78 



ARBORICULTURE 



inches at top end. Sapling measured at 

 butt one inch. Annular rings showed this 

 tree to have been planted fifteen years. 

 The first two cuts would make good cross 

 ties, or the entire tree would make a good 

 twenty-five-foot pole. It was planted in 

 a single row. bordering a cultivated field. 

 The trees in this row were planted eight 

 feet apart, had no cultivation, and were 

 never cut back in order to induce straight, 

 upright growth, as is recommended by all 

 authorities. The tree which had been 

 felled was not an unusual specimen. 

 Hundreds of others just as good, and 

 some better, could have been selected 

 from these rows. I measured one thirty- 

 six inches circumference at butt ; thirty 

 inches six feet up : sixteen feet to the first 

 side branch, which will make a twenty- 

 five-foot pole, six inches in diameter. 

 Another growing in single row measured 

 fifty-four inches in circumference at butt : 

 forty-two inches six feet up ; ten feet to 

 first small side branch, which will make a 

 twenty-five-foot pole eight inches in di- 

 ameter. Another in the same row meas- 

 ured thirty-six inches in circumference 

 twelve feet up. 



Farmers in this region, which is be- 

 tween Mt. Carmel and Albion, III, appear 

 to fully appreciate the excellence of this 

 wood. One man told me he had recently 

 hauled fence posts twenty miles in order 

 to get Catalpa posts Thousands of Ca- 

 talpa posts and rails may be seen on every 

 side, and I did not see one broken rail. 

 This struck me as very singular, having 

 recently come from the long leaf yellow 

 pine region of Georgia, where broken 

 fence rails are very common, indeed. 

 These Illinois farmers have a practice of 

 planting Catalpa trees in single rows bor- 

 dering their fields, utilizing the living 

 trees for fence posts, cutting back at, say, 

 five feet from the ground, and cultivating 



the upright sprout from this stump, 

 which in a few years produces a growth 

 large enough to be made into several 

 more posts of ordinary size, thus provid- 

 ing a continuous source of supply directly 

 on the ground. 



In driving along a public highway be- 

 tween Brown's Station and Albion, I no- 

 ticed a fine row of trees which had evi- 

 dently been planted with this purpose in 

 view. In the meantime a telephone com- 

 pany had run their lines along this road, 

 attaching the wires to the trees in this 

 row. A row of living telephone poles 

 probably a quarter of a mile or more in 

 length is prettv conclusive evidence that 

 Catalpa trees do grow straight enough 

 and tall enough to make valuable poles in 

 about fifteen years, if given room enough 

 in which to obtain nourishment from the 

 soil. This row borders a cultivated field 

 on one side and a public highway on the 

 other. It has had no cutting back, no cul- 

 tivation, the trees standing in fence cor- 

 ners completely surrounded with a heavy 

 sod. The same lack of cultivation is evi- 

 dent with all the farm and street rows I 

 have seen. If trees will grow in this man- 

 ner in spite of difificulties, it seems prob- 

 able that Mr. Brown's method is correct, 

 and that much better results may be an- 

 ticipated from forest plantations if the 

 young trees are not crowded. 



Enough has already been said regard- 

 ing the enduring quality of this wood, but 

 some information upon this point which 

 I chanced to obtain when in Edwards 

 County, Illinois, is of so direct a nature 

 that it seems of sufficient interest to be re- 

 lated in this report. In making some 

 small purchases at a store, I learned that 

 the merchant, a Mr. W. L. Wheeler, had 

 served for twenty-two years, first as a sec- 

 tion foreman and later as supervisor, on 

 what is now the St. Louis Division of the 



