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FARMERS' REGISTER. 



JNo. 12 



The killing of the trees of the natural dwamp for- 

 est, and grubbing and removing the t-hrubs and 

 sniall trees, is comparatively but a light job. But 

 until the last of the gigantic cypresses so left yields 

 to the wind, and is prostrated, there is a yearly re- 

 curring labor required to remove the fallen trunks. 



The great size of the old cypress trees general- 

 ly, and of other trees also, but more rarely seen, is 

 beyond the expectation of any one who sees them 

 for the first time. Very many are five leet through 

 the body at 4 to G ihe\ from the ground, and would 

 carry a diameter of ii^ to 4 leet for 40 to 60 feet, 

 the lengih of their trunks. Some cy()ress trees are 

 much larger than these sizes. One in the field I 

 was told was 30 feet in circumference, as liigh as 

 the measurement could be conveniently made. 

 The age to which they live, and their durability 

 after death, are not less remarkable than their 

 size. Mr. Collins has counted on the sawed end 

 of a cypress log, more than 800 rings of the grain, 

 showing as many years of growth ; and as this 

 and others that he has coimted were by no means 

 of largest size, he supposes that their ordinary and 

 natural term of life must be 1000 years at least. 

 But this estimate does not go back to the earliest 

 existence of some of the dead trees, by many cen- 

 turies. There has been at least one generation of 

 cypress trees which lived and died here before the 

 oldest of" these now standing sprang up. Of 

 this fact 1 was shown several sulBcient prools, of 

 which I will state ihe case proving the most an- 

 cient date. A trunk of a cypress, long dead, but 

 still standing firmly in the cultivated ground, had 

 been found by measurement to be 33 feet in cir- 

 cumlerence at 3 feet above the present surface of 

 the ground. The surface probably has been low- 

 ered nearly as much as (i^om the mark of measur- 

 ment stated ; and this has exposed the upper parts 

 of the roots of the tree, and also the before buried 

 body of another prostrate and large cypress, over 

 which the trunk of the standing tree had grown. 

 The visible wood of Ihe buried tree is still sound. 

 These " ground logs," as they are called, are so 

 numerous under the swamp soil, that it would 

 seem as if the trunks of the more ancient forest, 

 thus buried, were as many as the trees now 

 standing above them. 



The whole of the reclaimed land was, when 

 taken into cultivation, of what is called " cypress 

 and gum swamp." The soil to the depth of 2| or 

 3 feet, is very much like that of the newly reclaim- 

 ed tide-swamps of James river, and is as much 

 formed of vegetable materials. When new and 

 in a dry state, this will take fire, and burn to the 

 depth of 18 inches or more. But open and 

 " chafTy " as is this vegetable soil when first cul- 

 tivated, it produces very heavy crops olVorn. The 

 subsoil is of compact blueish clay, which becomes 

 friable and fertile soil by exposure; but for this 

 subsoil, the soil could not, as I think, be deemed a 

 permanent possession. But there is enough ele- 

 vation to spare several feet without injury in that 

 respect; and when the soil has rolled away, as it 

 does in time, and allowed deep ploughinir to bring 

 up the clay subsoil to the surface, a siill better, 

 and what I suppose will be a permanent soil, is 

 thereby foriTied. In the oldest cultivated parts, the 

 extent of this loss of soil and depression of level, 

 though greater there, cannot be measured or esti- 

 mated. But in the land cultivated this year lor 

 the first time, though drained long beforej the 



mark of the li)rmer surface can be fixed by the 

 dead trees and stumps whose roots are now so far 

 naked as to make it evident that the surlace is al- 

 ready two feet lower than Ibrmerly. Yet the ma- 

 terial of this soil, though rotten, is but little de- 

 composed ; and must lose much more in bulk be- 

 Ibre it is brought to the state of fine black mould, 

 like the land which has been brought under tillage 

 toMi years or more. The first diiches which are 

 (lug in a new piece will barely reach the subsoil ; 

 but with every year's cleaning out, a little more of it 

 is dug up, until most of the depih of the ditch is 

 in the subsoil. But tliis roiling away, which 

 would render entirely worihle.-s (as it does our 

 tide-swam[)s and marshes) any land which can- 

 not spare 3 fi^et of iis upper soil, is here produc- 

 tive of no greater evil ihan the necessity of contin- 

 uing to deepen the diiches, so as to keep their bot- 

 toms as much below the subsiding surface as at 

 first. This land will sometimes bring 12 barrels 

 of corn to the acre, and olten as much as 10 bar- 

 rels. This year the crop is verj' interior, owing to 

 the ravages of the chinch-bug, and Mr. Collins 

 supposes that it may not average more than 5 bar- 

 rels. From the size of the stalks I should have 

 guessed a much heavier product. The largest 

 crop which he has made in any one year was up- 

 wards ol" 8000 barrels. The land nearest the lake 

 is stirtest, (or seems to partake more of the nature 

 of the subsoil,) and is the most productive in 

 wheat. A particular portion has been known to 

 produce 37 bushels of wheat to the acre. Still 

 however, this crop has been so uncertain that Mr. 

 Collins has recently abandoned its culture, except 

 on a small scale, lor home consunipiioii. One 

 important cause of failure is the great growth of 

 partridge pea. Another plant which jrrow-; with 

 remarkable vigor is chick-weed, which I have not 

 seen atiundant any where else. Here, alicr corn, 

 it usually covers the whole surface with a thick 

 matted though low growth, and being a vine, 

 cliniis to aiui runs upon every thing within its 

 reach. It is now green and in full vitror. It 

 serves as excellent winter pasturage lor sheep. 



In a small part of the land, the trees had been 

 cleared away ai once, by being cut down, instead 

 of the ordinary slow and gradual course of "dead- 

 ing" them, or killing them by culling slightly 

 around, and then leltiiig them stand until over- 

 thrown by the progress of time and decay, aided 

 by the Ibrce of ihe wind in storms. The former 

 course lias been found to be very objectionable, 

 and is abandoned. The larsie cypress stumps will 

 ! remain to encumber the ground (or 50 if not 100 

 years, and more than any other tree, even if 

 equally durable, bei'ause of iheir large size. All 

 the roots of the cypress strike downward and 

 deeply, none running horizontally or nearly so. 

 Hence, even after the surface of the earth around 

 may have been lowered by decay a depth of two 

 leet, and of course as much of ihe Ibrmerly under- 

 irround parts of the cypress exposed, siill the 

 lowest part appears to a stranger to be not of root, 

 but of trunk, and merely shows a still greater en- 

 largement of the always broad pedestal to the 

 mighty column. Thus there are hut lew dead 

 cypresses, or their stumps, which do not spread 

 across the width of a five-loot ridge, and obstruct 

 one if not two water- fiirrows ; and many of the 

 largest extend across more than double that width, 

 and of course are serious impediraente »o the 



