FORESTRY WORKERS OF LOUISIANA 

 Col. H. P. Gamble, Secretary Louisiana Conservation Commission (page 19) 



forest trees, on account of its great size, 

 peculiar habitat, and ancient lineage, 

 for it is a representative of a type of 

 vegetation, abundant in prehistoric 

 times, but now only represented by the 

 bald cypress of our Gulf states and the 

 Mexican cypress. 



The wood is believed to be the ancient 

 gopher-wood of which the ark of Noah 

 was built, and pieces of timber of the 

 same wood removed from St. Peter's 

 Cathedral in Rome to give place to brass 

 columns were found to be in a state 

 of perfect preservation after having 

 been in place for more than 1,100 years. 

 But our cypress, like our pine, is fast 



disappearing, and it will be a hard mat- 

 ter to replace this valuable timber. We 

 have many other valuable woods in our 

 state, such as gum, which can be used 

 for furniture, boxes, plow slides, barrel 

 headings, ceiling, and other inside uses. 

 Cottonwood is another timber which 

 has late.lv become very valuable and its 

 lumber is almost as much sought after, 

 in certain sections, for barrel material, 

 box wood, and other case purposes, as 

 the gum. At one time in Louisiana our 

 cottonwood was practically given away 

 by our planters to make room for cul- 

 tivation, but its numerous uses here 

 lately have made it very valuable, and 



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