SOIL SURVEY OF CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA.

By JAMES L. BURGESS, LEWIS A. HURST, HENRY J. WILDER, and CHARLES F. SHAW.

DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA.

Caddo Parish is situated in the extreme northwestern part of Louisiana. It is bounded on the north by Arkansas, on the east by Bossier Parish, on the south by Red River and De Soto parishes, and on the west by Texas.

FIG. 1.-Sketch map showing location of the Caddo Parish area, Louisiana.

The parish has three general physiographic divisions, namely, the Red River bottoms, which are separated from the uplands by a low bluff line; the lake region, which comprises the basins of Cross, Ferry, James, Clear, Soda, and other smaller lakes; and the uplands surrounding these lakes and flanking the river. A low bluff line also separates the lake basins from the surrounding uplands. The average elevation of the area is about 180 feet above sea level, with a general slope to the southeast.

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The surface of the uplands is gently rolling, except in the northern part of the parish, where it frequently becomes rough and hilly, and in the immediate vicinity of the larger streams, where erosion has been most active. The drainage is effected almost wholly by the Red River and its tributaries, only a small fraction of the rainfall finding its way to the Gulf through the Sabine River. The most important streams flowing into the Red River are Cypress Bayou, Boggy Bayou, Quepaw Bayou, Black Bayou, and the outlets of the various lakes.

By far the greater number of the population are colored. A few Italians and Spaniards or " Mexicans" are found in the southern part of the area, but these compose only a small fraction of the population. The proportion of whites to negroes is much higher north of the lake region. The present white population is almost wholly southern in its origin, only a small percentage of the people coming from the North and West. The population in the rural districts is generally very sparse, except in the river bottom. On the uplands are wide areas yet in forest and still larger areas that were once farmed but are now abandoned for lack of labor to operate the plantations. Every tenant who can secure land on the rich bottoms or employment in the city is leaving the hill country. There are scattered here and there over the southern part of the parish many large residences without white occupants, standing as monuments to the social life that once existed in the rural districts. The owners of these estates have long since given them over to colored tenants.

The chief town and center of trade for the parish is Shreveport, which has a population of over 25,000. There are no other towns of importance in the area, but most of it is so situated with reference to shipping points that the farmer has no difficulty in getting his produce to market.

Caddo Parish has excellent transportation facilities, being connected with the northern markets by the Queen and Crescent, the Cotton Belt, the Kansas City Southern, and other lines of railroad; while the Texas and Pacific, the Kansas City Southern, and the Houston, East and West Texas railroads connect it with New Orleans and other Gulf ports. The principal markets are St. Louis, Chicago, and some of the eastern cities.

CLIMATE.

Caddo Parish is situated between parallels 32° and 33° north latitude and near the line of 94° west longitude. It has a temperate climate, and while extremes of heat and cold are not usually very marked the area frequently lies in the path of the "northers" during the spring, and care must be taken by the fruit and truck grower to protect his crops from the freezing temperature that nearly always accompanies these cold waves.

The accompanying table compiled from records of the Weather Bureau shows that the normal temperature for the winter months is about 45° F. and that of summer 83° F. The extremes of heat and cold are not so great as in more northern latitudes.

The long season necessary for the production of cotton and other crops requiring several months in which to mature is furnished by the climate found in this part of Louisiana. The average date of the last killing frost in spring is March 4, and that of the first killing frost in the fall is November 18. Thus the growing season is over eight months long, and is sufficient to allow the gathering of two harvests of some crops.

The maximum rainfall comes from November to February, and the minimum from June to October, August having the lowest average rainfall of any month in the year.

Normal monthly and annual temperature and precipitation.

Prior to 1836 the territory now comprised in Caddo Parish was occupied by the Caddo Indians, whose farming was of the most primitive type. In 1836 Captain Shreve, with a few other white men, settled at what is now Shreveport, and named the little town Bennett's Bluff. The following year the present parish of Caddo was organized, and the town of Bennett's Bluff was incorporated and rechristened Shreveport and made the parish seat.

For a long time there existed in the river bordering Caddo Parish a great raft or jam of logs that was not only a menace to navigation, but caused the stream to overflow its banks and change its channel so easily that profitable farming of the bottom lands was rendered very uncertain. In 1836 this raft or jam was cut and the river placed more nearly under control. These rich bottom lands were still subject to annual overflow, however, and it was not until 1892, when the present levees were first constructed, that the cultivation of the lowlands was rendered safe.

