MISSISSIPPI 8 43 



was called off because the strikers were in actual need. This strike led to the serious 

 consideration by the city council of the acquisition of the railway system by the city. 

 On February 6, 1912, the city adopted four charter amendments, one providing for a 

 board of public welfare, and one for an issue of $700,000 bonds for a lighting plant; and 

 December 3, 1912, it adopted (5,500 to 3,400) a new charter of the commission form with 

 provisions for referendum, recall and preferential voting. St. Paul (May 7, 1912) 

 adopted the commission plan of government (by 20,640 to 4,137 votes)., this. at the 

 very time that a home rule charter commission had prepared a new charter {federal 

 plan) for the city, which will be submitted at a special election. Ten days later the 

 state supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the commission plan in the charter 

 of Mankato and in an act of 1909. Faribault (Feb. 7, by 688 to 185; in effect April 

 n, 1911), Tower, and St. Cloud (Nov. 28, by 3 to i) adopted the commission plan in 

 1911. At the November election in 1912 Wallace G. Nye was elected mayor of Minne- 

 apolis by 22,282 votes to 19,498 for Thomas Van Lear, Socialist, who had not entered 

 the non-partisan primaries, in whichW.G.Nye received the largest vote; 2 Socialists were 

 elected aldermen. In December 1911 the city of Two Harbors authorised the estab- 

 lishment of a municipal coal yard. In 1911 a civic commission in Minneapolis sub- 

 mitted plans for a fourth diagonal highway and for neighbourhood parks at intersections. 

 Bibliography. General Laws (2 vdls., St. Paul, 1911 and 1912) and other public docu- 

 ments; W. H. Winchell, ed., The Aborigines of Minnesota (Minn. Historical Society, 1912). 



MISSISSIPPI 1 



Population (1910) 1,797,114 (1.5.8'% more than in 1900) ; whites constituted 43. 7% (in 

 190041.3), and 43.2% were native-born whites. The proportion of negroes was 58.5% 

 in 1900 and 56.2% in 1910 (Indians and Asiatics 0.2% in 1900 and o.i % in 1910). Den- 

 sity 38.8 per sq. m. The urban population (29 municipalities each with more than 2,500) 

 was 11,5% of the total, compared with 7.7% (22 municipalities) in 1900. The 15 

 municipalities of 5,000 or more were: Meridian, 23,285; Jackson, 21,262 (7,816 in 1900); 

 Vicksburg, 20,814; Natchez, 11,791; Hattiesburg, 11,733 (4>*75 i n I 9o); Greenville, 

 9,610; Columbus, 8,988; Laurel, 8,465 (3,193 in 1900); Biloxi, 8,049; Yazoo, 6,796; Gulf- 

 port, 6,386 (1,060 in 1900); McComb, 6,237; Greenwood, 5,836; Brookhaven, 5,293; 

 Corinth, 5,020. 



Agriculture. The acreage in farms increased from 18,240,736 to 18,557,533 between 

 1900 and 1910 and the improved land in farms from 7,594,428 to 9,008,310; the average farm 

 acreage fell from 82.6 to 67.6; and the value of farm property increased from 204,221,027 

 to $426,314,634 ($254,002,289 land; $80,160,000 buildings; $16,905,312 implements; $75,247,- 

 033 domestic animals). Of the land area 62.5% was in farms. The average value of farm 

 land per acre was $13.69. Farms were operated largely by tenants (181,491 by tenants, 825 

 by managers and 92,066 by owners). In 1912 (preliminary estimates) the principal crops 

 were: Indian corn, 56,840,000 bu. (3,106,000 A.); wheat, 96,000 bu. (8,000 A.); oats, 1,966,000 

 bu. (113,000 A.); potatoes, 890,000 bu. (10,000 A.); hay, 297,000 tons (201,000 A.); cotton, 

 1,109,000 bales (177 Ibs. per A.); rice, 77,000 bu. (2,200 A.). In 1909 (U.Si Census) the 

 value of vegetables (excluding potatoes) was $5,868,275; of small fruits, $107,171 ; of orchard 

 fruits, $1^25,506 (peaches and nectarines, $925,288); of figs, $107,609; of nuts, $90,855. On 

 January I, 1912 there were on farms 234,000 horses, 277,000 mules, 443,000 milch cows, 

 566,000 other neat cattle, 214,000 sheep, and 1,577,000 swine. 



.The pest of crayfish in the Houston clay lands, where crops of cotton and Indian corn 

 have often been destroyed just after the plant appears, has been investigated by an agent of 

 the Federal department of agriculture, and poisoning them in their holes has proved the 

 simplest and most effective way of ridding fields of them. Crayfish seriously weakened 

 levees and dikes also. The 1912 legislature passed elaborate acts in regard to drainage 

 districts. In 1911 and 1912 the experiment station reported on scale insects, apple-growing, 

 cotton experiments and cut-over lands. 



Mineral Products. Total value, 1911, $1,052,842. The value of clay products was 

 $687,836, 8f % more than in 1910. Sand and gravel were valued at $286,206; and mineral 

 waters (from 8 springs, including 6 resorts) at $75,050, being 71 % more than in 1910. 



Manufactures. From 1904 to 1909 the number of establishments increased from 1,520 

 to 2,598, and that of persons engaged in manufacturing from 42,966 (38)690 wage-earners) 

 to 56,761 (50,384 wage-earners); the capital invested from $50,256,000 to $72,393,000; and 



1 See E. B. xviii, 599 el seq. 



