Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 281]

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275 (Madura aurantica.) Two-year-old seedlings were planted two by four feet apart in the spring of 1871, After the end of the first season they were two feet high, all living and promising. The location was well adapted to the habits of the tree except that the Catalpa crowded upon them on one side and Apple trees upon the other. The soil is good corn land, not usually too wet for early planting. In 1876 (six seasons' growth) these trees averaged thirteen feet six inches high, and during the last year had gained from three to four feet. Taking into account the well-known value of the wood, it then appeared, and was so stated in a report upon the plantation, that the Osage Orange gave every indication of standing first upon the list of timber trees. As a farm hedge plant its superiority had been fully established and single trees had often been observed to grow into valuable size with satisfactory rapidity. After the stems have a diameter of three inches they are highly prized for stakes, proving very strong and exceedingly durable. With increase in size the value likewise increases for posts, paving blocks, etc., and finally for various manufacturing purposes. No other wood serves as well for wagons. For turned handles and other purposes where fineness of gram, hardness and great strength are esteemed, the wood is especially valuable. Added to these uses is that of fuel. The Osage surpasses hickory and maple in this respect. With such characteristics, combined with rapidity of growth, adaptability to our soils and entire freedom from injurious insects, etc., there is little wonder that the species should take first rank among timber trees. But it is always easy to reach conclusions too soon. The later experience with this block in the experimental plantation is far from the anticipated results. About eight years after planting, the growth became much less rapid, and at this time the trees were slender, with long, straggling branches. In 1876 the average diameter of the stems near the ground was recorded as one and a half inches. In 1836 the average height is twenty-three feet, and the average circumference of stems thirteen inches. Compare this with the Larch, over thirty-three feet high and twentyfour inches circumference of trunk. But the Osage fails in another way; the trunk is neither straight nor symmetrical. The top is divided into long, slender branches, without a distinct leader, and crowding only makes the shoots still' longer and slimmer. Then, too—like the Elm and some others—the association in a close plantation seems to injure the development of the individual tree. If judiciously mixed with other kinds, it is quite likely that better results would be obtained, but so far as this experiment affords instruction the Osage planted in a mass by itself, cannot be said to to be highly promising for timber. The seedlings were at first set two by four feet apart, but were subsequently thinned to twice these distances each way. Cultivation was kept up the first four years, and the side branches were for a time pruned away, to facilitate passage along the rows. The trees are now (1886) very irregular in size, and probably as time

OSAGE ORANGE,