PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



59 



A STURDY CATALPA SPECIOSA. 

 AN IDEAL TELEGRAPH POLE. 



pose, 100 to 150 years, is discouraging 

 to investors who might wish to plant 

 trees or hold forest property for the 

 world's markets. 



The Tennessee and southern red 

 cedar is more durable, but is now very 

 scarce, besides it is too valuable for 

 lead pencil timber, and is of very slow 

 growth. 



The juniper found in the Dismal 

 swamp also possesses the qualities of 

 a good pole tree, but is quite scarce. 



The specifications for telegraph 

 poles demand timbers of unusual 

 length, varying from 24 to 50 feet, hav- 

 ing a diameter of 8 to 10 inches at top. 

 They are set in the ground 4 l / 2 to 6 

 feet. 



Transportation is a great item of ex- 

 pense on poles. One car at Salt Lake 

 City, from Michigan to Oregon Short 

 Line Railway, contained 66 poles 

 weighing 33,000 pounds, the freight 

 being $4 per pole. 



The chestnut which grew so abun- 

 dantly on the mountains of Tennessee 

 is used almost exclusively for telegraph 

 poles in East Tennessee and North 

 Carolina, but this timber is not being 

 cared for and suitable trees for poles 

 will not be found in abundance a few 

 years hence ; even now they are scarce. 

 There should be no trouble in produc- 

 ing chestnut poles and trees for other 

 lumber, in the mountain regions where 

 chestnut is a natural growth, if land 

 owners could be made to realize the 

 great importance of caring for their 

 timber trees, but suitable information 

 upon these points is not available, and 

 until a thorough and systematic effort 

 is made to educate the farmers in re- 

 gard to arboriculture, no improvement 

 may be expected. 



Telegraph and telephone companies 

 could well afford to give liberal en- 



