ARBORICULTURE 



105 



given to the world as being of Catalpa 

 speciosa. 



The Engineering Department of the 

 Wabash Railway sent specimens of tim- 

 ber to the Bureau for tests and expert 

 opinions. Certificates were made by the 

 Forestry Bureau that Catalpa speciosa 

 was Catalpa bignonioides, and the re- 

 verse, bignonioides specimens were de- 

 clared by the experts to be speciosa. Ab- 

 solute proof of this is in existence. 



WRONG SEED. 



Samples of seed of Catalpa bignon- 

 ioides were sent to the Bureau, which 

 were certified to as being Catalpa spe- 

 ciosa, thus encouraging the vast distribu- 

 tion of spurious Catalpa seed by seed 

 dealers. 



We then had a member of this So- 

 ciety to gather some seed from a well- 

 known tree at Westwood, Cincinnati, O., 

 which was sent the Department at 

 Washington for identification. These 

 were pronounced by the officials in an 

 official letter to be Catalpa speciosa. 



We have photographs of the tree and 

 the seed which are retained as proof. 



Trees which require many years to 

 mature become a total loss to the plant- 

 ers and discourage future efforts, if 

 fraudulent seed is sold by ignorant deal- 

 ers and planted under the supposition of 

 their being Catalpa speciosa. This 

 spurious seed has been distributed 

 throughout the world in enormous quan- 

 tities, and this fraud is sustained by the 

 official acts and certificates of Forestry 

 Bureau officials. 



CATALPA BULLETIN. 



The demand which this Society cre- 

 ated throughout the United States and 

 abroad incited the Forestry Bureau to 

 prepare a Bulletin on the Hardy Ca- 

 talpa, which purported to be friendly to 

 the tree, but there were innumerable mis- 



takes and blunders in this Bulletin, 

 which made it of no value. Within a 

 month from the issuance of this authori- 

 tative Governmental publication, pre- 

 pared at great expense to the people, and 

 printed under Congressional sanction, 

 letters began pouring into this office from 

 all directions, saying the writers had read 

 this report and had decided they would 

 not plant Catalpa trees as they had in- 

 tended. 



There is no doubt but several million 

 trees which would have been planted but 

 for this Department of Agriculture Bul- 

 letin No. 37 were left unused by its 

 readers, and no other trees have been 

 planted in their stead. Great space was 

 occupied by this Bulletin describing a 

 large plantation of hybrid Catalpa in 

 Kansas. The trees were described as 

 the "hardy Catalpa," but in no place 

 was the public informed that the trees in 

 this forest were not Catalpa speciosa. 

 Nor has this fact been mentioned that 

 there were other varieties of Catalpa, nor 

 any warning to the public of the danger 

 of planting spurious seed or trees. 



ADVISE RAILWAYS NOT TO PLANT CATALPA. 



Several railways which have asked the 

 advice of the International Society of 

 Arboriculture relative to the planting, 

 and some roads which have employed 

 the Society to plant large forests, have 

 been approached by emissaries of the 

 Forestry Bureau, and urged to dismiss 

 the Society and place the work under the 

 direction of the Forestry officials, after 

 severe criticism of the work of the So- 

 ciety intended to discredit its efforts with 

 the railways. 



Railway companies which intended to 

 plant forests have been demoralized by 

 the efforts of the Forestry Bureau, and 

 have delayed the planting of trees or 

 abandoned the project entirely. 



