ARBORICULTURE. 



7Z 



"There is no longer any question as to 

 the long-lasting of this wood. Engineers 

 who employed the wood in railway con • 

 struction in Southern Illinois and Mis- 

 souri, many years ago when the original 

 groves of Catalpa trees were still stand- 

 ing, were well aware of its valuable prop- 

 erties. In an interesting pamphlet Mr. E 

 E. Barney brought together, in 1878, a 

 large number of letters testifying to the 

 long life of Catalpa wood. These testi- 

 monials might be augmented to-day by 

 hundreds of others, but it is not consid- 

 ered necessary to do so here, for no one 

 doubts this fact at this day. Railway en- 

 gineers used the wood to some extent for 

 ties, but it has never taken a front rank 

 for this purpose. This has been due not 

 so much to any doubts as to its lasting 

 qualities, but to other factors, chief among 

 which has been the small amount of this 

 timber available and the smaller amount 

 of care and trouble involved in getting 

 other timber close to the railway Imes. 

 which served as ties. It may be of in- 

 terest to note a number of authentic cases 

 of long service. Plate XXI shows a sec- 

 tion of a Catalpa tie from the lines of the 

 Louisville and Nashville Railway. The 

 section is taken from the part of the tie 

 situated immediately under the rail. This 

 tie had been in actual service for about 

 eighteen years. It will be noted that the 

 wood is perfectly sound, even at the 

 points where the spikes were driven in. 

 The rail wore down the fiber to some ex- 

 tent, but there is absolutely no decay. 

 Plate XXII shows sections of a post from 

 Southeast Missouri, which served as a 

 fence post for the St. Louis, Iron Moun- 

 tain and Southern Railway for twenty- 

 three years, and before that, on the farm 

 of Colonel Deal, at Charleston, Mo., for 

 fifteen years. These examples of remark- 

 able durability might be extended indefi- 

 nitely. 



"Without doubt, therefore, one may 

 say that for fence posts this wood has no 

 equal ; and in view of the fact that it can 

 be grown so easily, it ought not to require 

 much argument to cause farmers to plant 

 Catalpa wherever it will grow. The same 

 is true for telegraph poles. Wherever 

 trees can be grown tall and straight 

 enough, it will be found that they will 



CATALPA SHOWN AT WORLD'S FAIR, ST. LOUIS. 



