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failure. You cannot frighten a western man by saying " grasshopper," half so much as 

 you can by " chinch bug." And yet on the theory that what has been done can be done 

 again, we may at least be entitled to the benetit of the doubt. The grasshopper has in 

 many cases devastated the whole country, and may do so again, and yet there is a sort of 

 feeling of security among the western farmers which plainly says the grasshopper will 

 not trouble us any more. Fires also do much mischief in the new prairie country. But 

 as the prairie is broken, and the land brought under cultivation this trouble is no more 

 liable to the west than in the older States, and this objection will be entirely removed. 

 A luimber of Kansas men assured me that the grasshopper would not eat the catalpa, 

 but as 1 have not heard this idea broached as a trueism, it should be further confirmed 

 before being accepted. However, I have seen the catalpa at Kansas City, Fort Scott, 

 and elsewhere in the State of Kansas, which had passed the grasshopper raid, that looked 

 remarkably thrifty and nice. At all events, in view of all the drawbacks of this country, 

 if I were a citizen there I would plant catalpa. I would not invest everything in it, 

 nor would I make my plantation all at once. A few acres set each succeeding year, and 

 on its rich soil, genial clime, and usually productive seasons I should confidently expect 

 success four seasons out of five, and upon this ratio, with the extraordinary timber growth 

 there so far outstripping anything we can do in Central Indiana, in a decade of years I 

 should confidently expect more satisfactory results there than with us. 



If this hypothesis be correct, the inducements to plant the catalpa on the western 

 prairies are stronger and more numerous than with us, because the investment on those 

 cheap lands would be comparatively nothing, while the demand for such timber must be 

 greater than with us, as the country becomes more populous. 



Thus, gentlemen, I have endeavoured to present the actual results of timber growth 

 mostly on my own farm, which makes a good showing on the profit side, and that is all 

 that I intended to do. 



A NEW CATALPA. 

 By John C. Teas, Carthage, Mo. 



The consumption of timber and the destruction of our forest trees are going on at 

 such an alarmingly rapid rate, that public attention is becoming somewhat awakened to 

 the importance of some measures for providing a supply for the future. 



Of all the trees that have been suggested as adapted to the formation of timber 

 plantations, the Catalpa stands pre-eminent. Its exceedingly rapid growth ; its adapta- 

 tion to almost all soils and situations ; its wide range of latitude, extending from Canada 

 to the Gulf of Mexico ; its extraordinary success on the Western and Northwestern 

 prairies ; the ease and certainty with which it is transplanted ; its strong vitality and 

 freedom from diseases and insects ; the incomparable value of its timber for the most 

 important as well as minor uses for which timber is needed ; the almost imperishable 

 nature of the wood when used for posts, railroad cross-ties and in other exposed situa- 

 tions ; its beautiful grain, and the high polish it bears, adapting it for furniture and fine 

 inside finishing work, to say nothing of the handsome and stately appearance of the tree 

 and the unrivalled beauty of its flowers, all point to the catalpa as the tree to plant. 



[These remarks apply to the hardy, western, early blooming Catalpa speciosa, and 

 not in any degree to the common catalpa (bignonioides), which, unfortunately, is the one 

 usually met with in cultivation.] 



A NEW VARIETY OUR OWN HYBRID, AND HOW IT WAS PRODUCED. 



In the year 1864, having already growing all the varieties of Catalpa then generally 

 known to cultivators in this country, viz.: the common, the sjyeciosa, the Koemjjferi and 

 the Bungei, I procured from an eastern nursery, a tree under the name of "Japan 

 Catalpa." Before I had become well acquainted with this new tree, I left my old home 

 in Indiana and came to Jasper county, Mo., where I have since lived, and did not again 

 see the tree for ten years. Two or three years after leaving the old place, I sent back for 



