Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-09-04

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION..
The law requires the college to teach
such branches of learning as are related
to agriculture and the mechanic arts, not
excluding other scientific and classical
studies, and including military tactics.
What branches are related to agriculture
and mechanic art-geology is an import
ant branch. and Il thorough course in bot
any should be required Chemistry
should occupy prominent place. There
should be chair of practical agriculture,
the duties of which should be the apphca
ion of the lessons taught in schools of
science to practical husbandry. The stu
lent should attend lectures on physics;
cheering should all be studied. No ag
ricultural college, however complete
otherwise, can meet the requirements OF
an agricultural education, without n
FARM, complete in all its appointments Of
field, garden, orchard, dairy, stock. barns.
poultry yards, etc., etc.
He advocated field labor for the agri-
cultural student. rs equally necessary in
/ his education as the dssections of the
medical student, or the laboratory work
Of the student of analytical chemistry,
and characterized the cry against it rs
senseless. He spoke of the expression,
"only a farmer" being often used in deris
ion, and that farming had not been classed
rs a profession, or placed on the high
plane its importance demands. 1t has
| been regarded simply as an art requiring
neither skill nor learning. For the rem
edy he would educate, educate, EDUCATE.
When the agricultural community shall
learn to appreciate the Importance, the
necessity of agricultural education. then,
md not till then, will agriculture receive
The consideration due to her, and take her
true position not only as IN art, but an
equal rank among the sciences. ...
AT the close of the address the presi-
dent announced that the subject of agri-
cultural colleges was open for discussion,
but no one rising to explain on that sub
iect, the president announced paper on
the
CATALPA TREE,
by L. Z. Barney, Esq, of Dayton, Ohio.
When he first was informed that the catal.
pa tree. which he had been familiar with
on the streets for thirty years, possessed,
to a remarkable degree, the resistance to
the process of decay, he thought its value
should be more generally known. He had
received letters from every state concern
ing it, owing to an article he had written,
and many millions of seeds will be sown
next year.
Some who had written of the catapa
had only seen it in Virginia, and had
described it from one to one and Il half
feet in diameter. In Indiana, southern
Illinois and Missouri the catalp pa attains a
size of three, three and half and occa-
slonally to four and u half feet in diane
ter, and fifty feet up to limb
Catalpa posts set by Gen. Harrison in
1903 were taken up q few years ago, and
were perfectly sound. The speaker gave
several instances of logs which had been
known and used us foot bridges across
streams, and others lying on the ground
which had probably lasted for hundred
years, and an instance where trees killed
in 1911 still stood sound. A gate post
set in 1880 was taken up in 1871, and wa,
found to be perfectly sound after ninet,
years in the ground. He cited MANY
other instances Of its remarkable resistance
to decay, and its consequent value for
fences, bridges, railway sleepers, etc., be
ing by far the most valuable of any known
wood, when in or in contact with the
ground, and gave several instances where
posts set forty years have been taken up
and again reset perfectly sound; and NJ
decayed catalpa logs are ever found in
the swamps. If catalpa is thus valuable
can it be generally cultivated? Non,
more easily-few Gs easily. 1t will grow
Nfrom cuttings of branches or roots, bu
most readily from the seed.
A prominent characteristic of the young
trees of two or four years old, is that they
show no sap wood, and such young lree'
will not rot in the ground like other youn.
timber, and he has seen them, no NOR,
than two or three inches in diameter
where they have been used twenty years
and are still sound. Catalpa wood is full
equal to white walnut or cork pine for in
side finish.
The next question was of its value II
railroad ties. The California Centru
railroad had planted a million trees t.
raise their own ties. The wood is tough
instead of brittle, as has been stated, an
will average with oak in toughness, an
j under compression shows less effect tina
u oak-pieces of the same size showing one
: eighth less compression than the oak.
u There are two varieties of catalp;
which bloom fully three weeks apart
i some authorities say four weeks-and til
). early blooming variety called the SpicioSt
~ will withstand frost up to forty degree
b. The later blooming variety will be MOI
easily killed.
}, Where will it grow? The river DO
Il toms which are overlooked at high watt
u seem to be its natural home, but he rea
y letters from gentlemen which assigned i
" '. best growth on sandy loan, raw clay, dee
II, ~ rich black loan, sandy uplands and worl
Is out Virginia soils. He thought it mo
~ valuable for general cultivation. for i
II value, and its rapid growth, for there
y no wood that dries so quickly, takes
y finer polish, or files better than this; al
le he would use the catalpa for the ent
g. structure OF passenger car, and the fe
!, of its usefulness is practically unlimite
~ At the close of the session the speak
u distributed specimens of the wood, and
r pamphlet describing it. He did not kno
~ whether it would grow in Massachusetts
80 but one gentleman had told him that
~ would withstand temperature of thirt
~ io four degrees below zero, without aflectil
AZ even its twigs.
IT, H. Mr.. Wetberell said it was in commt
Nc Nc growth in Massachusetts rs an orname
"a lal tree. Prof. Brewer said there we
i ~, trees in the city which had withstood t
AZ coolest weather they had known here.
~ The next paper was by Hon. B.
~ Northrop, secretary of the Board of Ed
VI cation of Connecticut, on the reclamati
70, e. of the barrens of New England In ope
n0 ing he referred to the efforts of Europea
in draining lakes. Here, where land is
6. plenty, it is not necessary to drain lax
but there is great deal of swamp la
~ which ought to be reclaimed. Much i
he been reclaimed on the sea coast, in n,
lot Jersey. Massachusetts and elsewhere. I
by practicabilty of retaining the sand b;
.rd rens of the Atlantic states is doubted,
ISIS most of them were once well wooded, a
ow nll may be again. Drifting sands in L
nd rope cover 7.O00,0 900 acres, of which 20
Ter 600 are in Gascony. These can all be
10. claimed by tree planting. In Fran
ed 100000 acres have been reclaimed in Il
be way. In this work the young trees
&c the shore had 10 be protected for til
ny by a line of palings. The cost of pl
ny lecting and planting the pines has sou
loi times been forty dollars an acre, but t