280 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



the Mississippi westward to the treeless 

 prairies. Logging is relatively easy and 

 inexpensive, except in the swamps and 

 deeper river bottoms and except dur- 

 ing periods of prolonged rain. Tree 

 growth is generally rapid. The large 

 private holdings of the South are 

 mostly located in the Coastal Plains 

 along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf 

 of Mexico, and in the rolling uplands 

 of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 

 Mississippi. A warm climate, abund- 

 ant rainfall, and a long growing season 

 assure excellent conditions for both 

 the establishment and growth of trees. 

 Most soils are reasonably well drained 

 and can store water and plant nutri- 

 ents. Throughout the region, trees are 

 the paying crop for 57 percent of the 

 land. With proper attention, this could 

 be one of the most productive timber 

 regions anywhere. 



The Delta province is that area 

 of fertile flood plain lying along the 

 Mississippi River and stretching from 

 southern Missouri to the Gulf. It em- 

 braces about 32 million acres. 



The forest is composed largely of 

 hardwood species and growth is rapid. 

 Annual floods are the rule in this area, 

 but the water does not remain on the 

 land long enough to affect adversely 

 growth or the regeneration. The con- 

 dition of annual floods is, however, an 

 obstacle to logging. The logging must 

 be done in the summer and early fall. 

 Some years this period is shortened 

 materially by the summer rains. The 

 heavy, large-sized timber that is ob- 

 tained from the Delta forests requires 

 a heavier and more expensive type of 

 logging equipment than is ordinarily 

 needed in the pine forests of the South. 



There are wide variations in the 

 fertility of the Delta soils. Many of 

 them, however, are quite fertile and 

 clearing for agriculture has been going 

 on in the past. There may be some ad- 

 ditional clearing in the future for this 

 purpose. However, it seems probable 

 that 40 to 50 percent of the area will 

 remain in forests. Ownerships are 

 medium to large. There are a number 

 of sawmills with ownerships in excess 



of 50,000 acres. Large farms or plan- 

 tations are more typical of the area 

 than small ownerships, and many of 

 these plantations include forest areas 

 in excess of 1,000 acres. 



The Delta is a productive timber 

 area and tree crops can be made an 

 increasingly important part of the 

 local economy with good management. 

 From the standpoint of forest prac- 

 tices, it is an area where the forest is 

 least understood by foresters, and yet 

 forests can furnish substantial employ- 

 ment and income to the people and 

 forest products to the Nation. This 

 source of employment looms more im- 

 portant as the mechanization of cot- 

 ton production on the farms increases. 



FOREST INDUSTRIES are second only 

 to agriculture in their contribution to 

 the economy of the South. With a 

 product estimated to be worth more 

 than 2 billion dollars annually, the in- 

 dustry serves every citizen. It provides 

 nearly every owner, large or small, 

 with a market for forest products. 

 Wood cutters, truck drivers, railroad 

 men, sawmill hands, and many others 

 earn wages handling forest products. 

 The butcher, the banker, and the doc- 

 tor serve the people who handle the 

 forest products. In nearly every com- 

 munity, operating units of the forest 

 industry employ workers, buy prod- 

 ucts, pay taxes. The contribution is so 

 general and so long-continued that 

 most people assume it will always be 

 with us, not realizing that the timber 

 resources on which this vast industry 

 depends might play out. 



In the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century, the South felt the effect of 

 the Nation's expansion. Large mills 

 were constructed. They mowed down 

 the virgin timber on a liquidation basis. 

 The financial arrangements of that 

 day were predicated on the rapid and 

 the complete removal of the standing 

 trees; the concept of timber as a crop 

 was neither understood nor accepted 

 by the industry. Gradually, the original 

 stands were cut over and, by 1935, the 

 virgin timber had been cut. 



