6 BULLETIN 272, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE WOOD. 
Cypress wood is strong and stiff, moderate in weight and hardness, 
and very moderately subject to shrmkage. It is usually fine-grained, 
light to dark brown in color, and durable under trying conditions of 
moisture. The wood is easily worked. 
COLOR. 
Cypress averages darker in color im the Gulf and South Atlantic 
region, and correspondingly lighter as one passes northward up the 
Mississippi and Atlantic coast. In any specified locality, however, 
wide color variations occur, although usually one color predominates. 
For example, the cypress of the deep St. Johns River swamps, 
Florida, averages an amber or light orange-brown, and is referred to 
under the trade name of “‘yellow”’ cypress. Nearby, in shallower 
isolated swamps of different soil and moisture ainebeee. the wood is 
decidedly darker, with a more pronounced orem when sawed. Along 
the lower Apalachicola River and in similar deep alluvial river plains, 
the prevailing orange-brown of the heartwood is occasionally varied 
to the deepest brown or chocolate color, often streaked on a lighter 
background. This wood is very handsome in its color ere and 
san oneal: Much of the lumber from the lower Mississippi delta and 
other southern regions shows prominently the harder and darker 
reddish colored bands of the heavier sane oo in each annual 
ring, and has come to be known commercially as “‘red”’ cypress. The 
annual rings of cypress and a marked irregularity of growth give to 
the wood a richly gruned effect, = wees it is widely sought for 
interior finish. 
The wood from both of une Sorthers regions is spoken of in the | 
market as ‘‘white cypress.” In logemg, this term means that the 
wood floats high. Along the Atlantic coast ‘“‘ black” cypress refers to 
heavy wood which sinks, or floats very low if at all. In the Gulf 
regions ‘‘black”’ cypress refers more especially to distinctions in color 
rather than buoyancy, since in respect to weight dark wood is often 
not noticeably heavier than the lighter shades. The cause for 
variations in color can not now be bounplet le pointed out. 
WEIGHT. 
The wood varies in weight usually from 22 to 37 pounds, averaging 
about 28 pounds per cubic foot, when thoroughly air-dried. The 
equivalent specific gravity is 0.35 to 0.60, averaging about 0.45. 
Cypress wood ranges about midway between the white and the hard 
yellow pines. It is a little lighter than eastern red cedar, but con- 
siderably heavier than redwood, western red cedar, eastern spruce, 
and eastern white cedar. Green or unseasoned cypress varies 
