The Hardy Catalpa 



349 



From Wm. L. Hall, Q. S. Department of Agriculture 



Posts from the Planting of 1890, Yagg}' Plantation 



Bureau of Forestry has made a special 

 study of the Hardy Catalpa, and re- 

 cently published an interesting little 

 book describing the tree, by Mr Wil- 

 liam L. Hall. The following para- 

 graphs are an abstract of the report : * 

 Forest planting on the prairies west 

 of the Mississippi River began with the 

 earliest settlers. To plant trees for pro- 

 tection from sun and wind seemed one 

 of the first and most important things 

 to be done, and with the building of a 

 house and the breaking up of a garden 

 patch it formed a part of the settler's 

 first summer's work. Each year there- 

 after, as time and means permitted, the 

 plantation was increased. Scarcely a 

 decade passed before extensive groves 

 for the general purposes of shelter and 

 ornament appeared on almost every 

 farm. The success of these proved that 



* The Hardy Catalpa By William L. Hall, 

 Superintendent of Tree Planting. With 30 

 full-page plates. Bureau of Forestry, TJ. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 37. 



the want of the natural forest could in 

 part be supplied by planted timber. 



The growing of forest trees for other 

 farm needs, such as fuel, posts, and 

 poles, was also practiced by many set- 

 tlers, for the prices of these materials 

 were extremely high in the districts far 

 from the natural forest. The idea of 

 growing posts and poles to sell, how- 

 ever, did not meet with approval for a 

 number of years. It was too long an 

 investment to be attractive in a country 

 just settled. About twenty-five years 

 ago a few men, impressed with the pre- 

 vailing high prices of such materials 

 and believing it possible to produce them 

 in plantations within fifteen or twenty 

 years, began to plant timber as an in- 

 vestment. Their example encouraged 

 others to plant for the same purpose, 

 and as a result of the work there are 

 now in the Middle West quite a large 

 number of commercial plantations, in 

 some of which the marketing of products 

 has already begun. 



