CUT-OVER LANDS IN SOUTH MISSISSIPPI 



These lands may be described as "logged-off" or "stump land" from which 

 the merchantable timber has been removed. The year 1908 witnessed some 

 recognition of the agricultural worth of Southern cut-over lands. This first stir 

 of interest was as the "little leaven in the whole lump," but gradually and exten- 

 sively the assimilation of these denuded lands for other than lumber purposes 

 proceeded. Native farmers, here and there, followed closely upon the heels of the 

 axe and saw in the logging camps and opened settlements in response to the local 

 demand for farm products. Some of the more progressive lumbermen, realizing 

 the possibilities of their cut-over lands, established thereon demonstration farms, 

 community settlements and colonization projects. 



In the meantime State and National agricultural experts went into this great 

 stump empire and commenced to work out the potentialities of the cut-over 

 regions. As the United States furnished 80 per cent of the world's naval stores, 

 science pointed out the profitable utilization of the rich resinous content in the 

 tree wreckage left in the wake of the sawmill. Wood pulp paper mills, pine tar 



This Cut Is Representative of the Lay of the Cut-Over Lands of Mississippi. 



Also Repre 



product plants, sprang up and began to manufacture stumps, tree trunks and 

 limbs into paper, turpentine, pine oil, flotation oils, pitch, rosin and charcoal, 

 thus establishing a market for waste wood in the logging fields measurably suffi- 

 cient to reimburse the farmer for the cost of clearing. 



The railroads realizing that when the great asset of lumber is gone, they will 

 need some people to carry and freight to haul, have industriously influenced 

 agriculture to follow close on the retiring steps of the timber interests. So, through 

 one agency or another, the merits of cut-over lands have developed until those 

 skilled in agricultural pursuits now regard the opportunities for trucking, dairy- 

 ing, stock farming and ranching offered by these cut-over regions as the one 

 distinct find in recent times. 



Topography 



The lands are neither in the high hills nor low plains, nor swamps, but level, 

 open, undulating and gently rolling. Altitude from 100 to 600 feet, or even higher. 



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