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PRACTICAL 



ARBORICULTURE 



261 



Mr. Hall recommends close planting in rows 4x4 feet, in order to prevent 

 low branching, and declares that "without severe crowding the Catalpa will 

 not produce the straight pole growth necessary for best use. With plenty 

 of room, it is a spreading, round-topped tree, with almost no tendency toward 

 an elongated, central axis, and pruning, while it may somewhat improve the 

 form, will not sufficiently change it to make the tree of much use. At best, 

 pruning can only remove the branches within eight or nine feet of the ground. 

 Above that height it is entirely impracticable in a commercial plantation." 



Mr. Brown, on the contrary, declares that planting closer than 8x8 feet 

 will not give the young trees sufficient root space to afford them necessary 



CATALPA RAILWAY SLEEPERS. STILL SOUND AFTER THIRTY-TWO YEARS' SERVICE 



L. & N. SOUTHERN, ILLINOIS CENTRAL AND BIG FOUR RAILWAYS. 



CATALPA EXHIBIT OF THE INTERNATIONAL 



SOCIETY OF ARBORICULTURE 



nourishment for a vigorous start : that in two to three years all should be cut 

 back in order to get a strong, straight sprout. In eight years three-fourths of 

 the trees should be removed, leaving a stand of one hundred and seventy to 

 the acre. He says that close planting is the chief cause of failure of the several 

 large Kansas plantations to produce large numbers of trees suitable for tele- 

 graph poles and cross-ties in fifteen to twenty years' growth; that experience 

 has proven that the roots of each Catalpa spcciosa tree three years old requires 

 sixteen square feet surface space; at eight years, sixty-four square feet; at 

 sixteen years, two hundred and fifty square feet ; and that with less space 

 the trees are dwarfed and stunted for lack of food and water; that if close 



