THE RED GUM 



643 



TUPELO GUM SLOUGH, CONGAREE RIVER 

 SOUTH CAROLINA 

 Tupelo gum, found in more or less large quantities 

 throughout the range of the red gum and cypress, is cut 

 to some extent from Virginia to the Gulf and westward 

 to Arkansas. Its best growth, however, is in the Gulf 

 States, and as a commercial timber tree it has reached 

 great importance only in the region about Mobile, Ala- 

 bama, and in southern and central Louisiana, where it is 

 cut with cypress. In the handling of cypress and the 

 associated tupelo several methods are in use, each adapted 

 to some particular locality. If the land is not too swampy 

 and has a firm foundation, a logging railroad can be 

 maintained and steam skidders used to snake the 

 logs with cables to the road and to load them with 

 bull hooks on the cars. Where the land is so low as 

 to be subject to practically continuous overflow the pull- 

 boat is generally used, and the logs are transported 

 to the mill by towboats. 



to lumber the red 

 gum forests in such 

 a way that the red 

 gum trees are pre- 

 served or occasional 

 seed trees left to re- 

 seed lands where close 

 cutting is practised. 

 Because of the expense 

 of logging, including 

 high freight rates and 

 increased costs of labor 

 and supplies, lumber- 

 men who cut red gum 

 operate on a very 

 limited margin of 

 profit. The result has 

 been wasteful logging 

 and destruction of 

 much young growth. 

 One operator recently 

 stated that under pres- 

 ent conditions only 22 

 per cent of the stand- 

 ing gum timber in Ar- 

 kansas, Louisiana and 

 Mississippi could be 

 manufactured profit- 



destroy much 

 young 

 growth. Hogs 

 are especially 

 destruc- 

 tive because 

 they eat the 

 seeds. 



P r e s - 

 ent conditions 

 do not war- 

 rant the plant- 

 i n g of red 

 gum for the 

 produc- 

 tion of lum- 

 ber on a com- 

 mercial basis. 

 The supply of 

 standing red 

 gum is large 

 and stumpage 

 prices are 

 low. Instead 

 of planting it 

 will be much 

 more profit- 

 able, and, 

 therefore, 

 better for- 

 estry practice, 



ably. Con- 

 siderable mer- 

 chant a bl e 

 lumber is 

 wasted in the 

 woods in high 

 stumps, top 

 logs and trees 

 which are 

 damaged but 

 too small to 

 carry to the 

 saw mill, that 

 would be 

 saved if prices 

 warranted 

 more careful 

 logging. Al- 

 though it is 

 not reason- 

 able to expect 

 lumbermen to 

 expend money 

 in conserva- 

 tive logging 

 where the 

 financial re- 

 turns do not 

 justify it, ex- 

 perience with 

 other species, 



SECOND-GROWTH RED GUM, ASH, COTTONWOOD, AND SYCAMORE, ON 

 HARDWOOD BOTTOMLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA 



Red gum grows in mixture with ash, cottonwood, and oak throughout the hardwood bottom- 

 lands of the South. These rich, alluvial bottoms are among the best natural farming lands 

 of the region. In the past the gum, having no marketable value, has been left standing after 

 logging, or, where the land has been cleared for farming, has been girdled and allowed to 

 rot, and then felled and burned as trash. Not only were the trees a total loss to the farmer, 

 but from their size and the labor required to handle them, they were so serious an obstruc- 

 tion as often to preclude the clearing of valuable land. In the sloughs and perpetual swamps 

 are large quantities of cypress and tupelo gum, and there is some black gum on the ridges. 

 The forest is, for the most part, dense and fairly even-aged. There is little young growth 

 beneath the older trees. Canebrakes are common and are very dense, the cane often reach- 

 ing a height of 20 feet. This cane, with the briers and rattans, makes a very heavy under- 

 growth, so that where it occurs no tree reproduction can take place. The result is that the 

 forest gradually becomes rather open in character. 



A LARGE RED GUM, RICHLAND COUNTY 

 SOUTH CAROLINA 



Red gum is perhaps the commonest timber tree in the 

 hardwood bottoms and drier swamps of the South. It is 

 found also to a considerable extent on the low ridges and 

 slopes of the southern Appalachians, but there it does not 

 reach merchantable value and is of little importance. 

 The hardwood bottoms are for the greater part overflow 

 land. The soil is alluvial and generally of great fertility, 

 and tree growth is for the most part extremely rapid. 

 These hardwood bottoms stretch along nearly all of the 

 Southern rivers on the coastal plain and in the Mississippi 

 Valley States. They are subject to heavy floods in the 

 winter and spring, for the rivers, rising among the moun- 

 tains, run swiftly until they reach the general plain level, 

 so that any increase in the volume of water is bound to 

 overflow the banks and spread out over the entire width 

 of the bordering swamp, often to a considerable depth. 

 These bottomlands vary considerably in width, but are 

 usually from 6 to 12 miles wide, and are bounded by the 

 sharp banks of the upland plain, the river meandering 

 through the swamp from one bank to the other. 



such as white pine, 

 birch or hard maple 

 would indicate that 

 lumbermen will be re- 

 paid for giving greater 

 consideration to the 

 second growth of red 

 gum. 



The red gum is a 

 superb tree for orna- 

 mental planting, rank- 

 ing with the most 

 beautiful of our East- 

 ern broad-leaf trees. It 

 appears to hold a higher 

 place in Europe as an 

 ornamental tree than it 

 does in America, but 

 this is probably due to 

 its wide natural distri- 

 bution here. It is 

 hardy as far north as 

 Massachusetts, is easily 

 handled, and grows 

 fairly rapidly. In the 

 South Carolina forests 

 its average growth is 

 100 feet in height and 



