1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



2 37 



RAILROAD PLANTATIONS AND CATALPA. 



A LETTER FROM MR. JOHN P. BROWN. 



[As many of the FORESTER'S readers 

 already know, Mr. John P. Brown, the 

 Secretary of the Indiana Forestry Associa- 

 tion, has lately been traveling about the 

 middle West with a special eye to planta- 

 tions of Catalpa, and to the possibility of 

 interesting railroads in tree-planting. In 

 answer to an inquiry about his observations 

 and the success of his trip, Mr. Brown 

 wrote the FORESTER a letter from which 

 the following is taken. ED.] 



Almost without exception I have been 

 courteously received by the highest offi- 

 cials of railways; the methods proposed 

 have been recognized as sound business 

 propositions, and further detailed informa- 

 tion asked for. But railway organizations 

 are vast machines, and so important a step 

 as planting trees on a large scale must be 

 considered with care by many officials. 

 Hence it will take time to accomplish this 

 work. 



The work of forest planting has hitherto 

 been largely experimental, especially that 

 undertaken by railway companies dur- 

 ing the past quarter century. While it 

 was well known a century ago that Ca- 

 talpa wood was the most enduring of 

 all American trees, yet it was not known 

 where it would grow, and hence a variety 

 of timber was planted, much of which en- 

 tirely failed. These numerous experi- 

 ments have shown that Catalpa speciosa is 

 hardy in all territory east of 100 Lat. and 

 south of 44 even to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and in New England. Also that it is a 

 remarkably strong grower exceeding in 

 that respect almost every American tree. 

 Thus it has become known as the ideal 

 tree for commercial planting, whether by 

 railways or by individual planters. 



The plan of utilizing the right of way 

 for an avenue of trees has been imperfectly 

 tried by a few roads. Skilled men have 

 not been put in charge and the plantations 

 have been neglected. Yet they have by 

 no means been without results. Some two 



decades ago one of the Pennsylvania lines 

 in Ohio planted Red Cedar along the 

 track, while the Catalpa was planted along 

 an Indiana branch line. Cedar is so slow 

 to mature that little has resulted from the 

 Ohio plantation, except that, aesthetically, 

 it does greatly relieve the monotony of 

 railway scenery. In the case of the Ca- 

 talpa trees a majority were unfortunately 

 C. bignonioides, and worthless, yet a few 

 good specimens of Catalpa speciosa did 

 succeed in making substantial progress, 

 even under such neglect, in a sod of blue 

 grass, and with the principal branches 

 mutilated by telegraph linemen. I meas- 

 ured some sixteen inches in diameter, 

 seventeen years after planting. Along 

 the Burlington, in Nebraska, many trees 

 were planted on cuts to prevent the drift- 

 ing of snow, and some of them have grown 

 exceedingly well in a dry climate and 

 without care. 



I find that a serious mistake has been 

 made where the theory of close planting- 

 has been followed. For instance in the 

 1,200 acres at Farlington, Kansas 4x4 

 feet and never thinned the trees are 

 stunted and no larger to-day than they 

 were ten years ago. In fairly good soil 

 it requires about 256 square feet of surface 

 for the perfect development of root growth 

 during the first quarter of a century. Thus 

 with Catalpa speciosa my observations 

 have shown that when planted sixteen 

 feet apart both ways, the trees make one 

 inch diameter growth per annum, while at 

 a less distance apart the roots become so 

 matted and interwoven in fifteen years as 

 to prevent a satisfactory growth. The 

 4x4 method, giving only sixteen square 

 feet of surface to each tree, has in every 

 instance dwarfed the entire plantation in- 

 side of six vcars. 



At Governor Furnell's place. Brown- 

 ville, Nebraska, I dug up a cluster of Ca- 

 talpa of four years' growth from the sod, 

 where they stood four feet apart each way. 



