Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-04-15
LOGGING CYPRESS.
A PECULIAR LUMBER INDUSTRY IN
SOUTHERN sWAMPs.

Negroes Whe Girdle and Fell Trees While
Standing Waist Deep In water-Loe
rrolleys Operated By Powerful Engine.
Set Up In Pullboats.
Cypress lumber has not made much
progress in the markets of this city, but
it is difficult to convince a southerner
that it is not the coming wood for both
interior and exterior construction, and
its constantly increasing popularity in
the southern states has led to enormous
Investments in cypress swamp land, log
ging machinery and mills for working
up the logs into planks; holdings, shin
giles and other building material
Cypress logging is an amphibious sort
OF business. The best of the trees grow
in so called swamps, which are often
merely forests through which the living
water courses toward the sea in a thou
sand channels. II is seldom found on
stagnant swamp land. and the best tim
Der grows where clear running water
circulates round the roots of the giant
trees. There are hundreds Of such places
IN clOrlQa and Louisiana.
Live cypress timber is SO heavy that
it sinks if felled when green, and CEN
seQuently the lumbermen have to work
from eight months to year in advance
of the cutting to prepare the timber BY
girdling the trees and thus preventing
the circulation Of the sap. Thousands of
trees are killed thus far in advance of
the telling. Girdling is both arduous
and dangerous work. It is done by ne
gro choppers who stand often waist deep
in water in the haunts of the dreaded
moccasin snake, the alligator and the
wildcat, to say nothing of the swarms
OF mosquitoes and other equally pestif-
erous insects. The negroes endure all
the hardships for 81 day.
On the picturesque OckIawaha river,
in Florida. one phase of the cypress lum-
Der industry is seen to the best advan-
tage. This wonderful river is fed by
clear, cold springs Of tremendous vol
un,e, and it winds for many miles
through endless acres of moss draped cy-
press trees. 1t has hundreds Of loops, or
branches. which leave it Mt one point
only to return to it at another, between
its source and its junction with the st.
Johns.
Between the main river and the
branches, which are all more or less
navigable, is flooded forest land through
which the water slowly circulates to the
depth of Q or 3 aud sometimes 4 or
feet. 1t is in these flooded tracts that
the cypress trees grow to perfection.
One company, with headquarters at Pa
latka and an Office at Boston, controls
the numbering OF this river. The COM
pany bought 100000 acres of cypress
land for so cents to So an acre, and sew
eral years ago engaged number Of
sturdy loggers from Saginaw, Mich, to
take charge of the work. 1t was all new
to the Michiganders, but they took hold
with aptness and quickly broke in the
negroes to the work. Soon the dark re-
cesses Of the Ocklawaha swamp resound-
ed with the blows of tho ax, the shouts
Of men, and the crashing of the old
giants as they broke through the
branches OF their neighbors and fell
with . prodigious splash into the waters
of the swamp. Then above all could be
heard the rafting, Earring and clank-
ing Of the novel logging machinery as it
snaked the huge logs from the recesses
of the swamp to the swift stream upon
which they were RATED to the big river
A logging camp in this swamp con-
sists of q bunkboat with kitchen at
tached and pullboat The pullboat
contains powerful hosting engine. and
is secured with its square how to the
bank against tall and sturdy cypress
tree, denuded of branches and decorated
with band of red cloth near the top.
Stretching away from an elevated point
upon this tree to another similar giant
a quarter of mile back in the swamp
is taut steel cable, from which depends
a trolley or carrier attached to an end
less steel cable, which winds and IN
winds upon the spool Of the engine.
Attached to the trolley is a huge pair
OF sharp pronged tongs capable Of SPAN
ming logs feet in diameter. Leading
away from the boat is we'll marked
lane traversed by the trolley. Trees are
cleared away on each side of the cable
to the full extent of its grasp, and the
lane terminates only where the end tree
of the trolley line stands. This point
reached, the cable is taken down and
another lane soon radiates from the pull
boat. When five or six lanes have been
made. the tract has been pretty well
cleared of serviceable trees, and the boat
and clamp are moved to a new point.
When cypress is felled in one of
these lanes, it is cross cut in lengths Of
IL to 16 feet, and the jaws of the crap
mel or blight Of chain grip the end IL
ing toward the boat. A whoop from the
foreman Of the gang notifies the engi.
neer. yho blows his whistle and starts
the engine. As the conveyor cable
tightens, the forward erSl of the log rises
clear Of the water and stumps and the
other end trails through the water, send
ing up fountains of spray as it rears
over knees and stunps and splashes in
the open pools. Sometimes a venture
some negro straddles the log, and, cling
ing to the chain or grapnel, rides ont to
the houseboat to get his dinner or grind
IN Ak. 1t is q wild ride, and appears far
more thrilling than the spectacle of