24 



with a sufficiently varied grain or figure to make it a desirable wood for 

 the inside finish of our houses. 



Dr. ,1. Schneck, the botanist of the Lower AVabash, writes, that though 

 the trees were formerly very abundant and sometimes very large, the 

 supply is now becoming exhausted, on account of its high repute for skiff 

 building and other purposes, especially for posts, it is in such demand 

 that it is carried to considerable distances, and very often stolen and 

 carried off by night. So in most of the Delta region that has been visited, 

 the trees which are accessible, have been nearly exhausted ; this is an 

 evidence of its high appreciation by the people. 



On the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, a y>art of which runs 

 through this alluvial region, there is a section near Charleston, Missouri, 

 where a portion of the track was laid eleven years ago on catalpa cross- 

 ties, which are yet sound, while the oak ties near them have been twice 

 renewed. Some of the fence-posts along side the road, presumably of 

 oak, have already needed replacing. 



Mr. David Axtel, the intelligent engineer, in charge of this part of the 

 road, reports that catalpa holds the spikes sufficiently well, and he said 

 that when the ties had suffered from mashing after 'this long use, they 

 were not rejected, but turned over so as to present a new bearing for 

 the rail. Some that had been thrown out by the trackmen were eagerly 

 appropriated by them as garden fence-posts where they bid fair to render 

 good service for many years. 



Near New Madrid, in the same region, there are many fence-posts 

 which have stood and remained perfectly sound for long terms of years, 

 twenty, thirty and forty, or perhaps more, as their value has been known 

 since the settlement of the country. The story of the catalpa trees still 

 standing in the water where they were killed by the submergence of the 

 earthquake in 1811, which has been looked upon as a traveler's tale, may 

 now be fully confirmed by occular demonstration. In those lagoons 

 may yet be seen the broken shafts of noble trees that were then killed. 

 All other species of trees that were submerged by the same catastrophe 

 have crumbled with decay and have fallen into the water long years ago, 

 but these grim monuments of that event still remain as silent memorials 

 of the disturbance of level which caused their death and there have 

 they stood defying the elements and resisting the tooth of time for nearly 

 three-fourths of a century, during which many of the finest have been 

 cut and removed for economic purposes. 



The peculiar ligneous structure of the catalpa is too important to be 

 ignored, for though there be no sensible qualities in the wood to preserve 

 it from the attacks of insects and from decay, it is known to be very 

 durable and it must be possessed of some antiseptic properties that escape 

 the senses and remain to be detected by scientific investigations. There 

 is however a physical constitution that uin be noted by the common 

 observer; this consists in the remarkably small amount of alburnum or 

 sap-wood, that part of all trees which is most subject to decay. In these 

 lives the sap is reduced to the minimum, beinjr only one or at most two 

 layers of woody fiber, while all within -consists of duramen or heart-wood. 



This fact makes the timber especially valuable for railway construction, 

 because a stick of twelve or more inches diameter, instead of beiny; 

 hewed into the usual shape, may be split or sawed into two ties, which 

 have the maximum extent of bearing for the rail, and, having only the 

 bark and a thin layer subject to decay, when laid with its convex surface 

 next the soil, the tie is in the best position for tamping. 



There are many subordinate purposes to which this lumber may very 

 advantageously be applied. It will be particularly desirable for all situa- 

 tions where wood is to be used in contact with humidity in the soil such 

 as wooden drains and culverts. It has been found verv durable when 



