THE OSAGE ORANGE. 



iSrOTES ON A TREE OF INCREASING ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 



BY 



WILLIAM L. HALL, 



CHIEF OF DIVISION OF FOREST EXTENSION, BUREAU OF FORESTRY. 



THE natural range ot the Osage 

 Orange ( Toxylon poniifcriivi ) is 

 southern Arkansas, southeastern Indian 

 Territory, eastern Texas, and northern 

 Louisiana It has been widely intro- 

 duced elsewhere by cultivation. Its 

 range for economic planting is in the 

 south central states, from the northern 

 boundaries of Kansas, Missouri, and 

 Illinois south. The Osage Orange will 

 grow on very sterile soil, but not 

 thriftily. It prefers a deep, rich, clay 

 loam, retentive of moisture. 



The Osage Orange has been exten- 

 sively used as a hedge plant in Iowa, 

 Missouri, Illinois, and other prairie 

 states, but it is frequently winter-killed 

 near the northern limit of its cultiva- 

 tion. The wood is heavy, hard, elastic, 

 and strong, and durable in contact with 

 the soil. It is prized highly for use in 

 cabinet-making and in the construction 

 of carriages and machiner3^ It is a valu- 

 able post timber, and also makes excel- 

 lent fuel. 



The growth of the Osage Orange for 

 the first few years is very rapid. It 

 never makes a large tree, and matures 

 in from 30 to 100 3^ears. The tree when 

 standing alone has a tendency to branch 

 profusely. It is this habit which 

 renders it of such great value as a hedge 

 plant. If crowded, it can be made to 

 grow into a form which adapts it for 

 posts. The Osage Orange reproduces 

 from suckers from the roots and from 

 seeds, which are borne in great abun- 

 dance by the pistillate individuals. The 

 ripe fruit containing the seed is a fleshy, 

 globular, yellow mass with a roughened 

 surface somewhat resembling an orange. 

 The fruit should be collected in the fall 

 as soon as ripe, and should be stored in 

 sand in a cool, dry place. In the early 

 spring the fruit should be soaked in cold 



water for several weeks until the tissues 

 become somewhat macerated or deca3^ed, 

 allowing the seeds to be extracted. The 

 seeds should be stratified as soon as re- 

 moved from the fruits or else planted. 



A good method of planting the seeds 

 is in the bottom of a furrow made by a 

 lister or a plow\ The}^ should be cov- 

 ered about an inch and a half deep. 

 The seeds may be planted where the 

 trees are intended to stand, or they may 

 be planted in a nurser}' and the trees 

 transplanted to their final site at the end 

 of one 3'ear. 



Common as the Osage Orange is as a 

 hedge plant, its use as a timber tree has 

 been infrequent. Solid blocks of it are 

 scarcel}' ever seen, though it grows very 

 successfully in this way, either when 

 planted alone or with some taller-grow- 

 ing tree, as the Black Walnut, Locust, 

 or Hardy Catalpa. At Manhattan, 

 Kansas, the Agricultural College has a 

 very successful block of it in mixture 

 with Green Ash. Probably the largest 

 single plantation of Osage Orange in 

 the United States is a lo-acre block ad- 

 joining the large catalpa plantation of 

 the Kansas City, Ft. Scott and Memphis 

 Railroad at Farlington, Kansas. The 

 trees in this block were planted 

 in 1878, at a distance of 4 feet 

 apart each way. In 1900, when a 

 party from the Bureau of Forestry made 

 a stud)' of the catalpa plantation, it also 

 made some measurements of the Osage 

 Orange. No thinning had been done, 

 and the dense growth was penetrated 

 with extreme difficulty. The trees had 

 made a perfectly thrifty growth, how- 

 ever, and measurements disclosed the 

 fact that the stand contained 2,640 

 first-class and 2,772 second-class fence 

 posts per acre, worth respectively 12^ 

 and 7 cents each, showing an acreage 



(510) 



