10 



MISSISSIPPI S FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



F~4605n 



Figure 8. — Erosion, which has taken a heavy toll of Aiississippi soils Jor more than a century, often assumes dramatic form in the brown loam soils. 



ests of North America. He quoted Mohr as saying 

 that in southern Mississippi "the old clearings are 

 covered with fine loblolly pine, from 40 to 60 feet 

 high." In the Central Hills, "the second forest growth 

 in the northern part of this region consists almost 

 exclusively of the short-leaved pine, which southward 

 is associated with loblolly pine." The process of 

 abandoning farm fields and allowing them to revert to 

 forest is still going on. 



Increasingly, the farmer sees that cotton has been 

 too hard a taskmaster, although he has frequently been 

 slow to recognize timber as a valuable farm crop. The 

 narrow belt of land that extends south of Jackson, 

 between the Piney Woods and the Bluff hills, was con- 

 verted to truck farming many years ago. The Prairie 

 sections never abandoned cotton, but supplemented it 

 with legumes, other cover crops, and dairying. 



Over the State as a whole, there has been a broad 

 movement to livestock products. From 1930 to 1945, 



pasture was extended 66 percent to 4.2 million acres, 

 while cropland acreage declined 5 percent to 6.6 mil- 

 lion acres. During this same period the value of live- 

 stock products sold rose from 10 percent of all farm 

 products sold to 16 percent. However, this is a trend, 

 not yet a revolution. Crops still provide the large bulk 

 of farm cash income, and cotton dominates the crops 

 (it made up 80 percent of the total cash income from 

 crops in 1946) . 



Farm woodlands have persisted in producing suc- 

 cessive crops of timber in spite of widespread neglect 

 and abuse, and through their persistence, have forced 

 themselves on the attention of farm landowners 

 (fig. 9). Rising stumpage values, large cash returns 

 from timber sales, and the realization that successive 

 timber crops can be grown is causing a reorientation 

 in the thinking of some farmers. Although farmers 

 who appreciate timber as an important crop are all too 

 few, their nvunbcr is increaslns;. 



