ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 599 



years, and may be used on two lots of trees. Another method of protec- 

 tion that has proved successful where tried is that of enclosing the young 

 plantation with a woven wire rabbit-tight fence. This method is more 

 expensive than protecting the trees with shields, and not always as 

 effective. The trees are perfectly safe from attacks of rabbits after the 

 second winter. 



CUTTING BACK. 



Some catalpa growers practice cutting the trees back to stumps level 

 with the ground when two or three years of age. This is done to secure 

 a straighter growth. On the farm the advantage will hardly pay for 

 the extra work. If cutting back is to be practiced, it should be done in 

 March or April, after the trees have grown two years in the permanent 

 plantation. The stumps will send out from three or four to a dozen 

 sprouts, all of which must be cut off except one of the strongest. Under 

 favorable conditions this one sprout should attain a height of from 6 to 

 10 feet the first season, and by the end of the second season the sprouts 

 will exceed the height of five-year-old trees that were not cut 

 back. If one trimming of the stump sprouts would answer all needs, 

 the care of the sprout growth would be a simple matter, but the stumps 

 persist in sprouting and it is usually necessary to go over the plantation 

 two or three times to keep the stumps free from undesirable sprouts. 



During the first year after cutting back, the sprouts are often split from 

 the stump by the wind. To shelter the sprouts from such injury it is 

 advisable when cutting back the seedlings to leave four row r s uncut along 

 the side of the plantation to serve as a windbreak. If the plantation is of 

 considerable size, strips of four uncut rows should be left at regular inter- 

 vals to protect the interior of the grove. When the sprout growths are 

 two years old the five-year-old seedlings that have served as windbreaks 

 can be cut back. The sprouts arising from their stumps will be protected 

 by the older sprouts. 



FUNGUS DISEASES. 



Catalpas are susceptible to injury by a fungus disease, Polyporous versi- 

 color, which attacks trees in groves, though usually not until they are 

 past eighteen years of age. The fungus makes the wood worthless. The 

 only way injury can be avoided is to cut the trees before the disease has 

 progressed far enough to affect seriously the strength of the wood. The 

 fungus gains entrance through the lower limbs that are killed by the shade 

 from the upper part of the tree, gradually eating its way into the trunk. 

 Within a very few years the wood of the entire trunk is affected and the 

 tree soon dies. The presence of this fungus is easily detected by the 

 appearance of brackets or punk knots, often spoken of as toad stools, on 

 the surface of the infected parts, also by the occurrence of broken limbs. 

 In the advanced stage of the disease the trunks of the trees are usually 

 covered w r ith a growth of brackets, which are the fruiting organs of the 

 fungus. The trees infected are often broken off in wind storms at heights 

 varying from 2 to 10 feet from the ground. 



