366 PRACTICAL ARBOR I C U LT U A 



(nth) That firm, straight telegraph poles may be secured in a dozen 

 years. 



(i2th) That it may be bent and retain its form. 



(13th) That for Cabinet work it does not shrink or warp. 



(i4th) That fine book paper may be made from the wood. 



(i5th) That it is straight and upright in habit of growth. 



(i6th) While an oak tree requires twelve times as long to grow as its term 

 of durability in the ground. Catalpa has lasted for ties twice as lung as the period 

 of growth. And for rails and fence posts, four times its period of growth. 



(i/th) For mine timbers it has no superior for strength or durability, and 

 may be quickly grown in mining regions. 



HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IX THE CATALPA TREE. 



By profession I am a civil engineer, and in that capacity have had in charge 

 several quite important railway and government surveys.' It was to a large ex- 

 tent this field of employment which has influenced me in choosing the practical or 

 economic side of arboriculture, the researches into which subject my natural in- 

 clinations led me in early life. 



The woods have ever had greater attractions for me than social functions or 

 business employments, and what I have learned of trees and their influences upon 

 nations and peoples has been from observations of nature in the great forests of 

 Xorth America, rather than from universities or from books. 



My studies of the trees and forests began while a boy at school, has con- 

 tinued through three-score years, with the interest increasing as the years 

 speed by. 



Forty years ago I was collecting data for the purpose of presenting the sub- 

 ject of forest planting, and in measuring many trees of known ages, in the vari- 

 ous public parks and in private grounds throughout the United States, to deter- 

 mine and tabulate the annual rate of growth of American forest trees, in order 

 to encourage the preservation of some of our woodlands. 



While fully realizing the necessity for clearing away the major portion of the 

 forests, in order that homes, farms and States could be made, and civilizaticn 

 replace savagery, yet it appealed to me that upon every farm there were portions 

 which should remain in trees. My object was to present this thought for the 

 farmer and land owner, that it was a good investment to retain a portion of the 

 native forest. 



The effort proved futile. Americans could not wait for slow-growing trees 

 to produce a value for their posterity. 



It was while I was earnestly pursuing this subject, about 1875. that I discov- 

 ered the extremely rapid growth of Catalpa spcciosa. There was little could be 

 learned at that period, of its importance or uses, which came within my knowl- 

 edge, yet I continued to make investigations, and some years later obtained the 

 address of Mr. E. E. Barney, the venerable car manufacturer of Dayton. Ohio. 

 Entering into a correspondence with Mr. Barney, a flood of information was sup- 

 plied me. That gentleman sent me a copy of his pamphlet on the catalpa which 

 contained the result of many years' investigation. From this print I learned that 

 many men of great prominence, during the early part of the nineteenth ecntury. 



