PRACTICAL ARBOR COREL URE 233 
1806 I found it in large bodies and of enormous height and size, three and four 
feet in diameter, and fifty feet without a limb, near Poplar Bluff, Mo., on the 
route of the Iron’ Mountain Railroad. Throughout that region the peculiar 
value of the tree is well known for its durability and other qualities. Canoes 
are made exclusively of catalpa, they never crack in seasoning, or rot. Henly, 
the ferryman at Poplar Bluff, had a canoe, perfectly sound, three feet across 
the gunwales, in use twelve years. The tree has been extirpated from the 
great demand for posts all over the country.” 
COMMUNICATION FROM A PROMINENT OFFICIAL OF THE IRON 
MOUNTAIN RAILROAD—TO THE RAILWAY AGE—1876. 
“The catalpa tree is well known and appreciated by our officials. It is 
beyond question the most durable of all species growing in this country, ex- 
cept, perhaps, the cedar. There are miles of fencing built years ago by the 
company with catalpa posts, none other now being used. A limited supply of 
ties and telegraph poles were secured. 
“In 1871 William R. Arthur, superintendent of the Illinois Central Rail- 
road, stated that the catalpa would make a tie that would last forever; that it 
was easily cultivated, was of rapid growth, they would hold a spike as well ag 
oak and would not split. 
“The Farmers’ and Planters’ Encyclopedia says the rapid growth of the 
catalpa in almost every situation and the adaption of its wood to fence posts 
and other useful purposes, make it deserving the attention of farmers. The 
wood, though light, is very compact, of fine texture, and susceptible of the 
most brilliant polish, is fine straw color, producing a fine effect in cabinet 
work and inside finish of houses. 
“A railroad once tied with catalpa will find its annual expenses for repairs 
diminished $200 per mile, a saving that would add ten per cent to the value 
of the property. 
“E. E. BARNEY.” 
PROF. T. J. BURRILL, OF ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY, 
SAYS: 
“While collecting specimens of the trees of Illinois, for the Centennial, I 
found some boards sawed from a catalpa log two feet in diameter that was 
known to have lain on the ground one hundred years. The wood is still sound 
and susceptible of a fair polish.” 
The theory held by eminent authorities of early times, that artificial plan- 
tations of forest trees should be as close as 4x4 feet in order to induce upright 
growth and to eliminate lower branches, has proved a failure everywhere. 
The catalpa is so strong a grower, making enormous demands upon its roots 
system which cannot develop and so dwarfs the tree. 
Oriental gardeners grow oak trees in tiny flower pots, by a process of 
starvation. American planters have been equally successful in producing 
2,722 tiny fence posts by similar process, in two decades, upon an acre of land. 
Nature, in the course of time, will kill off the weaker, and leave a proper 
