ri'ACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 371 



ident Benjamin Harrison and Governor James A. Mount, of Indiana, General 

 Lew Wallace anil many eminent citizens of this and other lands have been 

 members of this society. Hon. J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, was our first 

 president, continuing as such to the time of his death. 



General William J. Palmer, of Colorado, succeeded Mr. Morton, and is still 

 president of the society. Xo other person has done so much to advance the inter- 

 ests of the society, by moral encouragement and financial support, as has General 

 Palmer, who as a railway president has enabled the society to reach and interest 

 the great railway systems of America in forest planting and management. 



At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904, the society made an exhibit of 

 the catalpa which attracted the attention and secured the admiration of the world, 

 and for which we were awarded the grand prize. Even the residents of the re- 

 gion of which the catalpa was indigenous, and who were familiar with it from 

 childhood, were amazed at the many uses for which the wood could be employed, 

 the beauty of finish, the elegance of the furniture made from the wood, the mag- 

 nificent carvings, handsome veneers and inlaid panels. Until now thev had valued 

 it only for its durability, having known it as good for fence rails and posts. 



Railway officials and engineers here learned that catalpa was the peer of ma- 

 hogany for passenger-car finish, and par c.vcc/icncc for telegraph poles and rail- 

 way sleepers, for here were numbers which had served their purpose in the tracks 

 for one-third of a century with no indications of decay, this being four times the 

 life of white oak. seven times the durability of pine, and twice as long as creosoted 

 tics. 



Paper manufacturers found a new value in catalpa for wood pulp and book 

 paper, both of which were in this exhibit. 



Botanical writers had published that catalpa wood was not strong. This was 

 . disproven at the St. Louis exhibit by practical and most severe tests. 



< )bjectors had pronounced the trees to be small, crooked, and without material 

 value. In answer to this a dozen large-sized photographs of natural trees in for- 

 est showed the true habit of Catalpa speciosa as being very tall and straight, while 

 actual trees by their presence gave their own evidence, and proved that these peo- 

 ple were mistaken in the variety of catalpa which had come under their oh scrva- 

 tion. 



Railway presidents visited the exhibit and were convince-!. Other companies 

 sent special officials and engineers to examine the c-;hi' it. some of whom also 

 visited the native forests on the Wabash, and fr>;:nd they had not been misrepre- 

 sented. 



Foreign governments sent representatives to investigate the subject, and from 

 their reports have begun the extensive planting of this American tree. 



Heretofore manufacturers had used only those woods which had required 

 more than a century to grow, and after these forests have been consumed, will 

 require an equal period for their reproduction. Xever before had a rapidly ma- 

 turing tree been found suitable for any purpose of the manufacturer other than 

 as furl, and these have slight value in heat units. 



It was a revelation to sec a railway car of such magnificence entirely con- 

 structed from a tree which had been produced in less than two decades. The 

 problem of forest reproduction for lumber, paper, cross-ties, for the uses of 



