UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



js\Jy^?<mru 



ULLETIN No. 272 



Contribution from the Forest Service 

 HENRY S. GRAVES, Forester 



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Washington, D. C. 



September 27, 1915 



THE SOUTHERN CYPRESS. 1 



By Wilbur R. Mattoon, Forest Examiner. 



CONTENTS. 



Importance 1 



Geographical and commercial range 2 



Present supply and annual cut 3 



Properties of the wood 6 



Uses 10 



Cypress lumbering 11 



Markets and prices 17 



Stumpage 18 



Life history of the tree 19 



Botanical forms 19 



Occurrence 20 



Age, size, form, bark, leaves 2,3, 24 



Root system 24 



Reproduction 29 



Climate and soil 34 



Injury 36 



Life history of the tree — Continued. 



Growth 



Cypress stands 



Pure stands 



Mixed stands 



Yield 



Forest management 



Utilization of cypress lands 



Aim and method of management. 



Profitableness of management 



Treatment of virgin stands 



Cut-over cypress areas 



Care of young stands 



Planting and sowing cypress 



Appendix. 



39 

 46 

 46 

 46 

 48 

 SO 

 50 

 54 

 54 

 CO 

 62 

 C2 

 64 

 70 

 Volume and taper tables 70-74 



IMPORTANCE. 



In the amount of lumber produced in 1913 cypress ranked sixth 

 of the conifers or softwoods. On account of the durability of the 

 heart wood and its moderate softness, which makes it easily worked, 

 cypress is a wood of high intrinsic value. Cypress trees not un- 

 commonly reach an age of over a thousand years, a height of from 

 120 bo 130 feet, and a diameter above the basal swell of from 8 to 

 10 feet. Cypress is very persistent in growth, and is one of the few 

 conifers which successfully sprouts from the stump. 



Cypress is restricted in its natural occurrence to deep, rich swamp 

 lands. The problem of bringing it under forest management is there- 

 fore intimately related to Mint of reclaiming swamp land on an ex- 

 tensive seule by drainage. Though preeminently a tree of the swamp, 

 when planted it thrives in as wide a range of climate and soil as 



• Southern cypress (Tazodium dinlichum Wen.;, of the southeastern United States is known among 

 botanist:* as "i.:i)ri" cyprew because la contra I to mo I conifei , which are evergreen, It sheds Its leaves 

 annually. 



96612*— Bull. 272—15 1 