Cotton has been the staple crop of the parish ever since the white man took possession. Some corn, potatoes, and other household necessaries were produced, but frequently not in sufficient quantity to satisfy home consumption.

In 1884 the business of market gardening began to attract some attention, but the class of labor available and the unsatisfactory condition of the market have caused the industry to receive less attention than it merits.

The crop at present most popular in the area is cotton, and this is grown under the one-crop system. A few of the farmers are experimenting with alfalfa in the bottom lands, but there is no general movement in the parish to produce forage, not even to supply enough for the stock used in working the farms. The principal products of the area are cotton, corn, potatoes, vegetables, and forest products. It is a generally recognized fact that the sandy upland soils are better suited to cotton than to corn. The reverse seems to be true of the bottom lands, where the best yields of corn are secured from the lighter soils. Cotton appears to thrive best on heavy soils or on those soils which have a heavy subsoil. There is practically no systematic rotation of crops practiced in the area. Cotton follows cotton until the yield falls to the point where it no longer pays the cost of production, and then the field is abandoned and allowed to grow up to weeds and brush. Sometimes a part of a field of cotton is followed by corn, but the acreage of corn is so small as compared with cotton that the rotation can hardly be said to affect the prevailing one-crop system.

The agricultural methods now practiced are largely those used prior to the civil war. Tenants do most of the farming, and their methods represent the practices followed in the neighborhood for years past. Shallow plowing and shallow cultivation are practiced on light and heavy soils alike, and all crops are cultivated in ridges. No green manuring is done, and little barnyard manure is put on the fields. Consequently the soils of both uplands and bottoms are rapidly losing their native productiveness, and new lands are yearly being brought under the plow in order to maintain the yield of cotton. The present custom among the planters is to furnish their tenants with supplies and in many cases with stock with which to cultivate the crop. It frequently happens that the tenant fails to make enough to pay his rent and store bill and is thus left in debt to the landlord with nothing with which to begin work the following season.

The labor problem among the farmers of this area is quite serious. The laborers are nearly all colored, with a few Italians and Spaniards. The farmers say the negro hands do not stay at one place for any length of time, but insist on moving from farm to farm in search of better quarters and higher wages. It is thought that the Mexican

and Italian laborers may prove more dependable in this respect. Farm laborers are paid from 75 cents to $1 a day.

Of the 528,000 acres of land in Caddo Parish only 350,000 are included in farms, and only about 180,000 acres are improved. This leaves about 66 per cent of the parish in uncleared lands. According to the Census of 1900 the average farm contained about 75 acres. This low average is due to the large number of very small farms in the hill lands and to classification of each tenancy as a farm, and must not be taken to indicate that most of the farm operatives own the lands they till, for such is not the case. The majority of the farm operators are tenants and are frequently located on immense landed estates, some of which contain as much as 5,000 or 6,000 acres of the best land in the area. Among the largest landholders, especially in the southern part of the parish, the average farm would contain about 500 acres. A very small proportion of the land is farmed by the owners, probably less than 25 per cent being operated by men who own and live on the land.

The value of farm lands in this area varies with the location and crop-producing power. There are thousands of acres of fairly good upland on the market for less than $5 an acre, while the best improved and most favorably located upland farms bring from $25 to $30 an acre. The lands lying in the Red River bottoms are uniformly higher in price than those in the hills. The price for lands in the bottoms protected by levees runs from $30 to $50 an acre, and much of it is not on the market at any price.

There are several lines along which the agricultural practices of the area might be improved. The one-crop system should be replaced by a crop rotation that would insure the production of sufficient forage and feed for the stock kept on the farm and at the same time increase the amount of humus in the soil. In this way 10 acres of land could be made to produce as much cotton as in many cases 20 acres do now, and the farmer would save in addition an important item in his expense account.

Some of the more progressive farmers are beginning to use modern farm implements, but their example is not being followed as rapidly as conditions would seem to warrant. Practically all the river bottoms and a large proportion of the uplands are of such a character that the most modern farm machinery could be used, but at present these lands are worked by the less efficient 1-horse implements. One man with one horse is expected to farm about 20 acres of land, while by the use of the latest machinery one man using three additional horses could easily farm 100 acres. Thus the cost of growing the cotton crop could be greatly reduced and the price of picking the cotton could be sufficiently advanced to induce laborers to seek employment on these plantations. In this way the pickers would not need to be