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ARBORICULTURE. 



The crooked trunk, decaying wood and 

 small growth of this variety of catalpa are 

 not conducive to a high regard of the 

 catalpa for timber planting. 



In our own country serious mistakes 

 were made during the early part of the 

 nineteenth century in the distribution of 

 many thousands of these Southern catalpa 

 trees throughout all our States and in all 

 our cities. 



As a consequence, a very large propor- 

 tion of scrub trees adorn our city streets 

 where it was supposed the Wabash ca- 

 talpa was being planted. 



Catalpa spcciosa produces but one pod 

 for each cluster of flowers, while the 

 seed are scarce and difficult to collect. 



Bignonioides produces fifty times as 

 much seed, which is very easily gathered. 



Thus the public have been impressed 

 that the catalpa is a very inferior tree, 

 and it is extremely difficult to overcome 

 prejudice. 



IMPROVEMENT OF FORESTS. 



It is a very important matter in forest 

 perpetuation that the character of the 

 timber be constantly improved. 



Our farmer friends have practiced the 

 other method, selecting the best walnut, 

 oak, ash or sugar tree for the sawmill, 

 and leaving the dogwood, grapevine, 

 beech, gum and other trees of lesser 

 worth to occupy the land. 



As a consequence, what few wood lots 

 remain in the Middle and Western States 

 have been greatly reduced in character. 

 The forester will find ample room for im- 

 proving the character of the forest placed 

 in his charge. 



Much of the scrub growth, the very 

 inferior and decaying trees, all that are 

 beginning to show that their time of use- 

 fulness has passed, should be removed, 

 but not so rapidly as to destroy all forest 

 conditions. 



Nuts, acorns and seeds of various trees 

 may be planted to advantage among the 

 present growths, and by care these may 

 in a few 3'ears form the principal forests. 



Of course the financier who holds tim- 

 ber lands for an income wants to see the 

 money coming in. He must be shown 

 that more money will be produced by a 

 rational course of forest perpetuation and 

 by its improvement than by clearing it 

 quickly and then its abandonment. 



Walnut, hickory, chestnut, tulip tree 

 and pines, and many of our better trees, 

 may be introduced by the systematic 

 planting of seed or young plants. 



If, the original forest has long since 

 been removed, the leaf mold with all 

 humus decomposed and absorbed by 

 many successive growing crops, the im- 

 poverished soil baked and hardened, as 

 in a majority of instances, there is no 

 semblance of forest conditions so neces- 

 sary for tree growth, especially in the 

 earlier stages. 



Under such circumstances a substitute 

 for these natural conditions of the forest 

 must be provided. 



A crop of lumber, requiring from 

 twenty to fifty years to mature, is of 

 greater importance than is a crop of grain 

 which may be perfected in eight months. 

 This being the case, it is doubly impor- 

 tant that the land be placed in the best 

 possible condition by deep and thorough 

 plowing, rolling if necessary, to reduce 

 the clods, and harrowing to give a mellow 

 surface for a seed-bed. 



The depth to which seed should be cov- 

 ered must be governed by the size of the 

 seed. An old rule is to cover the seed to 

 a depth equal to its thickness. 



In the tropics we should bury a cocoa- 

 nut six inches deep, while eucalyptus 

 would perish if covered even half an inch. 



Here we cover walnuts about two 



