11 



If cutting back is to practiced, the trees should be cut after 

 they have grown two years in the permanent plantation. The 

 stumps will send out three or four sprouts, all of which must be 

 cut off except the strongest. Under favorable conditions this one 

 sprout will attain a height of from six to ten feet the first season, 

 and by the end of the second season will be as tall as the five-year- 

 old trees that were not cut back. If one trimming of the stump- 

 growth would answer all needs, the care of the sprout-growth 

 would be a simple matter, but the stumps cersist in sprouting, 

 and the plantation must usually be gone over two or three times 

 to keep the stumps free of undesirable sprouts. 



On account of the excessive growth and the heavy foliage, the 

 one-year-old sprouts are subject to considerable injury from wind- 

 felling. The strain caused by a heavy wind splits the sprouts from 

 the stump. Danger from such injury is entirely overcome during 

 the second season's growth. 



FORM AND SIZE. 



In Kansas the hardy catalpa is a medium-sized tree which, when 

 planted in groves, reaches its best financial development in from 

 eighteen to twenty years. Trees in single rows, as in street and 

 roadside planting, require a much longer time to reach their full 

 development. 



When closely planted in groves, the trees develop a tall, slender 

 trunk with very few large side branches. Trees from eighteen to 

 twenty years old vary from thirty to forty feet in height and from 

 eight to ten inches in diameter at one foot from the ground, de- 

 pending upon the strength of the soil in which they grow. The 

 stems are reasonably straight and entirely satisfactory for fence- 

 post purposes. The trees hold their diameter well and will usu- 

 ally cut three lengths of six and one-half foot posts. The catalpa 

 is preeminently a fence-post tree; in its seedling stage it continues 

 to grow throughout the season until checked by frost; conse- 

 quently, from six inches to a foot of tender, immature wood at the 

 end of the season's growth winterkills. The following season's 

 growth starts from a bud somewhere on the stem below the in- 

 jured portion. This causes a slight crookedness in the stem that 

 is objectionable where a perfectly straight stick is desired. Pole 

 size is not reached until the trees are twenty-five years of age or 

 older, and it is only under the very best of care that they can be 

 grown to this size without becoming infected with fungi. 



