THE GUM AND CYPRESS SWAMPS. 173 



other desired species, can be introduced gradually beneath such 

 breaks in the cover as are occasioned from time to time bv wind- 

 falls or by culling. 



If the underplanting is done by seeding, and where acorns are 

 abundant or can be cheaply obtained this is the preferable way, 

 being less expensive than raising young plants in nursery rows and 

 then transplanting, the acorns should be gathered in the autumn, as 

 soon as they have fallen ; if they are to be kept for spring plant- 

 ing they should be deeply packed in fresh sand on the north side 

 of a barn or some other cool situation. If the acorns of the chest- 

 nut oak are allowed to lie on the ground too long after falling, 

 particularly if the weather is moist and warm, a great part of 

 them will have begun to sprout and then cannot well be kept over 

 winter. The acorns of this oak are more difficult to keep over 

 winter than those of any other, and they retain their germinative 

 power for the shortest time. For these reasons it may be advisa- 

 ble to sow in the autumn, though some of the acorns may be car- 

 ried off by squirrels and mice, and there is a possibility that such 

 as do not sprout and take root in the autumn, as most of them, 

 however, will, may be carried off by high-water. 



The oak flats and the narrow alluvial bottoms are the only 

 lands in the coastal plain region which are capable of producing 

 a growth of large-sized broad-leaf trees, and for this reason they 

 assume a greater impoitance than their limited area would other- 

 wise seem to justify. Whatever in the way of yellow poplar or 

 oak timber suitable for saw-logs, or of hickory for mechanical 

 purposes, is to be grown in the coastal plain region must come 

 either from the oak flats or the alluvial bottoms. 



THE GUM AND CYPRESS SWAMPS. 



The gum and cypress occupy the deepest parts of nearly all the 

 swamps which have a sufficiently porous soil to permit the pene- 

 tration of the deeply seated cypress roots and which are not sub- 

 ject to drying out in the late summer ; and even though the sur- 

 face may be very dry in dry seasons, if the subsoil be well watered 

 and porous, these trees may still flourish. (Plate XXI.) 



