The wood is light, soft, rather weak, moderately stiff, and the grain is usually straight. The narrow annual rings indicate slow growth. The summerwood is comparatively broad and is slightly resinous; medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood is light to dark brown, the sapwood nearly white. At one time specimens of the wood in the markets of the world were known as black or white cypress, according as they sank or floated. Much of the dark cypress wood is now known as black cypress in the foreign markets, where it is employed chiefly for tank and vat building. Individual specimens of the wood in some localities are tinted in a variety of shades and some of the natural designs are extremely beautiful. The wood is reputed to be among the most durable in this country when exposed to soil and weather. Some of it deserves that reputation, but other does not. Well-authenticated cases are cited where cypress has remained sound many years--in some instance a hundred or more--when subjected to alternate dampness and dryness. Such conditions afford severe tests. In other cases cypress has been known to decay as quickly as pine. Historical cases from the old world are sometimes cited to show the wonderful lasting properties of cypress. Doors and statues, exposed more or less to weather, are said to have stood many centuries. The evidence has little value as far as this wood is concerned. In the first place, the long records claimed are subjects for suspicion; and in the second place, it was not the American cypress that was used--and probably no cypress--but the cedar of Lebanon. Sound cypress logs have been dug from deep excavations near New Orleans, and geologists believe they had lain there 30,000 years. That would be a telling testament to endurance were it not that any other wood completely out of reach of air would last as long. The estimated stand of cypress in the South is about 20,000,000,000 feet. The annual cut, including shingles, exceeds 1,000,000,000 feet. New growth is not coming on. The traveler through the South occasionally sees a small clump of little cypresses, but such are few and far between. It was formerly quite generally believed that cypress in deep swamps, where old and venerable stands are found, was not reproducing, and that no little trees were to be seen. It was argued from this, that some climatic or geographic change had taken place, and that the present stand of cypress would be the last of its race. More careful investigation, however, has shown that the former belief was erroneous. Seedling cypresses are found occasionally in the deepest swamps. Probably cypress which has not been disturbed by man is reproducing as well now as at any time in the past. The tree lives three or four centuries, and if it leaves one seedling to take its place it has done its part toward perpetuating the species. Fire, the mortal enemy of forests, seldom hurts cypress, because the undergrowth is not dry enough to burn.