of sugar-cane, marketable at the near-by sugar mills at profitable prices; while 

 corn grown from selected seed will yield on these new lands from fifty to one 

 hundred bushels to the acre, depending on the individual care and cultivation. 

 Compare these with the so-called corn-producing states and one can readily 

 appreciate the value of this soil as corn land. 



ALLUVIAL BOTTOM LANDS 



The largest area of the alluvial lands lies adjacent to the Mississippi River, 

 and, although all of it was, in the early history of the State, subject to overflow, 

 the whole region is now considered safe by the protection that levees of sufficient 

 size and strength afford. 



North of the mouth of the Red River there are about 3,000,000 acres of such 

 land, fully 80 per cent of which is still undeveloped. South of the mouth of the 

 Red River, on the west side of the Mississippi River, are those areas designated 

 as the Atchafalaya Basin and the Lafourche Basin, while on the east side is the 

 Pontchartrain Basin, the three areas aggregating about 6,500,000 acres. This 

 includes the Alluvial Delta Region, already described separately in the preced- 

 ing pages, as embracing about 5,000,000 acres, which leaves approximately 

 1,500,000 acres in the upper part of the Atchafalaya Basin to be classed as 

 alluvial bottoms and discussed under this heading. The remaining alluvial lands 

 are to be found along the Red and Ouachita rivers, also protected by levee^. 

 These lands are nearly level, with a slight but sufficient slope towards the south 

 and west to insure good drainage by gravity when proper ditches and canals 

 have been cut, and although most of the area is now covered with bottom land 

 timber, this is being rapidly removed by the numerous hardwood lumber com- 

 panies and the lands are being made available for cultivation. 



These are some of the richest and most valuable lands in the State and 

 consist largely of those types of soil known as Yazoo loam and Yazoo clay, 

 which is found in one unbroken area south and southeast of Baton Rouge. 

 The Yazoo clay is the soil type of greatest extent, and by far the most important 

 agriculturally, in the Mississippi bottoms. 



Sugar-cane is the principal crop of the alluvial bottom lands below Red 

 River, while cotton and corn are the chief crops in the portion above Red River. 

 Alfalfa is also grown extensively in these upper alluvial bottoms along the 

 Mississippi, as well as in those lands bordering Red River. The major portion 

 of the alluvial lands south of Red River are devoted to cane culture, with corn 

 as a rotation crop. 



Corn Thrives on Alluvial Lands — 50 to 100 Bushels per Acre 

 7 



