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Show The Hardy Catalpa. Wm. L. Hall: Hardy Catalpa makes its best growth on very rich, deep soil. In the Farlington forest tha best returns on the best soil are almost five times as great as on the poorest. Grown in pure stand, the Catalpa should be protected from the wind by shelter belts of taller trees. A thin belt of cottonwood on. the windward side of a plantation will protect the edge trees and allow them to make much taller and straighter growth; even an Osage orange hedge, though not growing so tall, will generally protect them. It is much cheaper for the planter to grow his trees from seed than to buy them from a nursery, if a large number are to be planted. In the Munger plantation the cost of trees grown on the farm was 50 cents per thousand, while those from a nursery, nur-sery, with freight, cost about $4 per thousand. The cost of establishing the Yaggy plantation with home-grown trees, including cutting back and two years' tillage, was 11.70 per acre; the cost of establishing the Farlington forest by contract, Including the same amount of tillage, but no cutting back, was ?30 per acre. The proper spacing used In planting is from 4 by 4 to 4 by 6 feet The Catalpa planter who sets his trees thinly upon the ground will find them growing with spreading tops in spite of his most careful efforts to prevent it. The most important advantage of close planting for the Catalpa is that it kills the lateral branches while young. If the lateral branches die before be-fore becoming more than one-half inch in diameter, they are easily pushed off by the tree and do no damage; but if they reach a larger size than this, as they are sure to do in thin planting, they cling to the tree for years, even after they die. The development of large side branches unfits the Catalpa for practical use. While the stand may become so dense as finally to shade them out, they cling with such persistence per-sistence to the growing trunk that it can not cast them off. New wood is deposited around the dead branches, but does not unite with them. The holes thus formed lead straight into the heart of the tree, and the angle of the branches is just right to conduct con-duct water and germs of decay into the trunk. When the branch is finally released it leaves a great hole leading to the decayed heart of the tree. The tree thus ruined sooner or later breaks down a complete loss. Cutting back the young trees after two or three seasons, so as to develop a single sprout from t)e stamp, greatly hastens j height growtand prevents low side branches. |