12 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
of age. This is not encouraging to the planter of trees for the purpose of 
lumbering. Still, some means should be devised to perpetuate this tree in southern 
swamps. There is still considerable cypress remaining in these swamps, which, 
on account of the difficulty of getting it out, will furnish a supply for several vears, 
but probably one or at most two decades will end the business. 
Preparation should be made to meet the emergency when it occurs, for the 
years of both yellow pine and cypress are numbered, and the limit is but a brief 
period away. 
It would be impracticable to re-establish the cypress in the dense swamps, 
because of the extremely slow growth as well as the difficulty of transplanting the 
trees in the water. And until in future years the swamps shall be dra‘ned and 
reclaimed, this vast area of worse than worthless territory will continue to breed 
mosquitoes and malaria, to the detriment of health and unproductive of any 
adequate revenue. 
The attention of capitalists and engineers should be directed to this reclama- 
tion of swamp lands which is by no means an impossible project or without the 
merit of large profit. 
As a rule the timber growths of the swamp regions, except for the cypress, 
ere of very slight value, although they could be greatly improved by destroying 
those of lesser value and encouragement of a more important growth. This would 
be a considerable expense, and could only be accomplished by large corporations, 
and with State or government assistance. 
Where it is impractical to thoroughly drain the swamp regions, an improve- 
ment may be effected by planting willows and other growths which emit roots 
readily from cuttings, and many of these are of greater value than existing swamp 
trees. 
Willows reduce the malarial gases and thereby improve health conditions. 
They evaporate vast quantities of water through their leaves and absorb carbonic 
acid gas from the atmosphere, thus drying up the moisture and purifying the air. 
Some of the willows are valuable for a number of uses. Charcoal for powder is 
best made from willow. Salicylic acid is a product of willow bark, and is very 
largely used in pharmacy. Artificial limbs are preferably made from willow, which 
combines great strength with lightness. 
Catalpa also grows from cuttings. Fence posts set in spring, with bark on, 
will quickly grow into trees, as every farmer in the catalpa slashes knows. 
Both these trees are capable of growth under swamp conditions, and either 
would be an improvement over past occupants of the swamp regions of the South. 
The revenue of a State or community depends upon the income of its inhabit- 
ants; plainly this will be a minimum so long as the swamp region remains as at 
present; but through their reclamation by drainage or the planting of a better class 
of trees and forest growths both the State and its inhabitants will be benefited, the 
people by having additional labor in manufactures. So that as an economic 
proposition a State can afford to give encouragement to all such enterprises as 
give promise of relief. 
The method of logging the cypress is by means of steam skidders, as with 
other timber trees; a drum carries a wire rope of perhaps a quarter of a mile 
length; one end of this cable is drawn into the swamp and there attached to a log, 
