THE SOUTHERN CYPRESS. 55 
for example, 18 to 24 inches on the stump, where present cutting 
takes everything down as low as 12 to 14 inches. Natural conditions 
favorable to a deferred second cut may be found (1) in stands of 
mixed ages with good representation of younger groups of cypress; 
(2) where logging will be repeated in a decade or two in order to 
remove good stands of hardwoods not at present merchantable; 
(3) where the fixed cost of logging is low, as in float logging; and (4) 
in the present very low producing power of the land for any other 
purpose than timber growing. 
There are several classes of cypress lands (see pp. 21-22) which are 
not likely to be reclaimed and put under cultivation for many decades, 
if ever. These situations are mostly subject to deep overflows and 
thus permit float logging, which is the least expensive and the most 
practical form of follow-up logging for second-growth cypress lands 
in the future. The associated “ridges,” or better drained portions 
of the swamp, characterized usually by mixed hardwoods with scat- 
tering mature cypress, in the orderly progression of swamp reclama- 
tion will earlier come under drainage and farm management. This 
distinction between the relative heights of different levels of the 
swamp and their respective future uses, it is believed, is commonly 
-given too little consideration in connection both with plans for recla- 
mation projects and with the conservative cutting and management 
of cypress stands. 
In many swamps good stands of the more valuable hardwoods 
have been left, such as oaks, ash, and gums, which will be removed 
in the course of from 10 to 25 years. Many large operators intend 
to go back later over the old cutting areas and log timber which was 
unmerchantable at the time of the first cutting. Here the practice 
of clean cutting of cypress down to include the young vigorous trees 
would be, from a purely financial standpoint, unquestionably a mis- 
take. These trees are rapidly increasing in size and should be left 
for a later logging. Fioat logging, where the investment and cost 
of logging are low, permits of conservative cutting and an approach 
to a sustained yield of timber by selecting the trees on the basis of a 
minimum diameter limit. 
In favor of clear cutting is the fact that there are a large number 
of lumbering plants in the South which promise from 6 to 8 per cent 
returns onsafe investments. In comparison with these opportunities, 
_ the uncertainty of the lumber market 20 or 40 years hence discourages 
delay in harvesting the available crop, especially if present owners 
bear in mind the qualifications of Pacific coast lumber for competi- 
tion with cypress and the extent to which its use will increase in the 
eastern market as a result of the opening of the Panama Canal and 
other causes. The increasing use of various substitutes for wood is 
another factor to be taken into consideration. 
