airfield County, Conn., to southeastern
Missouri, through Arkansas and Oklahoma to the valley of the Trinity
River in Texas, and eastward to the Atlantic coast. Its commercial
range is restricted, however, to the moist lands of the lower Ohio and
Mississippi basins and of the Southeastern coast. It is one of the
commonest timber trees in the hardwood bottoms and drier swamps of the
South. It grows in mixture with ash, cottonwood and oak (see Fig. 12).
It is also found to a considerable extent on the lower ridges and
slopes of the southern Appalachians, but there it does not reach
merchantable value and is of little importance. Considerable
difference is found between the growth in the upper Mississippi
bottoms and that along the rivers on the Atlantic coast and on the
Gulf. In the latter regions the bottoms are lower, and consequently
more subject to floods and to continued overflows (see Fig. 11). The
alluvial deposit is also greater, and the trees grow considerably
faster. Trees of the same diameter show a larger percentage of sapwood
there than in the upper portions of the Mississippi Valley. The
Mississippi Valley hardwood trees are for the most part considerably
older, and reach larger dimensions than the timber along the coast.

Form of the Red Gum

In the best situations red gum reaches a height of 150 feet, and a
diameter of 5 feet. These dimensions, however are unusual. The stem is
straight and cylindrical, with dark, deeply-furrowed bark, and
branches often winged with corky ridges. In youth, while growing
vigorously under normal conditions, it assumes a long, regular,
conical crown, much resembling the form of a conifer (see Fig. 12).
After the tree has attained its height growth, however, the crown
becomes rounded, spreading and rather ovate in shape. When growing in
the forest the tree prunes itself readily at an early period, and
forms a good length of clear stem, but it branches strongly after
making most of its height growth. The mature tree is usually forked,
and the place where the forking commences determines the number of
logs in the tree or its merchantable length, by preventing cutting to
a small diameter in the top. On large trees the stem is often not less
than eighteen inches in diameter where the branching begins. The
over-mature tree is usually broken and dry topped, with a very
spreading crown, in consequence of new branches being sent out.