OF SOUTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI. 91 



only be used for shipment where transportation facilities 

 are good. 



Reproduction on these bottoms is usually excellent, 

 especially of the smaller seeded species, such as loblolly, 

 tupelo and sweet gum, ash and sycamore. Much oak seed 

 is eaten by the hogs that range over the bottoms and are 

 fattened altogether from the mast of oak, hickory and 

 beech. Fire, though rarer in the bottoms than on the dry 

 uplands, often does great injury, especially to the repro- 

 duction. 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



The question of the method of management to be em- 

 ployed in any certain case depends upon the forest type, 

 the local markets and means of transportation, the present 

 condition and ultimate purpose of the forest and other 

 minor considerations. In the following description of 

 conditions in each of the counties included in this study, 

 these points are touched upon in order that local condi- 

 tions may be understood and that the recommendations 

 given elsewhere in this report may be intelligently applied 

 in individual cases. In these descriptions the proportion 

 of cleared to forest land in the various counties was, in 

 most cases, taken from the county records and checked 

 up as closely as possible by the personal investigations of 

 men in the field. 



Pike County. — Pike County, with an area of approxi- 

 mately 450,000 acres, of which about 30 per cent is cleared, 

 lies entirely within the pure longleaf area. It is for the 

 most part a gently rolling country with a variation in ele- 

 vation of not more than from 100 to 150 feet. Originally 

 the county was covered, except for the bottomlands, with 

 pure longleaf pine. The Bogue Chitto River, the bottom- 

 lands of which once contained magnificent hardwoods and 

 cypress, passes through the center of the county. The 

 Illinois Central Railroad passes through the western por- 

 tion, and at frequent points along this line lumber companies 

 have established sawrmlls and built tram lines east and 

 west from the main line of railroad. Longleaf pine is 

 lumbered almost exclusively. 



