8 FOEEST CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA. 



Most of the school lands granted to the State by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment have been sold, usually for less than 10 per cent of their 

 present value. Probably not more than 60,000 acres of public land 

 are left in the State for disposal by the Federal Government. 



Before 1891 public lands could be disposed of indiscriminately 

 at public sale at $1.25 an acre. Thousands of acres of timberland 

 were purchased by far-sighted investors, among them many northern 

 lumbermen, who saw the end of the great pine forests of the Lake 

 States. Following the general exhaustion of northern pine, timber 

 companies were organized in the South, and the yellow-pine industry 

 soon became important. During the last few years syndicates have 

 purchased great tracts of timberland. Some of these speculative 

 holdings aggregate hundreds of thousands of acres. Consolidation 

 of timber holdings of all classes is proceeding rapidly. The remain- 

 ing cypress is already in the hands of a comparatively few men. 

 Since the uplands of northern Louisiana have been exploited for 

 many years the ownership of land in that region is widely dispersed. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Agriculture is highly developed along the Mississippi and Eed 

 Rivers and the bayous of southern Louisiana and in the prairie and 

 bluff regions. On thousands of acres sugar, rice, corn, and other crops 

 are cultivated in almost continuous farms. In the upland district, 

 where the farms are usually small, agriculture has not been so highly 

 developed as it will be. Large areas in the alluvial bottoms of the 

 northern part of the State that were under cultivation before the 

 Civil War are now reverting to timber. Of the total land area of 

 about 28,000,000 acres, probably not more than 5,500,000 acres are in 

 cultivation. 



THE FORESTS BY REGIONS. 



Louisiana may be divided into six regions — shortleaf-pine uplands, 

 longleaf pine region, alluvial region, bluff region, prairie region, and 

 sea marsh. Each of these regions is distinct to a degree not often 

 found even in States where the topography is much more abrupt and 

 climatic variations more marked. In Louisiana the variation of only 

 a few feet in the elevation often influences the natural conditions 

 over immense areas. 



SHORTLEAF-PINE UPLANDS. 



Shortleaf-pine uplands include the northwestern portion of Loui- 

 siana, intersected, however, by the alluvial valley of the Red River, 

 which crosses the State diagonally. Southward the uplands pass 

 almost imperceptibly into the longleaf -pine hills. A relatively small 



