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AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood is light to dark 

 brown, the sapwood nearly white. At one time specimens of the wood 

 in the markets of the world were known as black or white cypress, 

 according as they sank or floated. Much of the dark cypress wood is 

 now known as black cypress in the foreign markets, where it is employ- 

 ed chiefly for tank and vat building. Individual specimens of the wood 

 in some localities are tinted in a variety of shades and some of the natural 

 designs are extremely beautiful. 



The wood is reputed to be among the most durable in this country 

 when exposed to soil and weather. Some of it deserves that reputation, 

 but other does not. Well-authenticated cases are cited where cypress 

 has remained sound many years in some instance a hundred or more 

 when subjected to alternate dampness and dryness. Such conditions 

 afford severe tests. In other cases cypress has been known to decay as 

 quickly as pine. 



Historical cases from the old world are sometimes cited to show the 

 wonderful lasting properties of cypress. Doors and statues, exposed 

 more or less to weather, are said to have stood many centuries. The 

 evidence has little value as far as this wood is concerned. In the first 

 place, the long records claimed are subjects for suspicion; and in the 

 second place, it was not the American cypress that was used and 

 probably no cypress but the cedar of Lebanon. 



Sound cypress logs have been dug from deep excavations near New 

 Orleans, and geologists believe they had lain there 30,000 years. That 

 would be a telling testament to endurance were it not that any other 

 wood completely out of reach of air would last as long. 



The estimated stand of cypress in the South is about 20,000,000,000 

 feet. The annual cut, including shingles, exceeds 1,000,000,000 feet. New 

 growth is not coming on. The traveller through the South occasionally 

 sees a small clump of little cypresses, but such are few and far between. 

 It was formerly quite generally believed that cypress in deep swamps, 

 where old and venerable stands are found, was not reproducing, and that 

 no little trees were to be seen. It was argued from this, that some 

 climatic or geographic change had taken place, and that the present 

 stand of cypress would be the last of its race. More careful investigation, 

 however, has shown that the former belief was erroneous. Seedling 

 cypresses are found occasionally in the deepest swamps. Probably 

 cypress which has not been disturbed by man is reproducing as well now 

 as at any time in the past. The tree lives three or four centuries, and if 

 it leaves one seedling to take its place it has done its part toward per- 

 petuating the species. Fire, the mortal enemy of forests, seldom hurts 

 cypress, because the undergrowth is not dry enough to burn. 



