190 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
In Florida there are numerous “cypress ponds,” which contain water during 
the wet scasons, owing to the presence of an impervious “hard pan” stratum of 
dense clay, or of stone. The cypress roots cannot penetrate this stratum and are 
dwarfed, while in Louisiana and elsewhere in the permanent swamps, with deep, 
alluvial soil beneath, the trees grow to immense size. 
Being in the swamps, the trees are removed with great difficulty, the negro 
workmen standing in the water all day while chopping and making ties, which 
are floated or towed through intricate channels to the railway or higher land. 
These workmen are short-lived, their lives being entirely spent in the miasmatic 
swamps. 
CYPRESS IN ALABAMA 
