MISSISSIPPI 



3845 



MISSISSIPPI 



voter. The administration of the schools is in 

 the hands of a state board of education, com- 

 posed of the governor, the attorney-general and 

 the superintendent of education. Each county 

 has its own school superintendent, elected for 

 four years. Separate schools are provided for 

 white and colored children. 



At the> head of the educational institutions 

 are the state university, situated at Oxford; an 

 agricultural and mechanical college at Stark- 

 ville, a normal school for training white teach- 

 ers at Hattiesburg, and the Industrial Institute 



OUTLINE MAP OF MISSISSIPPI 

 Showing the boundaries, navigable rivers, prin- 

 cipal cities, coal deposits and the highest point of 

 land in the state. 



and College at Columbus, for the education of 

 women. Several educational institutions are 

 maintained by religious denominations, such as 

 Mississippi College at Clinton, Millsaps College 

 at Jackson, Meridian College at Meridian. 

 Rust University at Holly Springs; Tougaloo 

 University near Jackson; Alcorn Agricultural 

 and Mechanical College at Westside; Campbell 

 College and Jackson College at Jackson, and 

 the industrial schools at Holly Springs and 

 Vicksburg are among the higher educational 

 institutions provided for negroes. 



In the percentage of its illiterates Mississippi 

 ranks rather high, owing to negro population. 

 The percentage of illiterates in 1910 was 35.6 



among negroes, 15.1 among foreign-born whites, 

 and only 5.2 among native whites. See IL- 

 LITERACY. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. The state 

 maintains a school for deaf and dumb children 

 and one for blind children at Jackson. There 

 are hospitals for the insane at Jackson and 

 Meridian, and the state maintains several hos- 

 pitals at Jackson, Natchez and Vicksburg. The 

 state penitentiary is at Jackson, and convicts 

 are also employed on several state farms and 

 plantations. These farm penitentiaries are con- 

 trolled by a board of trustees elected by the 

 people. Mississippi has abolished the system of 

 hiring convicts to corporations or private em- 

 ployers. 



Physical Features. Mississippi is crossed 

 from north to south by a broad, low ridge, 

 which divides the state into two river basins 

 the eastern, which is drained into the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and the western, which drains into the 

 Mississippi River. To the west of this ridge 

 the surface slopes gradually into the bottom 

 lands of the Yazoo and the Mississippi. These 

 lands are low and level. A characteristic fea- 

 ture of the surface of the state is the strip of 

 land contained between the Yazoo and the 

 Mississippi rivers, known as the Yazoo Delta. 

 This extends about 175 miles from north to 

 south and covers an area of 7,000 square miles. 

 The land is so low that it requires an unbroken 

 line of levees, or artificial banks, fifteen feet 

 high, to protect it from overflow (see LEVEE). 

 A belt of hills or bluffs, varying in height from 

 100 to 300 feet and cut- by deep ravines, extends 

 along the eastern edge of the delta and south- 

 ward along the Mississippi. The eastern part 

 of the state is formed by level or slightly roll- 

 ing prairies, while on the south and along the 

 Gulf coast there is a low, marshy tract. 



The principal streams in the eastern part of 

 the state are the Tombigbee, the Pearl and the 

 Pascagoula, all flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The chief tributaries of the Mississippi are the 

 Yazoo, the Big Black, the Tallahatchie, the 

 Sunflower and the Homochitto. 



Climate. The state has a semitropical cli- 

 mate. The summers are long, but the intense 

 heat that would otherwise prevail is tempered 

 by breezes from the Gulf, and the thermometer 

 seldom reaches 100 F. The mean temperature 

 for the summer is about 81 F. The winters are 

 short and mild, the mean temperature being 

 about 45 F. Winters are longer and more 

 severe in the northern parts of the state, but 

 even there frosts occur only during five months. 



