FOREST COXDITIOXS OF MISSISSIPPI. 15 



At Corinth and other towns along the Illinois Central 

 Railroad in Tishomingo County are located stave and 

 heading mills, usually of the portable type. These mills 

 either buy oak stumpage and carry on their own logging, 

 or they purchase heading and stave bolts delivered to 

 them or at railroad points. In purchasing stumpage, they 

 visually offer the owner a definite sum for all the oak above 

 a certain diameter; for heading this diameter is usually 

 1 6 inches, and for staves i8 inches. A company sends its 

 cruiser to a tract to estimate the number of cords of head- 

 ing or stave bolts. His estimate is for the company alone, 

 and the owner, unless he is an expert, does not know how 

 much timber he has. Sometimes a company sends as 

 many as three cruisers to a tract, and then buys according 

 to the lowest estimate. When stumpage is bought by the 

 cord the price varies from 60 cents to $2.25, according to 

 the quality and accessibility of the timber, and companies 

 generally specify in the contract that they shall be allowed 

 a number of years, usually from three to five, in which to 

 remove the timber. 



Management. — In general, owners of timber land in this 

 region have not received full value from the sale of stump- 

 age. This is largely because of the fact that few of them 

 are able to estimate closely the amount and quality of 

 timber on their holdings. Within the past few 3^ears there 

 has been considerable competition among the buyers of 

 hardwood timber to secure the choice stumpage on virgin 

 tracts. Owners often receive offers from several timber- 

 using concerns, and are puzzled to know which one to 

 accept. For instance, a buyer of logs for a veneer com- 

 pany will offer to pay for the white oak logs of a quality 

 suitable for veneer use at the stumpage rate of Sio a thou- 

 sand board feet. But the company will take only sound 

 white oak and cow oak logs 28 inches and larger in diameter 

 at the top ends. For the timber on the same tract a stave 

 man may offer to pay either a fixed sum or on the basis 

 of an estimate at the rate of, say, S3 per cord. He will cut 

 trees as small as 18 inches in diameter, and will utilize a 

 greater number of trees, as well as a greater amount of 



