50 BULLETIN 272, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



The possibilities of cypress as a tree of large commercial impor- 

 tance under forest management in the future depends very largely 

 on the extent to which denuded swamp lands can be utilized. Obvi- 

 ously, these lands if drained would be very valuable for agricultural 

 use. Therefore a discussion of the probability of the lands being suc- 

 cessfully adapted to agriculture is a prerequisite to the consideration 

 of the advantages, aim, and methods of forest management. 



FUTURE UTILIZATION OF CYPRESS LANDS. 



AREA AND OWNERSHIP OF PERMANENT SWAMP LANDS. 



Of the various classes of swamp lands requiring drainage to fit 

 them for profitable cultivation, cypress occupies the extreme class 

 known as "permanent" swamps. These lands are never fit for culti- 

 vation in their natural state, even during the most favorable seasons, 

 and those portions that may be grazed afford forage of very uncer- 

 tain value. So far as revenue is concerned, the lands may be con- 

 sidered as unproductive, except for the growth of timber. The total 

 area of such permanent swamp land in 10 of the States where 

 cypress occurs is approximately 42,440,000 acres, distributed as 

 shown in Table 14: 



Table 14. — Permanent swamp area in 10 of the most important cypress producing States. 1 



State. 



Area. 



State. 



Area. 





Acres. 

 18,000,000 

 9,000,000 

 5,200,000 

 3,000,000 

 1,500,000 

 1,240,000 

 1,000,000 



Georgia 



A ores. 

 1,000,000 

 1,000,000 

 900,000 









Mississippi 





600,000 





Total 





2 42,440,000 











1 U. S. Senate Document 443, Sixtieth Congress, first session, "Swamp Lands of the United States," 

 prepared by the Office of Experiment Stations, Department of Agriculture. 



2 The permanent swamp lands of Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana 

 where cypress occurs contain about 1,000,000 acres. 



It is interesting to note that the area shown in Table 14, much of 

 which is natural cypress land, 1 comprises about 80 per cent of the 

 lands classed as "permanent swamp" and 49 per cent of the entire 

 wet land of all classes in the United States. 



All the more valuable southern swamp lands have passed into pri- 

 vate ownership. By act of Congress, September 28, 1850, and subse- 

 quent enactments, all swamp lands were granted to the various States 

 in which they occurred. For the most part these were in turn sold by 

 the States to private owners. Federal swamp land, unsurveyed and 

 therefore unclaimed by the States, is of exceedingly small area. 



1 In Florida a larger proportion of the area included is nonforested or everglade land. 



