S8 



ARBORICULTURE 



Why This Antagonism ? 



The following letter from Hon. W. G. 

 M. Stone, President of the Colorado For- 

 estry Association, gives the entire cause 

 of the antagonism of many people to the 

 Catalpa speciosa. 



What is true of Colorado is just as true 

 of Indiana, New York, Washington City, 

 and all European countries. 



Arboriculture is kept busy replying 

 to numerous attacks made upon the ca- 

 talpa tree, often by people and publica- 

 tions of high character, who have been 

 imposed upon by nurserymen and seeds- 

 men, and have planted Catalpa higno- 

 nioides and hybrids under the name of 

 speciosa. 



These people, if they would, could very 

 easily ascertain the facts in the case, but 

 somehow that does not enter their minds : 



""the catalpa in COLORADO. 



"In what has been said of catalpa trees 

 in Colorado, it has been the aim to show 

 that while the speciosa variety as found 

 in its native woods is a tree of inestimable 

 value, promising a larger degree of use- 

 fulness to the people of the United States 

 in the new and coming industry of grow- 

 ing trees for use and profit than any other, 

 yet as seen here, a farmer is not war- 

 ranted in planting a wood lot of catalpa 

 In view of this the question arises : If the 

 catalpa as found in Indiana, Ohio or Mis- 

 souri is so excellent and desirable, why is 

 it in the main so worthless in Colorado? 

 Is the fault in our climate or is it in the 

 tree ? 



"This brings me face to face with an 

 aggravating feature in this problem. In 

 Colorado we scarcelv know the tree ca- 



talpa, the Catalpa speciosa, or hardy vari- 

 ety. What we have to a great extent is 

 the Southern, tender variety, known in 

 the books as Catalpa bignonioides. It 

 should have been named Catalpa scruh- 

 biosa, or scrubby catalpa, for that is what 

 it is. It has taken me three years to find 

 out what I am about to tell you — one 

 year to ascertain the reason of the infe- 

 riority of so many of our Colorado ca- 

 talpas and nearly two to discover how it 

 happened. If the reader will take the 

 pains to study the trees individually, 

 noting the bloom and time of blooming; 

 if he will examine the seed pods as to size 

 and number on a twig ; if he will examine 

 the seed of different trees and compare 

 them ; if he will study the bark and the 

 form of different trees and put his facts 

 together, he will find that a large per cent, 

 of our trees are not the true catalpa. 



"One of the astonishing things about it 

 is that they were all purchased for spe- 

 ciosa. It is safe to say that no invoice 

 of catalpa from any nursery ever came 

 to Colorado billed as bignonioides, but 

 tagged Catalpa speciosa. They were so 

 designated in the nursery row, and so 

 printed in the catalogue from which they 

 were selected. Talk about deception, im- 

 position or fraud ! Here is one of the 

 most aggravating cases of imposition in 

 the history of American sylvaculture, hap- 

 pening at a period most unfortunate, for 

 it is just as men are beginning to think 

 of planting trees and selecting the best 

 things to plant for their own use and 

 necessities. But who is to blame?" — 

 W. G. M. Stone, in Field and Farm. 



