 ciosa. He simply puts a pebble on the 

 track, hoping to stay the progress of forest 

 planting and practical forest extension. 



"In support of the statements that the 

 wood is well adapted to the above purpose, 

 we are asked to look at this or that cross-tie, 

 which was in continuous use in some road- 

 bed for twenty years or more. Though this 

 tie may be badly cut by a rail, such cutting, 

 it is stated, can be quite eliminated by the use 

 of proper tie-plates ; but such a statement can 

 be made only theoretically, since no actual 

 tests of Catalpa have been made under such 

 conditions." 



The ties on exhibition were not badly 

 cut by the rails, but had all been adzed 

 down by the section men to receive larger 

 rails, fotir successive sets of iron and 

 steel rails having been in use during the 

 period in which these ties were in use, 

 each succession of rails being of heavier 

 weight, the last being ninety pounds per 

 yard, with the heaviest trafific during the 

 past ten years. 



"Upon examining farther into the history 

 of this cross-tie, we find that its past is some- 

 what clothed in doubt, and probably the 

 actual number of years it remained the part 

 of some railroad track can not be accurately 

 stated." 



The editor of the journal quoted was at 

 the St. Louis World's Fair, but refused 

 to visit the Catalpa exhibit, which com- 

 manded the world's admiration and re- 

 ceived the Grand Prix. Had he done 

 so, he would have known how false the 

 above statement is. 



Abundant evidence was given that the 

 many Catalpa ties which were in this 

 collection had been in constant use for 

 thirty-two years under most adverse con- 

 ditions, yet were perfectly sound after all 

 this time, and further, that several thou- 

 sand Catalpa ties had been in service in 

 these various railway tracks for the same 

 period, and had given perfect satisfac- 

 tion, being discontinued merely because 

 of exhausHon of the supply of the timber 



Besides, the earliest railways of In- 

 diana and Illinois were largely tied with 

 Catalpa cross-ties, these lines being lo- 

 cated in the region of the Catalpa for- 

 ests. The engineers of that period had 

 the greatest confidence in this wood, and 

 advocated the extensive planting of the 

 Catalpa for this purpose. 



"Further, it should be remembered that 

 in the earlier days, when Catalpa ties were 

 used, the rolling stock of railroads was much 

 lighter and the weight of the trains far less 

 than at the present time. Can we, then, safely 

 judge from the action of Catalpa ties having 

 an uncertain past, and used under conditions 

 much less severe than are prevalent to-day, 

 what the present value of such a tie will be, 

 even using a tie-plate, when the road-bed is 

 subject to the wear and tear of engines weigh- 

 ing one hundred and ten tons and large 

 freight cars carrying fifty tons burden?" 



Barnacle would ostracize Oak. Chest- 

 nut, Yellow Pine and Catalpa, since they 

 have not been tested for engines and 

 trains of the weights demanded ten years 

 hence, but he does not say what he would 

 construct ties of. Possibly he is inter- 

 ested in some patent tie, like the one sent 



