OF SOUTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI. 105 



The only longleaf pine in this county is in the two south- 

 east townships. This has been logged in a small way 

 and the lumber hauled to McNair, on the Yazoo & Alis- 

 sissippi Valley Railroad, about twenty miles distant. The 

 tie industry is important along the railroad lines. Small 

 tie camps are established near good stands of loblolly and 

 shortleaf pine, and are moved whenever the adjacent sup- 

 ply is exhausted. Many hardwood logs are hauled by 

 farmers to the railroads and shipped to New Orleans and 

 other points for special manufacture and for export. 



Though the county is essentially agricultural, there is 

 much land that should be kept permanently in forest. 

 Such land would include the longleaf hills type and any 

 other land that will wash badly when cleared. Much 

 land in the hardwood hiUs type is very steep, and washes 

 SO badly when cleared with an incident loss of soil and 

 fertility that it has to be abandoned in a few years to grow 

 up to pine or hardwoods. On these situations the better 

 quality of hardwoods, such as yellow poplar, ash, hickory 

 and oak, should be encouraged, and also lobloUy where it 

 is abundant. This timber, in time, wiU be extremely 

 remunerative. 



Claiborne County. — Claiborne, mth a total area of 

 something like 320,000 acres, is essentially an agricultural 

 county. Owing to its situation on the Mississippi River, 

 settlement began early, and now probably 80 per cent of 

 the area is cleared. A larger proportion of the cleared 

 land is being regularly cultivated than in any other county 

 in the region. With the exception of a narrow strip of 

 overflow land along the Mississippi and the river bottoms, 

 the whole of Claiborne County lies within the hardwood 

 hills type. It is probable that the longleaf type at one 

 time reached over into the southeast comer of the county, 

 but with the clearing of most of the upland and the increased 

 local demand for lumber, practically all of this species has 

 now disappeared. The southern and central part of the 

 county is comparatively level or rolling and has been well 

 cleared. Old field pine, therefore, forms the larger part 

 of the present forest growth. To the north of Bayou 



