1878 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
181 
The Catalpa and Its Uses. 
As indicated in an article by Prof. C. S. Sargent, 
on p. 143, last month, the Catalpa is likely to re¬ 
ceive much more attention at the hands of tree- 
planters than heretofore. One would suppose that 
a tree so widely planted for ornament would be 
generally known, yet there is scarcely any tree that 
the catalpa.— (Catalpa bignonioides. 
we are more frequently asked to name from speci¬ 
mens sent, than this. It is essentially a southern and 
south-western species, finding its northern limit in 
Southern Illinois and Indiana, but cultivated much 
farther northward. In exposed situations in nor¬ 
thern localities, the tree is not seen at its best; the 
head is often very irregular from injury in severe 
winters, or the breaking of the branches by violent 
storms, and when naked is anything but an elegant 
object. When the abundant leaves appear, these 
deformities are hidden, and the whole aspect is 
changed. The long-petioled leaves, either opposite, 
or three in a whorl, are large, heart-shaped, downy 
on the under side, and of a peculiar shade of green. 
The flowers appear in June and July in large open 
panicles, often a foot long, and are produced in such 
profusion that a specimen in full-bloom is a most 
pleasing sight. The individual flowers are about 
an inch long, elongated bell-shaped, with a wavy 
5-lobed border, and somewhat two-iipped ; they are 
white, and generally tinged with violet, and spotted 
within with yellow and purple dots. The flowers 
are succeeded by long, slender, cylindrical pods, 
often afoot, or more, long, which hang until spring, 
and are so conspicuous, especially after the leaves 
have fallen, that in some localities the tree is known 
as the “Indian Bean.” The pod is divided length¬ 
wise by a partition, forming two cells, which con¬ 
tain numerous very flat seeds, having on each side 
a wing, which is much cut, and appears like a fringe. 
Boys often amuse themselves with the pods as sub¬ 
stitutes for cigars, the cottony wings to the seeds 
giving an abundant, and probably innocent smoke. 
As an ornamental tree, the Catalpa, with many 
merits, has some faults. As already mentioned, its 
naked branches are unsightly, and the leaves are 
among the latest to appear, while they drop with 
the very first frosts. Its bark, when wounded or 
cut in the spring, is said to emit a very offensive 
odor. The honey col¬ 
lected from its flowers 
is said to be poisonous, 
though we have seen 
no direct evidence up¬ 
on this point. The name, 
Catalpa, is supposed to 
be derived from the In¬ 
dians ; it was originally 
described by Walter as 
C. bignonioides, from the 
resemblance of its flow¬ 
ers to those of the Big- 
nonia or Trumpet-creep¬ 
ers ; later botanists have 
called it C. cordifolia 
and C. syringafolia, but 
these, according to the 
rules, should give place 
to the older name. It 
belongs to the Bigno- 
nia Family. Our prin¬ 
cipal reason for briefly 
describing the Catalpa, 
is on account of its 
economic importance. 
In most works on trees, 
its timber is briefly men¬ 
tioned as “ lasting,” 
though Mr. Arthur Bry¬ 
ant in his work gives 
more importance to this 
quality, stating that he 
is assured that posts 
“ have stood for 40 
years without the ap¬ 
pearance of decay,” and 
advises its cultivation 
“to a limited extent.” 
Probably the earliest 
advocate of the Catalpa 
was General Harrison 
(afterwards President), 
who, in an agricultural 
address at Carthage, O., 
in 1825, advised farmers 
to cultivate it on ac¬ 
count of its great dura- 
especially as to durability when exposed to the 
weather, or in contact with the earth. As to climate, 
Mr. Foster ihinks that the common kind can not be 
depended upon north of St. Louis, while the variety 
just mentioned has endured the severest winters of 
Iowa and Illinois without the least injury, That a 
variety in the color of the flowers, leaves, or fruit 
of a plant, is often accompanied by a difference in 
hardiness, and that some varieties are more hardy 
bility for posts, etc. 
He, when Governor of what was then the North 
West Territory, found Catalpa pickets in the 
old French stockade at Vincennes, which were 
yet sound, though they must have been in place 
for a century or more. Later, Doctor Warder 
and others have given testimony as to its value. 
Mr. E. E. Barney, of Dayton, Ohio, has, as men¬ 
tioned last month, done excellent service in collect¬ 
ing the scattered testimony as to the value of the 
timber of the Catalpa, adding to it important notes 
of his own, and presenting the whole in a pamphlet. 
Mr. Barney calls attention to the fact, first pointed 
out by Doct. Haines, of Dayton, that there are two 
varieties of the Catalpa; one blooms two weeks 
earlier than the other, has larger flowers, which are 
nearly pure white, with larger, longer, and few'er 
seed pods. Mr. Suel Foster, a well known horti¬ 
culturist of Muscatine, Iowa, has also noticed this 
difference, and found the early-flowering form to 
endure a winter which killed the ordinary kind. He 
proposes to call this form “the hardy," and the 
later blooming “ the common ” Catalpa. Those who 
contemplate tree-planting will do well to procure 
the pamphlet referred to (which Mr. Barney gener¬ 
ously supplies for two 3c. stamps), as we can here 
only briefly sum up the evidence there presented. 
The valuable qualities of the tree are : ease of 
propagation ; adaptability to various soils; rapid 
growth ; freedom, so far as known, from the at¬ 
tacks of insects, and the great value of its timber, 
the slender-leaved lily. —{See next page.) 
than the type, is well known to cultivators, and is 
by no means peculiar to the Catalpa. The seeds 
are sown in spring in nursery rows, thinned to 
about a foot, and transplanted when one or two 
years old, as may be most convenient. In the plan¬ 
tation they are set four feet apart each way ; close 
planting is necessary to insure a straight, clean 
trunk. In 12 years, each alternate row may be cut 
out for telegraph poles or fence-posts, and in about 
12 years more the remaining trees, in good soil, will 
make six railroad ties each. Mr. Barney estimates 
that at the present prices, a plantation of Catalpa 
will make a return of §25 per acre for each year of 
the whole time that the trees occupy the ground. 
Those who have only seen isolated and sc’.aggy 
specimens, can have little idea of the Catalpa as a 
forest tree ; in favorable localities it has reached a 
diameter of three and even four feet, with a clean 
trunk of 50 feet, without a branch. The trunk of 
this tree is preferred in the south-west for making 
dug-out canoes, as they neither crack nor decay. 
The great durability of the timber seems to be well 
established, and several instances are cited in which 
posts set in the ground, or logs laying upon it, have 
been exposed from 70 to 100 years without percepti¬ 
ble decay. The great demand for the timber will 
be for railroad ties ; for this use it should resist the 
crushing effect of great weight, as well as decay, 
and should also be able to hold the spikes firmly; 
so far as tried, the Catalpa ties have proved, whei 
