alluvial soils allow almost every crop indigenous to the western hemisphere to be raised. 

 Arable land, however, is limited in this region because of poor drainage and the 

 availability of land suitable for agriculture. For more than 200 years the Nation's 

 marshlands were thought to be of no economic value; they were considered worthless. 

 Nevertheless, in New England and the Middle-Atlantic states many wetland grasses were 

 harvested for livestock. Lamson-Scribner (1896) reported hay production of up to I ton 

 per acre, with hay stacks dotting the coastal lowlands. For more than half of the 

 twentieth century the marsh was not developed for its intrinsic value. It was reclaimed 

 to satisfy the needs of an expanding population (Allen and Anderson 1955). The 

 agricultural lessons learned on the eastern seaboard were apparently forgotten or 

 ignored. 



Today, the alluvial wetlands are recognized as a valuable and highly productive 

 environment, whose productivity can easily outstrip the best cultivated land. It is a 

 renewable resource; one that operates with minimum capital expenditures and is 

 epitomized in Louisiana. 



Those who originally entered coastal Louisiana were explorers, hunters, trappers, 

 and fishermen. Travel records and archaeological investigations reveal that these "folks" 

 depended on the land for their subsistence. English, French, Acadian, and Creole farmers 

 followed and created scattered communities along the natural levees of the region's 

 bayous. 



By 1822, the coastal zone's population was scattered along the main cheniers, 

 coteaux, hummocks, islands, and natural levees. This "high ground" supplied farmer- 

 trapper-fisher "folk" with the essential requirements for their economic existence and 

 became the focal point of human occupancy. In a sense, these communities are 

 considered a homogenous unit, since people consider a bayou settlement, regardless of 

 length, as a single entity with varying degrees of continuity. 



Farming was practiced throughout the region. Many areas that were farmed are 

 now underwater or so small and isolated that they can no longer be used for row-crop 

 agriculture. Most of these tracts are composed of mineral and organic soils firm enough 

 to support cattle, but not suitable for farming by traditional methods. Consequently, 

 marsh dwellers for more than 100 years have been grazing cattle within the marsh. They 

 have learned to live with a serious problem and yet maintain a way of life that serves as 

 a link to the past and is an important part of the region's cultural heritage. Since 

 approximately 20% of Louisiana's cattle graze the wetlands, it is a unique industry. 

 Proper and often inventive management techniques allow the herds to survive. The 

 marshes are a recognized cattle producing region, that will continue only if careful 

 management of the region continues. 



Traditionally, arable natural levee land has been used to produce sugar cane. With 

 mills closing and price uncertainties, the future of the business is in question, however. 

 Farmers are selling their land. The form and intensity of land use competition with sugar 

 cane are perhaps most visible. Since the region has become more populous, more 

 prosperous, more urbanized, and more industrialized since World War II, land is at a 

 premium. 



The dynamic nature of the growth trend is derived essentially from the long-term 

 development of the area's vast hydrocarbon resources. Extensive service base expansion 

 at the expense of agricultural production, commercial fishing, and trapping activities, 



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