ern Massachusetts, and westward to eastern Nebraska, central Kansas, 

 and central Oklahoma. It has done well on irrigated lands -in New 

 Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, at the lower altitudes, and where the 

 soil is free from alkali. The present range for economic planting 

 is on the fertile alluvial lands of the Middle West, south of the forty- 

 first parallel of latitude. Catalpa plantations have been especially 

 successful in the southern portion of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana; in 

 Nebraska south of the Platte River and east of Adams County, and 

 in eastern Kansas. 



HABITS AND GRO\VTH. 



Catalpa requires a deep, fertile, porous soil for good growth, and it 

 can not succeed on heavy, poorly drained land. It grows well on 

 prairie soils and even where there is considerable sand, provided over- 

 flows are frequent or permanent water is within 10 or 15 feet of the 

 surface. It is not adapted to poor sandy or stiff clay soils, or to 

 those which have a tenacious gumbo subsoil. However, if a layer of 

 clay which is not too heavy occurs beneath several feet of good soil 

 it is of advantage, since it forms a beneficial soil foundation, retain- 

 ing fertility and moisture. Catalpa will not tolerate a strongly alka- 

 line soil. An annual rainfall of at least 25 inches is necessary for the 

 best growth of the tree, unless it can send its roots down to the water 

 table. Commercial plantations especially demand a good soil. It 

 has been proved that the returns realized from a crop grown on the 

 best soil are proportionately very much greater than those obtained 

 from poor land in the same locality. 



The hardy catalpa is very intolerant, and in dense stands the lower 

 side branches are killed by the shade. If they become more than half 

 an inch in diameter they cling to the tree for years after they die, 

 thus delaying the complete pruning of the bole. New Avood is de- 

 posited around the dead branch, but does not close tightly about it. 

 The holes thus formed by the persistence of dead branches lead 

 straight into the heart of the tree and conduct the germs of decay into 

 the trunk. If fungus spores gain entrance, the heart decays and 

 eventually the tree breaks down. * The tendency to crooked growth 

 and the failure to shed its limbs properly are the two most trouble- 

 some characteristics of the catalpa. 



The hardy catalpa matures early and under cultivation is one of 

 the most rapid-growing trees planted in the West. A height growth 

 of 2J feet and a diameter increase of one-half inch annually for the 

 first ten to fifteen years are not unusual. It does not, however, often 

 attain dimensions that fit it for saw logs. 



Some of the trees in a plantation will be of suitable size for posts 

 when from 8 to 10 years old, and five or six years later the entire crop 

 should become merchantable. Good telegraph poles are grown in 



[Cir. 82] 



