MISSISSIPPI. 



563 



failed to pass the Senate. A general law was 

 passed this year exempting from taxation for 

 ten years all railroads constructed hereafter 

 within the State. 



LEGISLATURE. The biennial session of the 

 Legislature, having lasted for fifty-seven work- 

 ing days, adjourned March 9th. A large num- 

 ber of bills were passed, among which were 

 several prohibiting the sale of vinous and 

 spirituous liquors at certain localities. An 

 excellent bill for the encouragement of immi- 

 gration was adopted. Liberal provision was 

 made for the support of the educational and 

 benevolent institutions of the State. Charters 

 were granted to a number of new railroad 

 companies. A new congressional apportion- 

 ment bill was passed, which provides for an 

 additional (the seventh) district, as follows : 



First District : Tishomingo, Alcorn, Prentiss, Ita- 

 wamba, Lee, Oktibbeha, Lowndes, and Monroe. 



Second District : Tippah, Union, Benton, Marshall, 

 Lafayette, De Soto, Tate. Panola, and Tallahatchie. 



Third District : Clay, Chickasaw, Yalobusha, Pon- 

 totoc, Grenada, Carroll, Montgomery, Calhoun, Web- 

 ster, Choctaw, Winston, Noxubee, and Kemper. 



Fourth District : Tunica, Quitman, Sunflower, Co- 

 ahoma, Bolivar, Washington, Issaquena, Sharkey, 

 Warren, and Leflore. 



Fifth District : Holmes, Yazoo, Leake, Attala, Ne- 

 shoba, Scott. Newton, Lauderdale, Smith, Jasper, 

 Clarke, and Wayne. 



Sixth District : Hinds, Eankin, Copiah, Franklin, 

 Lincoln, Madison, Claiborne, Jefferson, and Simpson. 



Seventh District : Jackson, Harrison, Perry, Greene, 

 Hancock, Marion, Pike, Amite, Covington, Adams, 

 and Wilkinson. 



A proposition was made and strongly sup- 

 ported to establish and endow a State Female 

 College, for the higher education of females, 

 but it was not adopted. An amendment to 

 the Constitution proposed by the House of 

 Kepresentatives, for the election of judges by 

 the Legislature, was defeated in the Senate. 



Governor Lowry's inaugural address to the 

 joint convention of the State Legislature, in 

 January, contained many sentences worthy of 

 consideration by Southern agriculturists. With 

 reference to the general neglect of diversified 

 farming, he says : " In a material point of view 

 our almost exclusive devotion to the produc- 

 tion of a single article of industry is our bane. 

 We buy too much and sell too little. Our 

 corn-cribs and smoke-houses are too far from 

 home. Our income is princely, our expendi- 

 tures are utterly exhausting. Legislation may 

 do something to remove these barriers to our 

 progress, but individual enterprise and exer- 

 tion must do much more." As to the practical 

 duties of government, and the proper limits of 

 legislation, he says : u When life, liberty, and 

 property are secure, when the public morals 

 are protected, an efficient system of public 

 education established, and the public health, 

 convenience, and safety well guarded, and all 

 at the smallest practical cost, there is but little 

 omitted from the fundamental obligations of 

 government. Under these conditions, indi- 

 vidual action, diversity of interest, and, above 



all, the production of the necessaries of life at 

 home, ought to cause the springs of prosperity 

 to flow, and insure contentment, progress, and 

 independence. . . . Whoever, either in a pub- 

 lic or private capacity, contributes to diversify 

 the industries of Mississippi, and to relieve her 

 from dependence on other States and countries, 

 is a benefactor to the State. The president or 

 managers of a successful factory among ns 

 ought to be more highly appreciated and hon- 

 ored by us than any public functionary in the 

 land. ... A people who have proved them- 

 selves to be equal and superior to the exigen- 

 cies of peace and war, such as those under 

 which other States and nations have perished, 

 can not be incapable of improving and appro- 

 priating the advantages and opportunities we 

 enjoy." These remarks are very pertinent 

 when it is remembered that Mississippi, of the 

 Southern States, is almost, if not quite, the 

 largest producer of cotton ; that she has only 

 nine cotton-mills, with 704 looms and 26,172 

 spindles, whose annual production exceeds by 

 nearly half a million of dollars the capital in- 

 vested, and that she clips only 734,000 pounds 

 of wool, when she might easily grow ten times 

 that quantity and manufacture it into cloth. 



INDUSTRIAL. There are several cotton and 

 woolen factories in the State, some of which 

 are very prosperous and some reasonably so. 

 The largest and most productive of these is the 

 Mississippi Mills, at Wesson, Copiah County, 

 138 miles from New Orleans, on the Chicago, 

 St. Louis, and New Orleans Railroad ; of the 

 others, the Natchez Cotton-Mills, and the Ro- 

 salie Cotton- Yarn Mills, at Natchez; the 

 Stonewall Manufacturing Company, at Enter- 

 prise; the Wanita Cotton and Wool Mills, 

 seven miles northwest of Enterprise ; Ulman's 

 Woolen Mill, at Ulmanville, in Hancock Coun- 

 ty; the Yocona Cotton- Yarn Mills, at Water 

 Valley; the Strawberry Cotton - Mills, near 

 Carrollton (now owned by General John B. 

 Gordon, of Georgia) ; the Canton Cotton-Fac- 

 tory ; and the two cotton-factories at Corinth, 

 are the most successful and prosperous enter- 

 prises. The Legislature, at its late session, in 

 order to encourage manufactures in the State, 

 passed a law exempting " all factories hereafter 

 erected " from taxation for ten years. Fruit- 

 culture, grape-growing, and wine-making are 

 among the " infant industries " to which a 

 portion of the people are giving attention. 

 The culture of jute promises to become a lead- 

 ing industry. Jersey cattle are being intro- 

 duced on the upland farms in many portions of 

 the State, and large sums are paid, with the 

 general object of improving the quality of the 

 cattle, and with the purpose, in some cases, of 

 establishing dairy-farms. Colonel Thomas W. 

 White, of Hernando, De Soto County, has the 

 largest herd for dairy purposes in Northern 

 Mississippi. Large and valuable deposits of 

 gypsum have been discovered near Shubuta, 

 Clarke County. 



THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS for members 



