ARBORICULTURE. 



277 



catalpa cross-ties possessed all the good quali- 

 ties which cross-ties should possess, and none 

 of the faults; and that in a period of fifteen 

 years each tree planted would produce five 

 cross-ties and other valuable material." 



Only a technical knowledge of tree 

 species will avail in watching the hourly 

 increment O'f growth oif forest saplings 

 to be vised forty years hence. 



An American farmer, however, knows 

 enough to plant trees and cultivate them. 

 Hence the " tech. uniouiS " object to the 

 planting of trees. No' job in it. 



BLOWING HOT AND COLD. 



"Under favorable soil and climatic conditions, 

 catalpa, when properly cultivated, makes a rapid 

 growth, but so far has never produced the 

 cross-ties within the period named. Catalpa 

 has been planted for many years, on a great va- 

 riety of soils and on a wide range of territory, 

 and although many plantations have reached 

 an age of twenty-five years or more, so far as 

 known, the trees in none of the plantations 

 have reached a size suitable for cross-ties. The 

 tree is well adapted for pole and fence-post pro- 

 duction in a short rotation. In regions where 

 fence posts are high in price, farmers may 

 profitably devote a very small portion of the 

 richer soil of their farm to such purposes, but 

 past experience has well demonstrated that on 

 the class of soils usually devoted to forest 

 growth, catalpa can not be grown, advanta- 

 geously, for cross-ties." 



The Harahan tract is too rich. Du 

 Quoin tract entirely too poor. Eastern 

 Virginia too wet, all others too' dry. The 

 catalpa is a choice feeder, and must have 

 much petting, else it will refuse to grow. 



No one but a technical expert (no mat- 

 ter how slight a beard he has been able 

 to grow) can tell just where tO' plant a 

 catalpa. Still millions of them exist 

 somehow in every sort of location ex- 

 cept where the tech. sat while listening to 

 Fernow's lectures. 



"A number of the large catalpa plantations 

 made by railroads have failed of their purpose 

 because the silvical characteristics of the tree 



and their relation to the physical character of 

 the soil were not understood. 



The plantation of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road at DuQuoin, 111., offers a good example 

 of this. The plantation was established some 

 years ago on a fine, poorly-drained silt soil. A 

 portion of this site was covered with pin oak 

 (Qucrcus palustris), post oak (Q. minor), sweet 

 gum (Liqnidambar sfyraciflua), and other trees 

 capable of enduring the existing soil conditions. 

 Land in the vicinity is poorly adapted for agri- 

 cultural purposes, and only small crops reward 

 the diligent efforts of the farmer. 



The site is totally unfit for catalpa because 

 of the excessive soil moisture, and the trees 

 have made a very poor growth. The trees in 

 this plantation, the latter about two hundred 

 acres in extent, were planted at a large expense, 

 and will never reach cross-tie size. The only 

 yield which can be secured will be a compar- 

 atively srtiall number of posts." 



The sole object of the Du Quoin plan- 

 tation was to demonstrate to operators 

 in the co'aJ fields of that locality that, 

 while milling coal far beneath the sur- 

 face, trees would grow upon the surface, 

 even in such poor lands, to maintain the 

 timber supply of the mines. It is ful- 

 filling its mission quietly but eflfectively. 

 Railway cross-ties were not expected 

 here. 



"Ignorance of the silvical characteristics of 

 the tree has also been displayed in Eastern Vir- 

 ginia, where the Norfolk & Western Railroad 

 owns several thousand acres at Ivor, along its 

 right of way. These lands were acquired for 

 fuel purposes many years ago when wood-burn- 

 ing locomotives were in use on the railroad. 

 Although good cross-ties can now be secured by 

 this railroad at a reasonable price, the officials, 

 because somewhat interested in the production 

 of cross-ties and having heard much of the 

 rapid growth of catalpa, determined to estab- 

 lish small experiment plantations. The land is 

 largely covered with an excellent growth of 

 loblolly pine (P. taeda), a tree extensively used 

 for cross-ties in Texas and other Southern 

 States, but not yet in demand for this purpose 

 in Virginia. The permanent water table is only 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches below the sur- 

 face, making the site an unfavorable one for 

 catalpa." 



