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



PLANTING AND SOWING CYPRESS. 



The establishment of young stands by sowing or planting will 

 probably always be of limited application in the case of cypress. 

 On a small scale, however, where it is desired to devote wet or moder- 

 ately moist lands to their highest form of timber production, the 

 planting of cypress in the Eastern and Southern States will unques- 

 tionably be practicable. Experiments and nursery practice seem 

 fully to establish the adaptability of cypress and the success of the 

 method. 



CYPRESS UNDER CULTIVATION. 



In many parks, lawns, and arboretums of both Europe and the 

 United States cypress has proved to be a hardy and rapid growing 

 tree. When grown in the open, its habit resembles that of eastern 

 red cedar, but it is somewhat more cylindrical. On accomit of its 

 light, feathery foliage and narrow pyramidal shape cypress is a tree of 

 distinctive appearance and striking beauty. (See PI. XII.) 



Commercially, cypress is being increasingly planted on account 

 of its good rate of growth and the value of its wood. In the last 

 few years 75,000 seedlings have been planted in Ohio under the 

 general direction of State forestry organizations. The older cypress 

 plantations in Ohio are reported by the State forester 1 as having 

 made a satisfactory record in the production of timber. The poten- 

 tial range for planting appears to reach as far north as the southern 

 portions of New England, New York, and Michigan. Individual 

 trees will grow somewhat farther north, but when young are sus- 

 ceptible to injury by freezing. 



Cypress does not require, as is usually believed, heavy, wet, swamp 

 soils. It does not thrive in hot, dry situations or in pure sand, 

 but does well in ordinary loamy, calcareous, and clay soils, which 

 as a class are retentive of moisture. The requirements of cypress 

 call for the more favorable class of hardwood sites, including moist 

 slope and bottom land, typical soil for such species as beech, maples, 

 basswood, tulip poplar, catalpa, elm, oak, sycamore, and cotton- 

 wood. Trees in the District of Columbia are growing well near the 

 Potomac Flats (PL XII) and also on Meridian Hill, about 200 feet 

 in local elevation above the river. Because of previous good results 

 the city of Cincinnati in 1914 planted 40,000 cypress seedlings in 

 forest stands on relatively high, well-drained ground. 



GROWTH OP PLANTED CYPRESS. 



The rate of growth of individual planted cypress trees is closely 

 comparable to that of the more rapid hardwoods. Under cultivation 

 trees grow from 18 to 24 feet in height in the first 10 years. The best 



i Edmund Seerest, State Forest, Wooster, Ohio. 



