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The Truth About Catalpa 





Probably uo other tree has been so 

 generally recommended for planting 

 throughout the Middle "West as the 

 hardy eatalpa. Probably, too, only 

 one other tree (eucalyptus) is suffer- 

 ing so much from indiscriminate 

 praise of over zealous friends, and 

 unscrupulous promoters. Many of 

 the plantations that are fifteen years 

 of age or older have made good fin- 

 ancial' returns, but a large number 

 have scarcely paid for the cost of 

 their establishment and maintenance ; 

 still others have been complete fail- 

 ures. The failure to get good results 

 is usually accounted for by conclud- 

 ing that the wrong kind of catalpa 

 was planted. While such a con- 

 clusion is often true, more often un- 

 favorable situations and lack of 

 proper treatment are responsible. 



It has long been recognized that 

 only the true strain of hardy catalpa 

 (Catalpa speciosa) is fit to plant. 

 The ordinary form (Catalpa catalpa) 

 so common as a shade tree, and the 

 Japanese variety (Catalpa kempferii) 

 are worthless for anything but dec- 

 orative purposes. The species appar- 

 ently hybridize so that even though 

 seeds are collected from the right 

 tree the resulting seedlings may be 

 mongrels. Catalpa seeds and seed- 

 lings look so much alike that often 

 an expert is fooled and only time 

 can correctly answer the question by 

 showing the character of the trees. 



The hardy eatalpa is exacting in 

 its demands upon the soil. The land 

 for its best development is such as 

 will produce a good corn crop. It 

 will not make a satisfactory growth 

 in gumbo, sterile, poorly drained, or 

 liigh, dry soils. The use of good corn 

 land for such purposes is hardly a 

 sound policy. The firoper lands for 

 growing timber are those not well; 



A SPLEXDin SrsriMEN OF HARDY CATALPA GROW- 

 IN(; NATIR.U.I.Y IX EASTERN ARKANSAS. 



suited for agricultural or similar pur- 

 suits. Exceptions are found in the 

 case of windbreaks where strips of 

 good land may profitably be devoted 

 1o trees because of the beneficial re- 

 sults to the protected fields. The 

 catalpa, however, is not a very good 

 tree for this purpose, but is well 

 adapted for planting on creek and 

 river-valley lands subject t(' inunda- 

 tion. Occasional floodings of short 

 duration do not injure the trees un- 

 less their tops are submerged which 

 would probably occur only during the 

 first or second year after planting. 



About the only uses for which ca- 

 taljia js suited are posts and poles. 

 It is too soft for railroad ties even 

 if they could be produced iu a short 

 time, which is impossible. In tiee- 

 less states it is prized for fuel but 

 only because harder woods are not 

 available. If the trees were of suf- 

 ficient size they would make excellent 

 lumber for use where strength is not 

 required. The wood is light, soft,- 

 porous, not strong, easy to work and 

 noted for its resistance to decay. 

 There is good reason to believe, hovy- 

 ever, that the durability of rapidly 

 grown young timber such as most 

 plantei's desire to obtain is greatly- 

 overestimated. 



So few people have seen forest- 

 grown specimens of the tree that it 

 is not generally known that it some- 

 times reaches large proportions. In 

 I lie rich bottom lands of the lower 

 Ohio and Wabash valleys and along 

 the Jlississippi occasional individual 

 trees six feet in diameter and over 

 a hundred feet high greeted the early 

 lumberman but have long since dis- 

 appeared. There are, however, some 

 good specimens of smaller size still 

 standing. 



It is not to be inferred from the- 



YARD CONTAINING 60,000 POSTS AND 030 RICKS OF WOOD CUT FROM T\VENTY ACRES OF SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD HARDY C.VTALPAS. 

 -9i — 



