PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 263 
Most of the trees in this natural grove had grown up within flfty years. 
The growth had never been dense. Many slender, upright saplings were 
growing fifteen to twenty feet away from other trees, and there is no evidence 
that this natural growth has ever been crowded. The farmers, who valued 
these trees and wished them to grow well and rapidly, had seen to it that 
every tree had sufficient space for its roots to spread. 
Our chief interest, however, is not in what the forest has produced, but 
in what can be done by planting. Very near the natural groves I found rows 
of trees planted along lanes and about the borders of fields. A tree which 
had been recently cut from one of these rows was lying upon the ground, 
affording a fine opportunity for measurements. The first cut was nine feet 
SECTION FROM A CATALPA SPECIOSA TREE EXHIBITED AT LOUISIANA PURCHASE 
EXPOSITION, 1904. THE ANNUAL GROWTHS ARE PLAINLY SHOWN AND 
COMPARED WITH THE TWELVE-INCH RULE. DIAMETER OF 
TREE, 22 INCHES; AGE, 14 YEARS 
long and measured sixteen inches at butt, ten and 2 half inches at the top. 
The second cut eight feet long measured ten and a half inches at large 
end and nine and a half at the top, or small end. The third = cut 
measured six inches at top end. Annular rings showed this tree to 
have been planted some fifteen years. The first two cuts would make 
good cross-ties, or the entire tree would make a good twenty-five-foot pole. 
It was planted in a single row, bordering a cultivated field. The trees in this 
row were planted eight feet apart, had no cultivation, and were never cut 
back in order to induce straight, upright growth, as is recommended by all 
authorities. The tree which had been felled was not an unusual specimen. 
Hundreds of others just as good, and some better, could have been selected 
