THE IRRIGATION AGE. 257 



are not certain, however, and I have advised experiments also with 

 chestnut and black walnut trees, 



"Sixty-live thousand trees have been bought by the West Vir- 

 ginia Central for transplanting on its vacant land in West Virginia. 

 On this land white oak once flourished and was plentiful, but the sup- 

 ply of it is now almost exhausted. The road expects to use the new 

 timber for mining purposes as well as for ties. 



"Twenty -five years ago the Pennsylvania planted 200,000 trees- 

 along its right of way. Most of these were of the wrong variety, 

 hence the experiment proved a failure; and it is hard to get the ear of 

 the officials for a new trial under different circumstances. However. 

 I understand the road is making experiments with South American 

 wood, showing it is interested vitally in the subject. Bringing ties so 

 long distance would be expensive even if the right kind of wood were 

 found so I think there may be a turning to this country again when 

 other roads' tests shall prove successful. 



"The Fort Scott & Memphis has a plantation of 1,200 catalpas 

 near Port Scott, Kan. It was planted a generation ago, but did not 

 do well because the trees were crowded too close together. The en- 

 gineer will thin out the forest this spring and I am sure the invest- 

 ment will yet be satisfactory. The Union Pacific, Burlington, South- 

 ern Pacific and Rock Island are manifesting active interest in this- 

 question, but as yet have made no extensive experiments. "J 



Wesley Merritt, industrial commissioner of Santa Fe, says his 

 road has not taken up the matter of forestry planting inasmuch as it 

 is supposed to have a fifty years' supply of timber along its line in 

 the southwest. Mr. Merritt states, however, that the experiments of 

 other roads are being watched with much interest and that he is col- 

 lecting all the data available on the subject of future tie and lumber 

 supply. Thirty years ago the Santa Fe planted a number of small 

 forest patches in Kansas, using several kinds of trees. When the 

 panic of the early seventies came on, these farms practically were 

 abandoned. Recent investigations revealed that the catalpa was one 

 of the varieties that survived. 



This catalpa speciosa, by the way. is one of the most interesting 

 trees of the West. It combines in a peculiarly desirable way the 

 qualities of hardihood, rapid growth and durability. It grows to a 

 diameter of two to seven feet and sixty to eighty feet high. It was 

 much used by the Indians because it was at once so strong and so 

 easily wrought. Early settlers followed the red man's example in the 

 use of the wood for their houses, boats and stockade forts. General 

 (afterward president) William Henry Harrison was a strong advocate 

 of the use and cultivation of the catalpa. He said he had seen this 

 wood sound and bright a century after it had been placed in a stock- 



