222 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
coming quickly to maturity, producing merchantable sawing timber and sev- 
eral cross-ties in from fifteen to twenty years. 
The Indian tribes who dwelt in the valley of the Wabash, or traversed 
this region, sought such trees as could be easily wrought with their rude im- 
plements, and those which were most enduring, from which to fashion their 
canoes, and the Catalpa was their favorite wood. 
Usually those woods which are dense, and slow to mature, have great 
durability, while the quick growing trees with softer wood soon perish. The 
reverse is the case with Catalpa, its chemical constituents being permanent 
antiseptics preserve the fibers from decay. 
The early white settlers in the valley of the Wabash were instructed as to the 
valuable qualities of the Catalpa and they made use of it in constructing their 
houses, boats and stockade forts, which have endured through more than a 
century. 
General William H. Harrison often spoke of the Catalpa and urged its 
cultivation, since he had known of its many valuable qualities during his resi- 
dence at Vincennes. He had seen this wood sound and bright more than 
a century after it had been placed in the stockades, and he used Catalpa for 
posts in his fence ninety years ago, some of which are still standing. 
The author procured one of these posts for the New Orleans Exposition 
in 1885; it was sound and good for many years’ additional service. 
On the line of the Evansville & Terre Haute Railway I found a large 
number of Catalpa posts which were set fully half a century ago, and are 
still in use. 
Evidences of the durability of Catalpa wood are numerous as well as con- 
vincing. 
The earthquake at New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811, threw down many 
Catalpa trees and others were killed, but left standing. These were sound 
and well preserved a few years since—as mentioned by Mr. Barney in his book. 
WHY CATALPA IS DURABLE. 
Trees have the capability of appropriating from the soil such pigments 
as will give them color, flavor or other peculiarities. Upon the same soil 
one tree will take up such materials as will produce a red apple, another 
green, another yellow. The butternut stores up a valuable dve, ete. The 
Catalpa takes those antiseptic substances which, in concentrated form, resist 
the microbes of decay. These are built into the fiber wood, and when once 
dry are incapable of solution in water. Millions of dollars are expended in 
chemical treatment of wood to increase its durability. These chemicals, in 
solution, are forced into the cells of the wood, and for a long period ward 
off the fungi which cause rot or decay, but, in time, the elements dissolve 
and wash out these artificial materials. leaving the wood unprotected. 
Catalpa is permanently protected because nature has enabled the tree to 
make these antiseptics a part of the wood itself. Scientists have expended 
much time in attempting to explain why some Catalpa trees are decaved while 
still living. It is simply that when the san is flowing freely, the antiseptic 
materials are greatly diluted, and, if a limb has died and remains attached 
