THE BALD CYPRESS 



579 



after the trees are felled is well known. It is decidedly 

 interesting to know that cypress can produce thrifty 

 sprouts, not only from the stumps of young trees, but 

 also from the stumps of trees up to 180 to 200 years of 

 age. This peculiarity of cypress is of considerable com- 

 mercial value, since vigorous trees 10 to 14 inches in 

 diameter, cut during the period when active growth has 

 ceased, nearly always are able to send up strong sprouts 

 that make much more rapid growth than seedlings. In 

 many localities it is the practice of the loggers to girdle 

 the cypress trees a year prior to felling them so that 



AN OLD CYPRESS 



The prevailing size of mature trees in ordinary situations is somewhere about 

 3 to 5 feet in diameter at breast height (4K feet above the ground) by from 100 

 to 120 feet in height. In the highly acid soils of ponds and poorly drained, flat 

 swamps.the average maximum size is about 2 feet in diameter by from so to 70 

 feet in height. The largest trees scattered on ordinary sites are 7 to 8 feet in 

 diameter. The maximum diameter for cypress is about 12 feet measured at 

 breast height. Maximum heights of from 140 to ISO feet are occasionally 

 reached. The trunks of the trees of largest diameters are usually hollow at the 

 base and more or less broken at the top. Cypress attains so great an age that 

 the life periods of virgin stands are better spoken of in terms of centuries than 

 decades. Trees from 400 to 600 years old are very common , and those from 600 to 

 900 years are scattered through the South . The age attained seems to be limited 

 chiefly by the ability of the tree to resist the attacks of fungi and force of the 

 wind. Old trees die backward or downward during a period usually of one to 

 three or four centuries. The last stage is usually a hollow cylinder consisting 

 of sapwood from which the heart has been removed by decay. It is not improb- 

 able that the ages of these hollow veteran cypresses range from 1000 to 2000 

 years. 



the logs will float. In such cases the stumps do not pro- 

 duce sprouts. 



The home of the cypress tree is naturally in swamps, 

 ponds and other poorly drained soils. Practically all of 

 the native cypress forests are found at elevations of less 

 than 100 feet above sea level. The upper limit of its 

 growth in the Mississippi Valley is at an elevation of 

 about 500 feet, but on the Edwards Plateau of Texas it 



is found bordering the deep hollows at elevations of 

 1000 to 1750 feet. Apparently the chief demand for 

 the successful growth of the cypress is an abundance of 

 soil moisture. It cannot grow in poor, very dry, sandy 

 soils, but in muck, clay or the finer sands, where moisture 

 is abundant and fairly permanent, cypress makes good 

 growth. In ponds where water remains stagnant through- 

 out the entire year the cypress grows very slowly and 



PARK GROWN CYPRESS 



Cypress is readily grown from seed and is well adapted to nursery practice. 

 By many authorities it is considered one of the most beautiful and ornamental 

 trees for park planting, for which it has been used quite widely over the eastern 

 and central portions of the United States. Although cypress has not been 

 raised in forest plantations on a large commercial scale, experience thus far 

 points to the commercial success of forest planting, under certain conditions, 

 in the deeper and fresher soils. The rate of growth of individual cypress trees 

 is closely comparable to that of the more rapid hardwoods. Under cultivation, 

 trees grow from 18 to 24 feet in height in the first 10 years. The best height 

 growth in Ohio, for example, has been 3 feet annually for a few years. In fresh 

 or moist soil west of Columbus, some cypress trees are growing 30 inches a year 

 in height. In dry situations, such as eroded clay hillsides and in loose gravelly 

 soils, growth is less than a foot a year. In the District of Columbia cypresses 

 SO years old are from 20 to 30 inches in diameter by 65 to 84 feet in height, 

 excelling all associated species in rate of height growth. Measurements on 

 growth in forest plantations are not available, but observations show a good 

 development of cypress in height and diameter when properly spaced in planted 

 stands. 



does not reach large size. Such trees are known as 

 " pond " cypress. Although we think of cypress as a 

 tree of the South, its natural growth extends into a region 

 where the winters are fairly severe and individual trees 

 planted as far north as Massachusetts and Michigan show 

 that it will live where the temperature falls to 20 degrees 

 below zero (F.). 



Bald cypress lives to a great age. In the virgin forest, 

 trees 400 to 600 years old are numerous, and old gray- 

 beards from 750 to 1200 years of age are not difficult 

 to find. These old native trees grow very slowly, but 



