Special aerial photographic imagery of the Southern Mississippi Alluvial Valley taken in 1969 was compared with conventional photographic imagery of the region taken in 1950 to obtain data on land clearing, land use, and land use change. In 1969, cropland totaled 13.7 million acres or 57 percent of the 24-million-acre study area and forest covered 7.5 million acres (31 percent). Less than two decades earlier, forest land predominated with 11.5 million acres (48 percent) and cropland ranked second with 10.0 million acres (41 percent). Grassland accounted for only 4 percent of the area in both 1969 and 1950. During the study period, 3.8 million acres of forest, 0.2 million acres of grassland, and 0.1 million acres of miscellaneous area shifted to crop use. Land capability data from another source indicates that as of 1967 about 5.0 million additional acres of forest land could be cleared and used for crops.
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