The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-05-12
CONGRESSMAN TAYLOR
WRITES AN EXPLANATION

Washington, D. c., May s, 1921.
Hon. C. T. Rawalt,
Gunnison, Colorado.
Dear Friend Rawalt:
Your favor of the first inst regard
ing the cottonwood tree nuisance, just
received, and in reply will say that
many years ago when was in the
State Senate. tried to find some way
of abating that nuisance. My home
town of Glenwood Springs is, as you
know, planted throughout with cot
tonwood trees.
I heard that the City of Pueblo was
trying the experiment of boring holes
in the trees and then plugging up the
holes, and some of the city officials
reported that they were having some
little success in that way. So we
tried it on few trees in Glenwood
Springs and some newspapers quoted
me as saying that it was success. I
never said that; but did say that we
were trying the experiment. got
good deal of notoriety from the
matter that never expected or raer-
tied.
We bored two-inch auger holes into
the center of the trees and plugged
up the holes, and we also experiment
ed by pruning the trees down a great
deal, and by cutting off the tops of
the trees, and thereby not only re-
duce the cotton bearing area of the
trees fifty per cent or more, by cut
ting off the limbs that produced the
cotton, but also to that extent de-
pleted the tree of sap and thereby re-
duced the production of cotton to
that extent. In that way the amount
of cotton produced can, of course, be
reduced, think, fully sixty per cent.
But it does not permanently prevent
the trees from producing cotton.
They still bear some, and as they
grow out new limbs, and tops, in later
years they again increase the produc-
tion. So that these remedies are
merely temporary, as we'll as a ques-
tion as to whether or not the reduc-
tion of cotton to that extent, is worth
the expense and bother of pruning
and topping off the trees.
l have, just last week, taken the
matter up here with the Tree Branch
of the Bureau of Plant Industry in
the Agricultural Department, as well
as with the Forest Service tree ex-
perts, and have had quite little con-
ference with both of those Depart
ments, and understand that they
agree with the above statements, that
the quantity of cotton produced can
be greatly reduced by cutting and
close pruning and trimming, especial
ly if you cut the tops of the trees
off, and all of the big limbs down to
where they are from two to four
inches thick. But they also agree
with the statement of the State Ag-
ricultural College at Fort Collins,
that the only sure method of COM
pletely and permanently eliminating
the cotton nuisance is by cutting
down the trees, and replanting with
young trees that are not cotton bear
ing, if you can ascertain some way
of learning that fact before you re-
plant them.
We are gradually trying to cut
down most of those cotton bearing
trees in Glenwood Springs. But in
many cases there will be possibly a
dozen cotton-bearing trees right along
together in block and then a dozen
more nearly all together in the next
block that are not cotton-bearing. So
often by cutting out all the cotton
bearing trees it disfigures the beauty
of the city, and discriminates against
some citizens, and this has necessitat-
ed our trying to save some of those
cotton-bearing trees by topping and
pruning. cannot say that the bor-
ing alone has any special merit
towards appreciably reducing the pro-
duction of cotton, although I have
always thought the boring several
times of two or three of the large
trees in front of my residence in
Glenwood Springs did somewhat re-
duce the cotton. At least they did
not bear as much cotton for three or
four years afterwards. But after the
holes growed over and healed up and
the pruned limbs had grown out
again, they bore nearly as much cot
ton as ever.
Trusting the above suggestions may
be of some interest to you, I remain
as ever,
Very cordially yours,
EDWARD T. TAYLOR.
P. S.-Regarding the tariff on pa
per, thoroughly coincide with you.
No one can tell what course Congress