366 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
(11th) That firm, straight telegraph poles may be secured in a dozen 
years. 
(12th) That it may be bent and retain its form. 
(13th) That for Cabinet work it does not shrink or warp. 
(14th) That fine book paper may be made from the wood. 
(isth) That it is straight and upright in habit of growth. 
(16th) While an oak tree requires twelve times as long to grow as its term 
of durability in the ground, Catalpa has lasted for ties twice as long as the period 
of growth. And for rails and fence posts, four times its period of growth. 
(17th) For mine timbers it has no superior for strength or durability, and 
may be quickly grown in mining regions. 
HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN THE CATALPA TREE. 
By profession I am a civil engineer, and in that capacity have had in charge 
several quite important railway and government surveys. It was to a large ex- 
tent this field of employment which has influenced me in choosing the practical or 
economic side of arboriculture, the researches into which subject my natural in- 
clinations led me in early life. 
The woods have ever had greater attractions for me than social functions or 
business employments, and what I have learned of trees and their influences upon 
nations and peoples has been from observations of nature in the great forests of 
North America, rather than from universities or from books. 
My studies of the trees and forests began while a boy at school, has con- 
tinued through three-score years, with the interest increasing as the years 
speed by. 
Forty vears ago I was collecting data for the purpose of presenting the sub- 
ject of forest planting, and in measuring many trees of known ages, in the vari- 
ous public parks and in private grounds throughout the United States, to deter- 
mine and tabulate the annual rate of growth of American forest trees, in order 
to encourage the preservation of some of our woodlands. 
While fully realizing the necessity for clearing away the major portion of the 
forests, in order that homes, farms and States could be made, and civilizatien 
replace savagery, yet it appealed to me that upon every farm there were portions 
which should remain in trees. My object was to present this thought for the 
farmer and land owner, that it was a good investment to retain a portion of the 
native forest. 
The effort proved futile. Americans could not wait for slow-growing trees 
to produce a value for their posterity. 
It was while I was earnestly pursuing this subject, about 1875, that I discov- 
ered the extremely rapid growth of Catalpa speciosa. There was little could be 
learned at that period, of its importance or uses, which came within my knowl- 
edge, yet T continued to make investigations, and some years later obtained the 
address of Mr. E. E. Barney, the venerable car manufacturer of Dayton, Ohio. 
Entering into a correspondence with Mr. Barney, a flood of information was sup- 
plied me. That gentleman sent me a copy of his pamphlet on the catalpa which 
contained the result of many years’ investigation. From this print I learned that 
many men of great prominence, during the early part of the nineteenth ecntury, 
