Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-12-19
TIMBER GROWING.

AN Address delivered by H. c. Rogers,
Merchandising, Ohio, before the An
nual Forestry Society's Meeting at
Columbus. Ohio. in January, l905.l
Those Of us, who take enough interest
in forestry to come to this meeting know
the value of trees and the necessity for
planting them. The vital question is how
to get the farmers and land holders to
see that necessity. | shall try and out
line few Of the ways that seem to me
practical and likely to be effective.
Convince the average farmer and land
holder that part Of his land devoted to
timber growing will produce him larger
and surer income than he can make out
Of it by ordinary farming operations, and
he will be interested enough to mvesti-
gate. But how shall we convince the
farmer that timber growing will be profit
able? In the first place before you try
to convince a man Of fact be sure Of
the fact yourself. Perhaps can better
illustrate by telling you how | became IN
terested in timber growing and how. at
ter investigating | was satisfied that moth
ing would pay me so much as to plant
part Of my land in trees.
am financially interested ID the tele-
phone business, or two or three years ago
my attention was called to the fact that
our present supply Of telephone poles
would be exhausted in ten or twelve years,
and the question at once came to my
mind. can we grow anything suitable for
telephone use and grow it quickly enough
to make profitable use Of our high pric-
ed land here in Ohio. Only three kinds
Of trees seemed to be available: they
were the Black Locust, Usage Orange
and Catalpa Speciosa. Careful invesh-
cation convinced me that the Catalpa was
the only one of the three kinds suitable
for telephone pole use, and night here let
me say believe that "Catalpa Speciosa"
trees and wood have more real value
and wider range Of use than any other
tree we can grow. Briefly, some Of the
reasons for its great value are as follows:
Its great durability in the soil where used
for fence posts, telephone poles, or any
use in the ground. The exhibition Of
Catalpa wood at the Worlds Fair at St.
Louis, demonstrated that no American
wood. possibly excepting Usage Orange.
was so resistant to decay. The factthat
it does not season check, nor get so hard
as to make it almost impossible to drive
nails or staples into it, easily give it first
rank as post timber. Its Eghhess and
strength, together with the fact that it
readily takes high degree Of polish in
its natural wood finish, surely ought to
give it very front rank among Amer
can woods. After finding where there
were Catalpa groves growing Of sufhci-
ent age to Judge Of results, visited those
groves, studied the conditions under
which they had grown and measured the
trees so as to know what they had actu-
ally made and then decided whether it
would be profitable to grow trees on my
high priced land. There are but few
plantations Of Catalpa trees to be found
that were planted and grown under con-
ditons that would produce maximum re-
suits; in fact | have not found a single
grose over ten years Of age that has
been what would call mtelligently man.
aged so as to get the greatest returns.
The best example have found is a grove
oftwo acres, twenty years of age, grow
ing IN Central Indiana. | will give you
short sketch Of what it has made
This grove was planted with the tree:
five feet, eight inches apart each way;
and is growing on thin white soil. The
old gentleman, who owns the farm, told
me that twenty years ago when he plant.
ed the trees, he selected this spot, be-
cause it had been worn out until il
would neither raise com nor wheai
pro6tably yet these trees have grown to
a height Of from forty to fifty feet. very
straight and symmetrical and measure
from FIVE to thirteen inches in diameter.
Tn. interior trees mostly measured from
FIVE to eight inches in diameter. while the
outside row was from eight to thirteen
inches IN diameter, thus showing most
clearly the effects Of crowding.
My investigations have convinced me
that it will pay US to plant part Of oul
best land to trees with the certainty Of i
producing greater returns than could BIZ
expected from ordinary farming. A
great many men will say we can't aGorc
to wait so long for returns from our land
On good soil. eight years Will grow the
trees large enough to make two fence
posts to each Tree. If planted one thou.,
and trees to the acre. three-fourths d
them will need to be thinned out to give
the remaining trees sufficient room L
grow to larger SIZE. and the posts from
such thinning should be worth at leas
two hundred dollars per acre, and seve.