THE ALEXANDRIA RESEARCH CENTER 

 John T. Cassady and William F. Mann, Jr. 



Most of the land in the territory served by the Alexandria Re- 

 search Center is better suited to growing timber than to any other use. 

 This means that the development and prosperity of the region depend 

 vitally upon improved forest management. The most pressing need is 

 to get the huge area of cutover land back into high production quickly 

 and at a reasonable cost. This step alone would triple the region's pine 

 timber production. 



The territory in question covers 7, 141, 000 acres in central and 

 southwestern Louisiana and east Texas (fig. 1). Almost 80 percent, or 

 5,664,000 acres, is commercial forest land, and less than 10 percent is 

 cultivated. About half of the forest land once . supported magnificient 

 stands of virgin longleaf pine (fig. 2), and the whole region is now some- 

 times called the cutover longleaf pine belt. The other half of the forest 

 is divided between loblolly and shortleaf pine and upland and bottomland 

 hardwoods. 



Over 20percent of the forest land, or 1,250,000 acres, is barren 

 of trees and mustbe planted with pine if it is to be restored to timber 

 (fig. 3). About 3, 000, 000 acres of timber land are producing much be- 

 low full potential because scrub oaks and other low- value hardwoods are 

 over-abundant and the pine stand is inadequate. 



Upland soils are too shallow, poorly drained, or infertile for 

 farming. Numerous hill farms have been abandoned or converted to 

 pastures and headquarters for range livestock operations (fig. 4). The 

 good agricultural land is in the flood plains of the major streams, and 

 here new farms are still being created by clearing and draining the 

 land. Thus, the acreage of bottomland hardwoods is decreasing. 



