Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/578

 518 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI In the extreme southeast corner of the state, bordering the ]Iississippi river and ex- tending to the Arkansas line, is Pemiscot county, with an area of 480 square miles, about one-sixth of which is being cultivated. The land is all level and is alluvial soil. There are immense ciuantities of timber re- maining in Pemiscot county though it is rapidly being removed. In 1910 fully thirty million feet of lumber was shipped out of the comity. The land is extremely fertile and ber of branches. The population is 19,559 and the total taxable wealth is $3,369,219. There are 48 school districts in the county, employing 70 teachers. Caruthersville, the coimty seat, is a town of about 3,500 and is a flourishing and pros- perous community. Besides Caruthersville, Hayti, Cottonwood Point, Pascola and Steele are the most important communities. Perry coimty is on the Mississippi river, Simply a Big Oil Tank is adapted to the growth of corn, wheat and other grains, the production of cotton, and especially to the growth of alfalfa, which in all probability will become the leading crop of the county. The principal factories ar6 those devoted to the handling of timber, cot- ton and cotton seed oil. The total value of manufactured articles in 1910 was $1,840,- 612. The most important of these products were cotton, lumber, cooperage and oils. The county has only the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway system, including a num- about 60 miles south of St. Louis. It contains 436 square miles of surface, most of which at one time was covered with a heavy growth of Cottonwood, oak, walnut, willow and gum timber. At the present time more than half the area of the county is under cultivation. Most of the land is rolling, some of it broken. There are considerable areas of level land in the river bottoms and on top of the hills. The eastern part of the county is Mississippi bottom bordered by bluffs; the roughest part of the county is in the southeastern and ex-