April 1902.] The Hardy Catalpa. Ill 



trees in a catalpa plantation must be regarded as unsettled. In the 

 earlier plantations they were invariably set very close together, 4x4 

 feet being the usual distance. It was supposed that the dense growth, 

 by causing the lower limbs to die and drop off, would force the con- 

 centration of the food materials into a straight bole. 



The catalpa, however, differs from other forest-trees in that its 

 dead limbs are not readily dropped, but are retained for an indefinite 

 period, during which the growing trunk gradually encloses their 

 bases, making knots, and affording to fungi points of access into the 

 trunk. 



In order to insure clean, smooth trunks, therefore, systematic prun- 

 ing of the trees is necessary, and this should be begun when they are 

 fix or six years old. Precise rules for pruning cannot be given, and 

 much must be left to the common sense and experience of the opera- 

 tor. Inasmuch as the catalpa shows quite a distinct inclination to 

 fork near the ground, care must be taken to check this tendency. At 

 the first pruning, all limbs should be cut off up to within five or six 

 feet of the ground, and the fallen branches should not be removed, 

 since the smaller decaying twigs and leaves return to the soil a con- 

 siderable amount of food material. The second pruning should take 

 place at about the tenth year, when the trees should stand from seven 

 to eight feet to the first limb. No more trimming is necessary until 

 after the first crop of posts is cut. For low, young trees, an ordinary 

 heavy corn-knife will be satisfactory as a pruning instrument. In all 

 cases, the branches should be cut close to the trunk. Pruning may be 

 carried on any time during the growing season. The disastrous results 

 following lack of systematic pruning are illustrated in the forest at 

 Farlington, Kan. In numberless cases the trees there have been al- 

 lowed to retain all of their limbs, which have successively died as the 

 trees have increased in height, and, not decaying and falling off, they 

 now render the interior of the forest, in places, an almost impene- 

 trable thicket (plates 10, 11, 12). The waste of wood material allowed 

 to go into these lateral branches is something enormous in a great 

 plantation. 



The diagram (plate 40) of a four-year-old catalpa tree, whose roots 

 and branches were carefully measured, will serve to illustrate the root 

 space demanded by trees of this age. The roots average from eight to 

 fifteen feet in lateral extension. The overcrowding of the soil in a 

 plantation with four-year-old trees standing 4x4 feet can readily be 

 imagined. 



As throwing light on the distance at which to set catalpa trees in 

 plantation, it will be interesting to review the opinions of Messrs. Geo. 

 W. Tincher, of Topeka, Kan. ; L. W. Yaggy, of Hutchinson, Kan., and 



