cording to both systems, the assessment per acre on 

 virgin timberland varies from a minimum of $6 to 

 $8 per acre for the overcup oak-bitter pecan flats 

 in Concordia Parish to a maximum of $30 to $35 

 per acre for the more valuable areas. An average 

 assessment rate for virgin hardwood timberland in 

 this unit would be about $20 per acre. Assessments 

 on cut-over timberland range from $1 to $12 per 

 acre, with an average of about $6 per acre. 



A third classification of taxable timberland is 

 recognized throughout Louisiana. This classifica- 

 tion is designated "woodland" and can be roughly 

 described as the kind of partly cut-over timberland 

 commonly found in connection with farms or plan- 

 tations. These stands normally contain a larger 

 volume of timber of merchantable size than the 

 commercially cut-over timber] ands and are there- 

 fore assessed at a value per acre intermediate be- 

 tween the highly valued old-growth timber areas 

 and the cut-over timberland. The tax saving as a 

 result of a partial cutting of old-growth uncut hard- 

 wood areas and the subsequent classification of the 

 area as "woodland" is a substantial induceinent for 

 holders of large tracts of virgin timberland to prac- 

 tice some form of forest management. 



The tax rate ranges between 17 and 65 mills per 

 dollar of assessed valuation, usually around 30 to 

 35 mills. 



Besides the ad valorem tax, a substantial part of 

 the land is subject to an annual flat-rate levee tax 

 of 5 cents per acre. Furthermore, for the small 

 area included in organized drainage districts, an 

 additional annual tax of 5 to 50 cents per acre is 

 levied for drainage improvements. 



Only a part of the above taxes apply to the 

 batture land, that is, the unprotected land lying 

 between the levee and the river. State, parish, 

 and school taxes are usually levied on batture 

 land; but the assessed valuation is much lower 

 than for comparable levee-protected land. Drain- 

 age, levee, road, and other miscellaneous taxes are 

 not usually charged against batture land. The 

 total annual tax per acre for batture land in this 

 unit bearing a stand of almost mature second 

 growth averages approximately 7 cents per acre. 

 A corresponding total annual tax for similar timber- 

 land on the protected side of the levee is approxi- 

 mately 30 cents an acre. The difference of 23 

 cents represents the tax advantage of timberland 

 located on the batture. 



Although taxation lays on the landowners a 

 genuine burden that has resulted in some delin- 

 quency, the problem of reversion of title to the 

 State for nonpayment of taxes is not acute. Ofii- 

 cers of a few of the parishes reported no tax- 

 reverted land in 1934; others reported small acre- 

 ages. Concordia Parish reported approximately 

 50,000 acres of tax-reverted timberland in 1934; 

 this was the largest area to be reported by any 

 parish. Tax delinquency is, of course, more com- 

 mon than tax reversion and is more common 

 on urban property than on rural property. In 

 1934 the acreage of tax-delinquent timberland 

 was less than the corresponding acreage of farm 

 land. 



Population and Community Conditions 



This unit is largely a region of rural dwellers. 

 Its total population numbers about 210,000 (or 34 

 persons per square mile) of which only 20 percent 

 lives in the five cities that have inore than 2,500 

 persons each. Monroe and West Monroe have 

 populations of 26,000 and 7,000, respectively, but 

 the other three (Tallulah, Lake Providence, and 

 Ferriday) have less than 3,500 persons each. 

 Whites make up 53 percent of the total popula- 

 tion — 61 percent of the urban, and 50 percent of 

 the rural. The colored rural dwellers are mainly 

 sharecroppers on cotton plantations; many of the 

 white rural dwellers are independent farmers. 

 The inedian size of family is approximately 4 per- 

 sons per white and 3 persons per colored family. 



The unit has a plentiful supply of cheap labor, 

 white as well as colored. The laborers on large- 

 scale forest-products operations are largely regular 

 full-time woods and mill workers and for the most 

 part are colored. On small-scale operations, and 

 particularly in the woods, the labor is more often 

 transient. This transient, part-time help comes 

 from two general sources — farm laborers, and odd- 

 job laborers who alternate between woods work 

 and other temporary jobs, such as road and con- 

 struction work, fishing, hunting, and trapping. 



Most of the towns and cities originated at centers 

 of the cotton trade in the early 1800's. The more 

 recent coming of the lumber industry merely 

 added to the size of already-existing communities. 

 Exceptions to this rule are Ferriday and Water- 

 proof, which developed near the end of the nine- 



