PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



263 



Most of the trees in this natural grove had grown up within fifty years. 

 The growth had never been dense. Many slender, upright saplings were 

 growing fifteen to twenty feet away from other trees, and there is no evidence 

 that this natural growth has ever been crowded. The farmers, who valued 

 these trees and wished them to grow well and rapidly, had seen to it that 

 every tree had sufficient space for its roots to spread. 



Our chief interest, however, is not in what the forest has produced, but 

 in what .can be done by planting. Very near the natural groves I found rows 

 of trees planted along lanes and about the borders of fields. A tree which 

 had been recently cut from one of these rows was lying upon the ground, 

 affording a fine opportunity for measurements. The first cut was nine feet 



SECTION KROM A CATALPA SI'I-XIOSA TREE EXIIIIilTEIJ AT LOUISIANA PURCHASE 



EXPOSITION, 1!*>4. THE ANNUAL GROWTHS ASE PLAINLY SHOWN AND 



COMPARED WITH THE TWELVE-INCH RULE. DIAMETER OF 



TREE, 22 INCHES; AGE, 14 YEARS 



long and measured sixteen inches' at butt, ten and a half inches at the top. 

 The second cut eight feet long measured ten and a half inches at large 

 end and nine and a half at the top, or small end. The third cut 

 measured six inches at top end. Annular rings showed this tree to 

 have been planted some fifteen years. The first two cuts would make 

 g"<,d cross-ties, or the entire tree would make a good twenty-five-foot pole. 

 It was planted in a single row, bordering a cultivated field. The trees in this 

 row were planted eight feet apart, had no cultivation, and were never cut 

 back in order to induce straight, upright growth, as is recommended by all 

 authorities. The tree which had been felled was not an unusual specimen. 

 Hundreds of others just as good, and some better, could have been selected 



