ARBORICULTURE 



8i 



branched, of low, scrubby growth, and so 

 far as known has no vahie in the arts. As 

 a flowering, bushy tree, it has been largely 

 distributed, and is now found in every 

 part of the world. The enormous quan- 

 tity of seed produced, together with the 

 ease with which the seed are collected, 

 from low spreading trees, has caused 

 thousands of pounds of this worthless 

 seed to be distributed throughout Europe 

 as well as America. 



" One prominent seed house in the 

 West, some years ago, collected one thou- 

 sand pounds of this Southern seed and 

 sold it as speciosa, distributing this nife- 

 rior tree to everv part of the United 

 States. Another prominent seed house of 

 an Eastern city sent out a quantity of the 

 seed labeled C. speciosa, the present year, 

 a sample of which seed is held by Arbori- 

 culture. Not one seed of the lot is spe- 

 ciosa, but both the Japanese dwarf, C. 

 kempferii and C. hignonioidcs comprise 

 the lot. When such gross carelessness, if 

 not criminality, exists among seed houses 

 professing eminent respectability, the 

 public must suffer. 



" The greatest difficulty which this So- 

 ciety has to content with is the erroneous 

 estimate placed upon the Catalpa by the 

 great number of people who have an ac- 

 quaintance with this Southern tree, and 

 suppose it to be the C. speciosa of which 

 we are writing." 



A consideration of the various points 

 above brought out indicates that the 

 proper planting and growing of Catalpa 

 trees for use as railroad ties would be not 

 only profitable from a financial stand- 

 point, but would give a most satisfactory 

 supply of cross ties, provided tie plates 

 are used in connection with the same. 



It is hardly probable that railroad com- 

 panies will go into the business of tree 

 planting upon a large enough scale to pro- 



duce ties sufiicient for their requirements, 

 but it appears to be a matter of great im- 

 portance tliat they should plant trees in 

 considerable numbers upon lands in their 

 possession to afiford object lessons to 

 farmers and others, and that great future 

 benefit will result from such a course. 



Respectfully submitted. 

 Committee on Roadway and Baelast. 



HABIT OF GROWTH, CATALPAlSPECIOSA. 



