FOREST CONDITIONS OF MISSISSIPPI. 40 



in cultivation, with excellent success. The same company 

 has already sold 10,000 acres for from $3 to $5 per acre, 

 and has recently placed another block of 25,000 acres on 

 the market at $7.50 an acre, which is being rapidly sold. 

 The country is for the most part gently undulating, but 

 contains much hill land where many slopes will never be 

 cultivated. With the development of this section into a 

 populous farming country there will be need of woodlots 

 to supply the farm with fuel, posts, poles and other materi- 

 als. In logging on these steep slopes and narrow ridges 

 lumbermen would do well to leave several healthy pines 

 for seed trees. With protection from fires, these lands 

 would soon become fully covered with young longleaf 

 pines. 



Northern Greene County contains unbroken forest cover 

 over many townships. The timber land is practically owned 

 by less than half a dozen lumber and investment companies. 

 Along the line of the M. J. & K. C. Railroad, which was 

 recently built from Hattiesburg to Mobile, almost all the 

 timber within a few miles of the right of way hag been cut. 

 During the first few years after the completion of this rail- 

 road, a great many small mills were engaged in cutting the 

 timber held in small bodies by the farmers. Meanwhile the 

 lumber companies bought all the available large tracts of 

 timber, and as soon as the owners of small mills had cut a 

 short distance away from the railroad they came to the 

 holdings of the big companies. 



In south Greene County, a considerable amount of the 

 level land is in truck farms, and it is probable that this 

 industry will be extensively practiced within a few years. 

 The best improved farm land is valued at from $100 to 

 Si 50 per acre. Much of the land in the eastern part of the 

 county, however, is exceedingly hilly and will probably not 

 be used for agriculture for many years. In Greene, Perry, 

 Jones, and Wayne Counties a few investment companies 

 own more than 200,000 acres of virgin timber land. A great 

 deal of this land was bought for Si. 2 5 per acre fifteen years 

 ago, and is now valued at from Si 5 to S30 per acre. 



A company owning the largest mills in Lamar and Forest 



