534 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



"The second growth of the short-leaved pine, which is alreadj^ growing with great rapidity in northern 

 Mississippi upon exhausted fields thrown ont of cultivation and wherever the forest has been cut from the 

 ridges, should be protected and fostered by the owners of the soil. The care bestowed uj>on the natural seeding 

 of this useful and valuable timber tree, and in assisting it to gain a permanent foothold on lands regarded as unfit 

 or unjjrofitable for agriculture, of which tens of thousands of acres are now found in this state, would lead to 

 results of great benefit to the community. The people have it in their power to replenish their timber resources, fast 

 failing tlirongh the ever-progressing destruction of the original forest, without other outlay than simply assisting 

 nature in her efforts to recover from injuries sustained in the wholesale destruction of the forest. The restoration 

 of the forest over vast areas, now barren and unproductive wastes, would add vastly to the general welfare and 

 prosperity through the influence such forests would exert upon the climate and s.ilubrit.v of the country, by the 

 shelter they would offer to insectivorous birds ever busy in the destruction of insects injurious to farm crops, and 

 by the formation of protective screens against the cotton-worm, the most destructive of all insects in this part of 

 the country; for it must be admitted as an undisputed fact that the destruction caused by the cotton worm is far 

 less ui>on the small farms where strips of woodland divide the fields than upon the plantations in the rich prairie 

 lands where large areas are destitute of woods. Such forests would serve as windbreaks for crops growing in field 

 and orchard, and as protection against the washing away of the light soil so peculiarly adapted to the cultivation 

 of the great staple of the country, thus preventing the ruin of many productive fields, the debris from which, 

 carried away by the rain and floods, fills the rivers and their estuaries, rendering navigation every year mora 

 dangn'ous. 



"Central pine hills. A Lilly region, the northern limit of which is near the center of Benton county, 

 covered with upland oaks and short-leaved jiines, extends eastward to the flatwoods in a belt from 8 to 12 miles in 

 width. Farther south, in Calhoun and Sumter counties, this pine region is much wider, embracing the largest part 

 of these and Choctaw and the western part of Oktibbeha counties; from Kosciusko, Attala county, it extends over 

 the whole of Winston and the western part of Noxubee counties, being merged, south of Neshoba in the western 

 part of Kemper county, with the region of mixed tree growth. This pine forest supplies a sufficient amount of 

 lumber for the local demand, and portable saw-mills are found near fhe large settlements from Kosciusko to the 

 southern limits of the region. It forms a prominent feature in the eastern Gulf states by its geographical 

 position, and must be regarded as one of the distinct divisions which might be designated as the region of the central 

 pine hills. Botanically this region differs from that of the mixed tree growth, upon which it borders toward the 

 south, by the more equ.al distribution of the pines among the oaks, and particularly by the total absence of the 

 long-leaved pine and other conifers, with the exception of the loblolly pine and of scattered cypress along the river 

 banks, and by the absence of the great magnolia {M. (/randiflora). The second forest growth in the northern ]iart 

 of this region consists almost exclusively of the .short-leaved pine, which southward is associated with the loblolly 

 pine. The short-leaved pine will in the future be the chief forest tree of this region. 



" I have personally seen but little of the flatwoods proper, having only touched their southern limits in Kemper 

 county. It is a region of close, cold soil, devoid of drainage, and covered with a stunted growth of post oak; and 

 in its economic aspects as a timber region, or botanically, is of little Interest or importance. 



"Western Mississippi. In Copiah county, below the village of Terry, fifteen saw-mills are in operation along 

 the railroad, obtaining their supply of logs from the heavily-timbered hills in the neighborhood. This lumber is 

 shipped by rail to Saint Louis and Chicago. This business has already reached large proportions and is still 

 increasing rapidly, the mills running without intermission at their full capacity throughout the year. 



" Beyond Crystal Springs the country loses its rolling character ; the pine hills disappear, and a short distance 

 above the northern boundary of Copiah county, near Terry, a different geological formation is entered, and a 

 strongly-marked change in the vegetation takes place. Horizontal strata of loam, inclosing layers of what appears 

 a whitish sand, stretch northward over a vast extent of level country, and the long-leaved jiine disappears with 

 the gravels and sands of the drift. 



"North of the pine region a large amount of rich land between the Pearl and Mississippi rivers has been 

 brought under cultivation, especially along the bottoms of the Pearl river and along the principal railway line.. At 

 Jackson, on the Pearl river, little is left of the original tree growth which covered its banks. Still enough is left, 

 however, to show that it was chiefly composed of sweet gums, white oaks, elms, white ashes, etc. The railroad from 

 Jackson to Vicksburg passes through a fertile agricultural country, where only small strips of forest remain between 

 the large plantations and farms. Pines are not seen' here, and the bliick walnut, originally so abundant among 

 the oak and hickory forests which covered this region, must now be regarded as entirely exterminated. Beyond 

 the Blackwater, in the hilly region of the bluff formation, the great magnolia covers the hillsides, although in the 

 vicinity of Vicksburg the hills for miles around the city are entirely stripped of their forests. 



" Vicksburg is the center of a considerable lumber industry, depending for its supply of timber upon the cypress 

 rafted down from the mouth of the Yazoo river. Tlie first mill devoted to the manufacture of cypress lumber was 

 established in Vicksburg in 1865. Before that time all the timber from the Yaaoo valley was rafted down the 

 Mississippi river, mostly to New Orleans, as is still the case with the greatest number of the rafts. A second mill 

 has lately been built at Vicksburg, and the combined annual capacity of the two is ten or twelve million feet. No 



