﻿28 BULLETIN 24, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ous growth on soils naturally adapted to their requirements are not 

 predisposed to disease. Such trees if accidentally injured by wind, 

 fire, or other agency, more readily heal over the wound. Cotton- 

 wood, in particular, grows so rapidly that even large wounds do not 

 long remain exposed to infection by fungi. 



Another important condition favoring management of the bottom- 

 lands is the ease of getting the timber out. The land best suited to 

 the practice of forestry lies for the most part within 2 or 3 miles 

 of the river, which is generally used for transportation. This renders 

 logging inexpensive and obviates the necessity of constructing rail- 

 roads. It also makes it feasible to leave seed trees which can be easily 

 taken out after they have restocked the ground and at a cost per 

 thousand feet but slightly in excess of that for the first operation. 



Furthermore, cottonwood is commercially very valuable and is one 

 of the fastest-growing trees in the United States. It yields lumber 

 of good quality within 30 to 35 years. Seed production, moreover, is 

 abundant and frequent. Under such favorable circumstances owners 

 of cottonwood stumpage should give more attention to securing new 

 crops of timber after lumbering on lands unfit for farming. 



AREAS AVAILABLE FOR GROWING COTTONWOOD. 



Though large areas of the Mississippi bottomlands, especially in 

 southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas, are being made 

 tillable through extensive drainage projects, and still other areas will 

 be reclaimed for farming by the extension of the present levee sys- 

 tem, there are extensive tracts of rich alluvial land subject to annual 

 overflow of from one or two weeks to several months which afford 

 ideal conditions for the growth of cottonwood. Probably the largest 

 part of this unprotected land is in the lower valley, yet from Cairo, 

 111., to the head of the river there are in the aggregate large areas 

 better adapted to forest growth than to agriculture. The total area 

 of such unprotected land south of Cairo, 111., is approximately 

 1,500,000 acres, distributed as follows: From Cairo to the mouth of 

 the "White River, 690,000 acres ; from the mouth of the White River to 

 Warrenton, Miss., 500,400 acres; and from Warrenton to the Head 

 of the Passes, 277,000 acres. While a portion of this unprotected 

 land is sufficiently elevated to warrant cultivation, not more than 10 

 or 15 per cent is at present in crops. Back of the levees there is 

 considerable land poorly adapted to agriculture, such as sandy ridges 

 or the beds of old sloughs which may still be inundated in very wet 

 periods. While farm crops may be grown on the ridges for a few 

 years, the soil soon becomes unproductive. In addition, there are 

 bottomlands bordering many tributaries of the Mississippi, such as 

 the Red. Arkansas, Yazoo, and St. Francis Rivers, which because of 

 poor drainage or annual inundation are unsuited for farming. 



