124 Botanical Department. [Bulletin 108 



"Mr. D. Axtell, superintendent of the Missouri division of the Iron Mountain 

 railroad, writes that the catalpa ties placed in the track of his road ten years 

 ago are perfectly sound; that the rail had worn into some of them from one- half 

 to an inch, and it has been repeatedly proven that the catalpa is far superior, for 

 ties, to white oak or any other kind of timber grown in that latitude." 



On page 30 of the same pamphlet appears a letter from Mr. Axtell, 

 as follows : 



CHARLESTON, Mo., February 22, 1879. 



E. E. Barney: DEAR SIR There is nothing to indicate that the catalpa 

 ties in our track near Charleston, Mo., do not hold spikes sufficiently well. 

 Nearly all the spikes are in the same holes originally made when driving them, 

 over ten years ago. There has been no spreading in the track. I have examined 

 the few ties the rails have settled into, and find none that will not last a number 

 of years by turning them over. These ties are from six to eight inches face. If 

 they were wider, as you suggest, there would be more resistance to crushing. 

 With the joint fastenings now in use, I see no objection to making ties, as you 

 propose, from logs twelve inches or more in diameter, by sawing them through 

 the middle, and placing the round side down. The bearing surface would thus 

 be increased 50 to 100 per cent. 



A further communication from the same person, quoted on page 

 1, is as follows : 



" In regard to the durability of catalpa it is useless to multiply words. Fence- 

 posts twenty years in the ground are always as sound as when first put in, and 

 no decayed catalpa logs are ever found in the swamps. A section of catalpa log 

 known to have lain on the ground in the swamps fifty years is now in the office 

 of the land department of the road, in St. Louis, and is as sound as it ever was." 



Dr. John A. Warder, of Dayton, Ohio, president in 1881 of the 

 American Forestry Association, and vice-president of the American 

 Agricultural Association, and whose name Englemann has linked 

 with the species name of the hardy catalpa, published in the Journal 

 of the latter society, in 1881, pages 79 to 102, a memoir entitled 

 "The Relations of Forestry to Agriculture. The Western Catalpa 

 Tree." On page 98 Warder says : 



"On the St. Louis & Iron Mountain railroad, near Charleston, Mo., there is 

 a portion of the track laid eleven years ago on catalpa sleepers which is yet 

 sound, while many of the oak fence-posts enclosing the road, though planted 

 since it was built, have needed to be replaced. The oak ties last scarcely five 

 years on the same soil and exposure. Mr. David Axtell, the intelligent engineer 

 in charge of this part of the road, reports that catalpa holds the spikes well 

 enough, and that when the ties become mashed they are no longer rejected, but 

 simply turned over, so as to present a new bearing. Some that have been 

 thrown out by trackmen have been used as fence-posts, and bid fair to last 



Mr. John P. Brown, C. E., of Connersville, Ind., secretary of the 



