PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 391 



For instance, the white oak, which is so highly prized for furniture manufac- 

 ture, interior house finish, cooperage, car building and cross-ties, requires from 

 one hundred to two hundred years to become available and profitable lumber. 

 Yellow pine, the wood which is now taking the place of oak for many purposes, 

 a.f the latter timber has become so scarce, grows very slowly, requiring from 

 seventy-five to one hundred and fifty years to mature. The same slow rate of 

 growth prevails with all the woods which are recognized as being of value in the 

 manufactures. The tropic timbers, which have been so highly exploited as pro- 

 ductions of the Philippine Islands, and also of Cuba, Central America, etc., are 

 of most extreme slowness in growth, often from five hundred to one thousand 

 years maturing. 



A VALUABLE TREE. 



In presenting to the world an American forest tree which matures in a frac- 

 tion of the time required by the commercial woods of the world, and is so durable 

 as to outlast from five to ten successions of other woods, and to be equal or su- 

 perior to them in many qualities which give value to timber and lumber, it is not 

 to be wondered that railways, land owners and farmers should accept the proof 

 of which this society has adduced, and taking advantage of the knowledge and 

 information given by its management, plant trees in large numbers for the pro- 

 duction of cross-ties and car building. 



But the influence of this organization does not stop here ; it extends to the 

 farthermost portion of the earth. Trees and seed which the society has supplied 

 has produced forests in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Honolulu, Mexico, 

 Central and South America, France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain. 



In all these countries the Catalpa speciosa has proved successful, as reported 

 by the members of the society in these various countries. 



\Vhat seems marvelous is that an almost totally unknown tree indigenous to 

 a small portion of Indiana and unknown elsewhere, until distributed recently, 

 should be to all appearance so universal in its ability to adapt itself to various 

 soils and climatic conditions, growing now forty degrees latitude south of the 

 equator to forty-five degrees north latitude. 



The persistent research of one man in the face of strong opposition for many 

 years has accomplished this achievement. 



Professor Asa Gray and many renowned botanists have been mistaken in 

 describing the Catalpa speciosa, and have not understood it, for the reason 

 that original trees are small in number and circumscribed in locations, while many 

 thousands of Catalpa bignoiiioides have been distributed, as well as innumerable 

 hybrids, throughout Europe and America, which have misled experts every- 

 where. 



Catalpa speciosa is a tall, upright forest tree, of magnificent proportions, 

 while Catalpa bignonioidcs is of dwarf habit, crooked and of unattractive appear- 

 ance. 



There are records of Catalpa speciosa trees that a century ago were common, 

 which measured twenty-one feet girth, and reached upward one hundred and 

 fifty feet. Canoes and batteaux were constructed of single logs, which measured 



