OF SOUTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI. 97 



pure longleaf pine in the county is now held in the four 

 southeast townships, which contain 65 per cent of the 

 virgin pine of the county. It is being lumbered from the 

 vicinity of Wesson, on the Illinois Central Railroad. The 

 New Orleans Great Northen Railroad will be the means 

 of opening up the region along the Pearl River. In the 

 southwestern portion of the county the longleaf is of poorer 

 quality and in mixture with shortleaf. South of Hazle- 

 hurst, along the Illinois Central Railroad, was once a long- 

 leaf country, but the timber has been removed. Local 

 sawmills scattered about the county are cutting old field 

 pine and scattered virgin timber, both pine and hardwoods. 

 Agricultural land is extremely valuable, and is often worth 

 $30 to S50 an acre. Northern Copiah County is devoted 

 largely to agriculture and is becoming noted as a truck- 

 raising district. 



Franklin County. — Franklin County has an area of 

 about 380,000 acres. Less than one-fourth of it is listed 

 as cleared land, much of which is now reverting to a second 

 growth of pine. The western border of the longleaf pine 

 region runs in a southwesterly direction through this county. 

 The pure longleaf type, which covers about 10 per cent 

 of the total area of the county, extends only into its extreme 

 southeast comer. This has nearly all been cut over within 

 the past five years. The greater part of it is now prac- 

 tically denuded of pine and is supporting only a scrubby 

 growth of the inferior species of oak. Very little of this 

 land has as yet been cleared for agriculture. If seed trees 

 of pine had been left when the lumbering was done a good 

 growth of pine might now be coming in, to take the place 

 of the forest removed. This comer of the county is so 

 far distant from lines of railroad that it will probably be 

 many years before much of it will be much needed for 

 agriculture, and a second crop of valuable timber coming 

 on the land would have been of great profit to its owners 

 and to the county. 



The longleaf hills type covers over half of the county. 

 Owing to the mixed character of the forest, the broken 

 nature of the country, and its remoteness from the rail- 



