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for every tree less than 2,000 to the acre delivered, which must be at least six feet high 

 at the time of delivery. The advantage of this plan, which is the one also adopted by 

 the Fort Scott Railroad, is that the trees will be carefully planted and attended toby ex- 

 perienced men, for whose interest it will be to use the best plants, and to cultivate and 

 care for them in the best manner, so as to be able to deliver the greatest number of trees 

 in the shortest possible time, that they may get quick returns for the money invested in 

 plants, planting, etc. Any plantation in which the trees are six feet high, and in which 

 the ground is so sliaded that weeds and natural grasses cannot grow, will require no 

 further attention until the time comes for thinning them out for fence-posts, etc. The 

 plan relieves the owner of the great risk always attending the early years of a plantation, 

 and makes his investment practically safe. This plantation of 560 aci-es is to consist of 

 300 acres of the Western Catalpa, 200 acres of Ailanthus, and 60 acres which will serve 

 as an experimental ground on which will be tested trees of several varieties, to be selected 

 by Prof. Sargent, the director of the Harvard Arboretum. The Western Catalpa, a native 

 of the low lands bordering the lower Ohio and the banks of the Mississippi in Missouri, 

 Kentucky and Tennessee, is a rapidly growing tree, easily cultivated, and producing tim- 

 ber which, though soft, is almost indestructible when placed in the ground, and, therefore, 

 of the greatest value for fence-posts, railway ties and similar uses. The Ailanthus will 

 grow with great rapidity wherever the climate is not too cold for it, and in spite of its won- 

 derfully quick growth, produces hard, heavy timber valuable for fuel, ties, cabinet work, 

 or almost every purpose for which wood is used. 



It is believed that this plantation will soon lead to the formation of others, both by the 

 railroad companies and by individuals, or corporations chartered to plant and own timber 

 lands in the prairie States. Eventually a great deal of capital will be invested in this 

 way. The returns will be slow, and a man investing thus should consider that he is 

 doing it for his children. But when the returns do come they will be enormous, even at 

 the present price of lumber, and it must be remembered that, before a crop of trees 

 planted now can be harvested, the price of ties and other forest products will be more 

 than double in the Western States. An encouraging fact, and one which shows that 

 public attention is being directed to the importance of providing for the future demand 

 of such things is that the Iron Mountain Railroad Company, which runs for hundreds of 

 miles through a heavily timbered region, and possesses in its own lands some of the finest 

 White Oak on the continent, has also made a contract with the Messrs. Douglas to plant 

 near Charleston, Mo., 100 acres of Western Catalpa as an experiment. They do this 

 because catalpa ties have stood on their road scarcely affected by decay more than twelve 

 years, and because this tree is so valued by the farmers for fence posts that it is already 

 practically exterminated in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri, and so not to be procured for 

 ties, although the Superintendent of the railroad is willing to pay three times as much as 

 for the best White Oak ties. If the planting of trees is good policy for a railroad run- 

 ning through a heavily timbered country like Missouri and Arkansas, it will certainly 

 pay for roads in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Kansas to do the same. 



The conclusion of the reading of Dr. Warder's valuable paper was greeted with 

 loud applause. 



Hon. Louis Beaubien did not know much about the Catalpa, but could scarcely 

 believe it was more durable than Canadian cedar. 



Dr. Warder agreed that Red Cedar was highly durable, but required from one to two 

 hundred years' growth before it was fully developed. Cedar was of slow growth, whereas 

 the Catalpa was of use in two or three years. When you get a catalpa tree of six 

 inches in diameter, you have a post worth planting, but a cedar of the same size grown 

 in the United States, was valueless. 



In the paper next submitted will be found some practical suggestions on the growing 

 of forest trees from seed for the benefit of those who may feel inclined to raise their own 

 trees. 



