26 



The planting is a simple affair; after the surface has been marked out 

 with furrows four feet apart, the little trees are dropped every three or 

 four feet, or at the intersections of the check-rows if the furrows cross ; 

 the planters follow at once with spades, setting them in the furrows and 

 tramping the mellow soil about the roots. As the rows are set a cne- 

 horse turning plow should follow to bank them up slightly. 



In the fall-planting this furrow may be made -rat her heavy so as to pro- 

 tect the little plants during the winter from heaving by tlio frost. This 

 bank of earth needs to be harrowed down in the spring before the buds 

 have started, and this cultivation will destroy a multitude of weeds that 

 are springing from the soil. Cultivation should be continued at intervals 

 during the summer, so as to keep the ground clear and mellow, which 

 will also encourage the growth of the plants. 



If some of the little trees be crooked or branched, be not concerned, 

 for, during the winter or very early in the following spring, they may all 

 be cut off together near the surface of the ground, to secure *a strong, 

 thrifty and even growth the next summer, when, if they have been well 

 cultivated up to July, the result will be most gratifying and encouraging. 

 There should be an even stand of sturdy trees, averaging not more than 

 four feet apart, and reaching a hight of five or six or more feet, covered 

 with broad foliage, so completely shading the ground that no further cul- 

 tivation will be needed, beyond cutting out a weed here and there during 

 the next season. 



The after treatment will consist in the occasional cutting back of a tree 

 that may have been bent with the wind when wet, while the succulent 

 stem was soft before the deposit of woody fiber in the young shoots. 



Owing to the peculiar arrangement of 'the leaves and their buds, the 

 natural habit of this plant is to throw out two or three shoots from the 

 top of the stem which will make a low-branched tree, and close planting- 

 is the more necessary to aid in preventing such a result. Occasionally it 

 may be advisable to cut back all but one for a leader, but when planted 

 sufficiently close the forces of nature will generally check and destroy 

 all superfluous growths, and produce tall, straight trees. 



THINNING. This may become necessary in the coming years; but, 

 "sufficient to the day.'"' In the limited experience and observation of 

 artificial groves, so far, this work appears to be in a fair way of being exe- 

 cuted by the forces of nature, without the necessity for human interfer- 

 ence. 



INSECTS. 



The almost universal testimony in regard to the catalpa tree, and often 

 cited in its favor by amateur cultivators, is that it is not troubled by in- 

 sects. These pests' have not been known to attack either the foliage or 

 the woody fiber of those which are cultivated in this latitude. 



Wherever grown, the wood that has fallen under the writer's notice is 

 entirely free from all traces of injury or invasion by the larvae of beetles 

 or other insects. 



But the fruit, particularly the pith of the pods, has been found dis- 

 organized and consequently the seeds were defective. This injury is 

 supposed to be caused by the larva of a small fly species unknown. 



In its native habitats, both western and southern, the foliage is eaten 

 to such an extent as to strip the trees at mid-summer. This is done by a 

 large greenish naked caterpillar. On all the southern streams this' is 

 known to the fishermen as the favorite bait for catching bream; one cor- 

 respondent described them as becoming six inches long at full growth. 



Dr. J. Schneck, of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, cites the ravages of this cater- 

 pillar'as^one^reason why the tree has not been cultivated in that region, 



