noncommercial areas. By a commercial forest 

 area is meant one that supports a stand of adequate 

 quality and volume per acre to warrant operation 

 under ordinary circumstances for such products as 

 industrial lumber, cooperage, or veneer; while 

 noncommercial areas include all forest lands that 

 do not meet these qualifications. Practically the 

 whole of the Mississippi River Delta is accessible 

 for logging during some season of the year. Most 

 of it can be reached by trucks, thus making expen- 

 sive logging improvements unnecessary. Further- 

 more, plantation tenants, small farm owners, and 

 independent woods workers throughout the Delta 

 are usually eager to get part-time woods work or 

 to take small contract-logging jobs. On account 

 of the accessibility of timber and the availability 

 of labor, operators in the north-Louisiana delta 

 generally find it feasible to log areas bearing 1,000 

 board feet or more per acre of high-grade material, 

 by which is meant logs or bolts of the quality 

 commonly accepted at full value on the open mar- 

 ket by the lumber and cooperage industry. Mate- 

 rial of this quality was recognized as such, regard- 

 less of present commercial value of the species in 

 which it occurred. Thus it is possible to recognize 

 high-grade material in such species as honeylocust, 

 cedar elm, and bitter pecan, wherever the quality 

 is equivalent to that accepted in commercial 

 species in the open market at full scale and price. 

 Accordingly, commercial forest area has been 

 defined arbitrarily as any area that bears 1,000 

 board feet or more per acre of high-grade material, 

 regardless of species. 



It does not necessarily follow, however, that all 

 areas bearing 1,000 board feet of high-grade ma- 

 terial are now attractive to operators. A small part 

 of the commercial forest area was so classified be- 

 cause of high-grade material in species for which no 

 well-developed market now exists. These areas 

 presumably cannot be profitably logged under 

 present market conditions. For example, occa- 

 sional areas classed as commercial largely because of 

 high-grade volume in such species as cedar elm, 

 honeylocust, and bitter pecan are at present unat- 

 tractive to commercial operators. On the other 

 hand, a few cutting operations under particularly 

 favorable conditions are actually under way on 

 other areas that contain less than 1,000 board 

 feet per acre of high-grade material. 



Although elsewhere in the South uncut old 



growth is generally commercial, some old growth 

 stands in the north-Louisiana delta are of such low 

 quality that they cannot be classified as commercial 

 forest. For example, only 13 percent of the uncut 

 old-growth forest area in the overcup oak-bitter 

 pecan type can be considered as commercial forest 

 while about 20 percent of the total forest area bears 

 commercial forests (complete figures in table 20). 

 Only 34 percent of the total area in old-growth 

 uncut timber can be classed as commercial forest 

 because of the large proportion of the area that is 

 in the overcup oak-bitter pecan type, while as 

 much as 33 percent of the second-growth sawlog- 

 size uncut stands can be classified as commercial. 

 Of the total commercial area it is estimated that 

 about 80 percent lies north of Jonesville and Ferri- 

 day. Of the portion to the north, about 63 percent 

 (or 50 percent of the total) is widely scattered in 

 comparatively small isolated tracts, while the re- 

 mainder (30 percent of the total), constituting the 

 bulk of the virgin timber not in the overcup oak- 

 bitter pecan type, is concentrated in large holdings 

 in the Tensas River Basin in Tensas, Madison, and 

 Franklin Parishes. 



Reproduction 



Bottom-land hardwood forests naturally repro- 

 duce well, as is shown by the fact that of the total 

 open area (clear-cut and reproduction) more than 

 half has reproduced, and most if it well. Shade, 

 grazing, and fire are the chief obstacles to success- 

 ful natural reproduction. Wherever reproduction 

 is sparse or lacking, this condition can usually be 

 traced to one or more of these three agencies. 

 Vines and heavy undergrowth are also factors in 

 reproduction of tree species on cut-over areas. It 

 might seem that this growth would interfere with 

 tree reproduction, but in many instances it actually 

 protects the small seedlings from grazing animals 

 and possibly the soil from excessive drying. Since 

 forests of this section are generally many aged, trees in 

 the reproduction class — that is, trees less than 1 inch 

 d. b. h. — are in most instances merely supplemental 

 to the overstory of mature or immature forest. 

 Since approximately 95 percent of the forest area 

 in this unit supports an overstory, the reproduction 

 was in general considered adequate (table 23). 



The quantity of reproduction within any forest 

 condition is related to the forest type. Adequate 



I? 



