482 FOREST RESOURCES OF MISSISSIPPI. 



jack and short-leaf pine. Tbe walnut, hickory, black, white, and true 

 red oak and other species occur to more or less extent. The yellow 

 loam rej>ion eral.races a large area between the flatwoods and the Mis- 

 sissippi bottom-lands,! and is timbered with Spanish and red oaks, 

 post-oaks of large size, hickory, black-jack, black or quercitron oak, 

 short-leaf pine, sweet gum, &c. 



The lower river counties where the bluff formation occurs, if under- 

 laid by a stratum of brown, clayey loam, have a timber growth of white, 

 chestnut, white, black, and Spanish oaks, beech, hickory, sweet and black 

 gnms, mixed more or less with holly, basswood, sassafras, elm, horn- 

 beam, and magnolia. Where the soil is a light calcareous loam-silt, the 

 timber consists of poplar, sweet gum, magnolia, mulberry, basswood, 

 honey-locust, red haw, crab-apple, and sycamore. Sometimes the pop- 

 lar, basswood, and sweet gum occupy the ground to the exclusion of all 

 other kinds.^ 



Pascagoiila has become a principal port for exportation of lumber in 

 this State. The mills near this point are at the junction of the Pasca- 

 goula and Dog Elvers at Mossy Point, five miles from Pascagoula, Miss., 

 which is adjacent to the Gulf shore, with numerous small bayous, inlets, 

 and lakes, affording facilities for booming logs. In 1872, the business 

 was divided among ten establishments, and the product amounted to 

 64.500,000 feet, with 1,500,000 of lath. In 1874, these mills employed 

 three hundred and ninety-four men, ten gangs, and twelve circular- 

 saws— had a daily capacity of 235,000 feet, and made during the year 

 46,000,000 feet. 



The amount of lumber shipped from Pascagoula in 1876, in vessels 

 cleared coastwise, was 6,908,3o9 feet; and for foreign ports, 13,679,571 

 feet. Shingles cleared coastwise, 1,179,250; and for foreign ports, 

 974,500. Timber for foreign ports, 885,346 feet. About 25 per cent, 

 should be added to the coastwise trade for vessels not clearing at the 

 custom-house. The square timber went to Europe and the West Indies ; 

 and the lumber to Europe, South America, Mexico, and the West In- 

 dies. Some of the vessels load directly alongside the mills; others 

 outside the bar of Pascagoula River by lighters. The largest size timber 

 ships lie in Ship Island Harbor near by.^ 



The State of Mississippi provided for the exhibition of some of its 

 staple products at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, 

 and erected a building intended to represent a rustic log-cabin in the 

 Swiss style of architecture, the eaves being festooned with long, waving 

 festoons of Spanish moss, and the whole presenting the most picturesque 

 structure upon the premises. In the rough external part, and the panel 

 work within, it contained 6S kinds of Mississippi woods, including 49 

 that were displayed on two panels on the wall of the front piazza. The 

 building was 30 by 40 feet in size; and the specimens of timber were 

 contributed by the Mississippi Valley Improvement Company. 



TEXAS. 



The public lands of Texas were reserved by the State for the payment 

 of its public debt, at the time of its annexation to the Uuited States in 



• Comprising Northwest Tippah, Marshall, most of De Soto, East Panola, La Fayerte, 

 West Calhoun, Yaliabusha, part of East Tallabatchie, East Carroll, Choctaw, East 

 Holmes, Northeast Yazoo, North Madison, Attala, Leake, Winston, Neshoba, part of 

 Kemper, Lauderdale, most of Newton, and the northeast corner of Scott. 



-Tlie aliovo generalizations are condensed from a Report on llie Geology avd Agriculture 

 of M'misdj^in, by Eug. W. Hilgard (1860), to which the reader in referred for details. 



3 Ucport of Alts.vssippi State Board of Centennial Managers, p. 34. The statist ios abcre 

 given were prepared by W. M. Gillespie, of Pascagoula, deputy collector for the dibuict 

 of Shieldsborough. 



