April 1902.] The Hardy Catalpa. 135 



This plantation was visited by a representative of the Kansas Ex- 

 periment Station in August of last year, just after the close of the pro- 

 longed drought of that summer. In addition to the facts furnished in 

 the above letter, Mr. Andrew Throndson, the superintendent of the 

 plantation at Farlington, supplied some interesting data. The trees 

 when first planted were one year old from the nursery. The first 

 pruning was done in 1890, or eight years after the planting was finished. 

 According to the superintendent, it would seem that a regular system 

 of thinning was not adopted at the outset, and that trees were taken 

 out for post timber rather indefinitely, and wherever it seemed to the 

 advantage of the plantation to do so. The soil is very uneven in 

 quality, and the yield, therefore, very unequal. The northwestern 

 portion holds the best trees at the present time. In some parts of the 

 plantation fully one-third of the trees have been removed, leaving 

 about 1800 to the acre. About one-fourth of the trees were supposed 

 to have been taken out eleven years ago, leaving about 2000 to the 

 acre at that time. According to the superintendent, from 500 to 600 

 posts per acre have been obtained in the process of thinning, and 

 from some acres 1200 to 1500 posts, on account of trees in some cases 

 making from two to four posts. 



The posts when cut average not smaller than four inches in di- 

 ameter at the tip. Some pole timber, tip diameter six inches, and 

 twenty-six feet long, has been obtained, but how much the superin- 

 tendent could not say. The cost of growing he estimated at about 

 thirty-three dollars per acre, including trees, labor, and cultivation for 

 three years. During the year 1900-'01, 120,000 posts have been taken 

 out of the entire plantation. 



As a general criticism it must be said that in the Farlington plan- 

 tation the trees were set closer together than experience would possi- 

 bly justify to-day. The thinning was not systematically followed out, 

 so as to leave the trees at fifteen years of age standing 8x8 or, perhaps 

 better, 8x 16 feet. The result is that the catalpa plantation as a whole, 

 in the body of the forest, presents the appearance of a forest of sap- 

 lings. A large number of. the trees do not exceed four to six inches 

 in diameter. Systematic pruning has not been followed out, but the 

 trees as a whole have been allowed to retain their limbs. Since the 

 catalpa in forest does not readily drop dead limbs, as do other trees, a 

 tree unpruned tends to form a straggling, irregular growth. This is 

 shown to a regrettable degree at Farlington. Many of the trees in 

 the forest there retain all of the dead limbs on their trunks down to 

 within one or two feet of the ground. 



By rigid and systematic pruning this plantation may possibly be 

 brought up to a fair degree of effectiveness, but the crookedness 



