PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 233 



1866 I found it in large bodies and of enormous height and size, three and four 

 feet in diameter, and fifty feet without a limb, near Poplar Bluff, Mo., on the 

 route of the Iron Mountain Railroad. Throughout that region the peculiar 

 value of the tree is well known for its durability and other qualities. Canoes 

 are made exclusively of catalpa, they never crack in seasoning, or rot. Henly, 

 the ferryman at Poplar Bluff, had a canoe, perfectly sound, three feet across 

 the gunwales, in use twelve years. The tree has been extirpated from the 

 great demand for posts all over the country.'' 



COMMUNICATION FROM A PROMINENT OFFICIAL OF THE IRON 

 MOUNTAIN RAILROAD TO THE RAILWAY AGE 1876. 



"The catalpa tree is well known and appreciated by our officials. It is 

 beyond question the most durable of all species growing in this country, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, the cedar. There are miles of fencing built years ago by the 

 company with catalpa posts, none other now being used. A limited supply of 

 ties and telegraph poles were secured. 



"In 1871 William R. Arthur, superintendent of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road, stated that the catalpa would make a tie that would last forever; that it 

 was easily cultivated, was of rapid growth, they would hold a spike as well as 

 oak and would not split. 



"The Farmers' and Planters' Encyclopaedia says the rapid growth of the 

 catalpa in almost every situation and the adaption of its wood to fence posts 

 and other useful purposes, make it deserving the attention of farmers. The 

 wood, though light, is very compact, of fine texture, and susceptible of the 

 most brilliant polish, is fine straw color, producing a fine effect in cabinet 

 work and inside finish of houses. 



"A railroad once tied with catalpa will find its annual expenses for repairs 

 diminished $200 per mile, a saving that would add ten per cent to the value 

 of the property. . 



"E. E. BARNEY." 



PROF. T. J. BURRILL, OF ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY, 



SAYS: 



"While collecting specimens of the trees of Illinois, for the Centennial, I 

 found some boards sawed from a catalpa log two feet in diameter that was 

 known to have lain on the ground one hundred years. The wood is still sound 

 and susceptible of a fair polish."' 



The theory held by eminent authorities of early times, that artificial plan- 

 tations of forest trees should be as close as 4x4 feet in order to induce upright 

 growth and to eliminate lower branches, has proved a failure everywhere. 

 The catalpa is so strong a grower, making enormous demands upon its roots 

 system which cannot develop and so dwarfs the tree. 



Oriental gardeners grow oak trees in tiny flower pots, by a process of 

 starvation. American planters have been equally successful in producing 

 2,722 tiny fence posts by similar process, in two decades, upon an acre of land. 



Nature, in the course of time, will kill off the weaker, and leave a proper 



