UKACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



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the trees were set 8x8 feet. There are two hundred and fifty acres planted. The 

 soil is alluvial, delta land, but of a character quite difficult to work, and was 

 dense with Bermuda grass and wild cane, having been abandoned for cultivation 

 many years since. It is expensive to cultivate, but the trees are growing rapidly. 

 This company has also two hundred acres near DuQuoin, 111., planted a year later, 

 which are making good progress. This territory is underlaid with coal, which is 

 being mined, and it is expected that the thinnings will be utilized here for mine 

 timbers. 



The Louisville and Nashville Railway has eight large plantations of catalpa, 

 one at Pensacola, Fla., in pure highland sand. This sand has produced a crop of 

 yellow pine timber. It grows good pecan trees ; deep-rooted pear trees flourish, and 

 the catalpa trees are growing well. They were planted in the spring of 1902. 

 Another plantation is in the Alabama River bottoms, at Selma, Ala., one on the 

 banks of Licking River, near Newport, Ky., others at Shawneetown and McLeans- 

 boro, 111. All are doing well, but are too recent to determine results. 



This company has just purchased one thousand acres near Mobile, Alabama, 

 on which half a million trees are planted. 



The Southern Pacific Railway Company distributed several thousand trees 

 through Texas, portions being in the arid region, where irrigation is required. 

 The officials report them to be in very satisfactory condition. 



The New Orleans and Northeastern Railway distributed some thousands of 

 trees along the line through Louisiana and Mississippi. Passengers have reported 

 to me that they give promise of excellent results. 



The New England railways have planted perhaps one hundred thousand 

 trees, a portion by the Boston and Maine Railway, at South Lawrence, Mass., in 

 the valley of the Merrimac River ; others by the Boston and Albany Railway, near 

 Newton, Mass. If these prove satisfactory, the experiment will be extended. 



In Utah some years since, the Rio Grande Western Railway established a 

 nursery of sixty-five thousand catalpa trees at Provo. Part of these were trans- 

 planted, two years ago, to points along the line between Ogden, Utah, and Grand 

 Junction, Col. In most part they have been abandoned and destroyed by fires 

 and stock. One fine grove remains at Salt Lake City, which will be taken care 

 of until it is determined how the alkaline soil affects the catalpa tree. There are 

 many fine catalpa trees in Utah, which formed the basis for this extensive plant- 

 ing. 



The Florida East Coast Railway was the last to undertake catalpa planting 

 for cross-ties, a tract having been purchased between Jacksonville and St. 

 Augustine, which is now planted. LTpon this tract, in the dooryard of a 

 farmer, Mr. F. J. Register, and in exactly the same pure sand of Florida, stands a 

 catalpa tree which was planted in 1896 as a small switch. After but nine years' 

 growth this tree measures fifty-seven inches girth (nineteen inches thickness) at 

 six feet above the ground. This nine-year-old Florida tree will now make four 

 cross-ties. A square mile of such trees would furnish in one decade enough 

 sleepers to build two hundred and thirty-seven miles of new track, or supply the 

 renewals for twenty-three hundred and seventy miles of railway. 



At Gainesville and at Pensacola, Florida, as well as at other points, there are 

 trees which show an equally good record for rapid growth, while at New Orleans 



