Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/576

 516 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI iladison county. It has been operated for about 110 years continuously. There are 492 square miles in the county and of that about one-sixth is under cultivation, farming being the interest second in importance. The population of the county is 11,273 and the taxable wealth $2,608,295. There are 55 school districts, employing 77 teachers. The land is rolling and much of it is tim- bered, white oak and pine still being foimd in many places. The river bottoms are fer- tile, the land on the hills is much less so, but it is well adapted to fruit growing, which will probably become one of the leading indus- tries of the county. Big and Little St. Fran- cois rivers and Castor river water the county, and besides these there are a number of fine springs. Those at White Spring are con- sidered to have a medicinal value. The principal manufacturing establish- ments are saw mills, flouring mills, stave factories, distilleries, ice plant and quarries. The principal town is the county seat, Fred- ericktown; besides this Marquand and Mine La ]Iotte are also important. The total manufactured products in 1910 amounted to $53,274. The principal items were the pro- ducts of the smelters, lumber and flour. Mississippi county is about one himdred and sixty miles south of St. Louis, on the Mississippi river. It contains 275,000 acres of land, nearly one-half of which is in culti- vation. It is practically all level land lying within the alluvial plains of the ^Mississippi river. There is much sand in the soil in most of the coimty, but not enough to prevent it from being very productive. A part of the land near Charleston was originally prairie and is the most fertile land in the county. Other parts were originally heavily timbered with black and red oak, cypress, gvun, cotton- wood, 'sycamore and hickory. There were man}- other varieties of timber but these were the most important commercially. Some of this timber still remains. More than 6,000,000 feet of lumber was exported in 1910, Part of the land is subject to overflow from the river. Levees have been built to protect from floods, which will be adequate except for most unusual floods. The sand which everywhere forms a sub-soil aids very greatly in drainage. The county is well improved. Good barns and residences are foimd in all the older settled portions of the county. The chief industry is farming. The land is well adapted to the growing of corn and wheat, large quantities of both being pro- duced. These two crops furnish exports worth more than a million dollars each year. Alfalfa is also gro^Mi and is becoming more important as a crop. Second in importance to farming is the timber interest. The prin- cipal manufacturing plants are flour mills and woodworking establishments. Lumber, staves, heading, handles and spokes are man- ufactured in the latter plants. The man- ufactured products reached a total of $1,158.- 801 in the year 1910. The largest single item of this total was flour, which had a value of $871,075. Cooperage was next in impoi'tanee. The county has three railroads. The Bel- mont branch of the Iron Mountain, the Caii-o, Arkansas & Texas branch of the same sys- tem, and the main line of the 'Frisco, The river which forms the eastern boundary af- fords transportation facilities also. The principal to-Mi is Charleston, the coimty seat, which has a population of 3,144. Bertrand, East Prairie, Whiting and Annis- ton are other important places.