Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/678

MISSISSIPPI. between the Yazoo and the Mississippi rivers. Very extensive areas are still covered with forests, but it is nearly all susceptible of cultivation. In 1900 there were 18,240,736 acres, or 61.5 per cent. of the total area, included in farms. Of this 41.6 per cent. was improved, the improved area having increased about 1,500,000 acres since 1860, while the unimproved area remains about the same. The change in the system of agriculture incident upon the cessation of slavery has decreased the average size of farms from 369.7 acres in 1860 to 82.6 in 1900. The number of colored farmers in Mississippi (128,679 in 1900), amounting to 58.3 per cent. of the total number in the State (tilling about 32.4 per cent. of the farm acreage), is much greater than in any other State. However, only 14.3 per cent. of these own their farms, as against 62.5 per cent. for the white farmers. The cash rent system is rapidly increasing, the farms rented according to this system already exceeding the number rented on the share system. Nearly two-fifths of the farms of the State are between 20 and 50 acres in area, this size of holding being very common among the negro cotton farmers. In no other State is cotton so dominant as in Mississippi. In 1899 the acreage of cotton was over half of the total crop acreage and contributed 63.6 per cent. of the value of farm crops. The State ranks third in the production of cotton. It was not until the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, that its cultivation regained the importance it held prior to the Civil War. The greatest production was reached in 1897-98, when the output amounted to 1,600,000 bales, and only once in that decade did the production fall below 1,000,000 bales. Aside from cotton the agricultural interest of the State is almost wholly centred in corn. The acreage of this crop in 1899 constituted 95.9 per cent. of the total area devoted to cereals. The acreage increased 33.4 per cent. in the last census decade. The production of oats decreased decidedly during the same period. Wheat had acquired some importance before the war, but its cultivation has almost wholly ceased. There are extensive alluvial areas that could be easily irrigated and devoted to rice culture, but little attention has been given to it. Compared with its sister State across the Mississippi River, remarkably little attention is paid to the growing of sugar cane, and the crop of late years is almost wholly converted into syrup and molasses. Small fruits and orchard fruits are not extensively raised. In the decade 1890-1900, however, the number of trees almost doubled. In the latter year the peach trees numbered 1,856,748, which was 53 per cent. of the total number. The following table shows the acreage of the leading crops for the census years indicated:

. As in other States where cotton is predominant, stock-raising does not receive much attention. The total number of domestic animals has greatly increased over 1850, and the gain since 1870 is very marked. As compared with the latter year the horses and mules have increased in number about 2½ times, and swine, dairy cows, and other neat cattle have also gained. The decade 1890-1900 is characterized by a marked falling off in the number of sheep, and by an increase in the number of horses and mules. The following table gives the number of domestic animals on farms for the years indicated:

. The manufacturing industry is probably less developed in Mississippi than in any other of the older States of the Union. On the other hand, the rate of the recent increase has been greater than that of most of the other States. Prior to 1837 some prominence had been attained in the manufacture of cotton, leather, liquor, and flour; but the financial panic of that year left these industries in a bad condition. There was a decided revival in the decade following 1850; but because of the Civil War and the depression following it, manufacturing remained almost stationary for twenty years. In the decade 1880-1890 the value of the manufactured product increased 148.8 per cent. and in the decade 1890-1900 increased 116.1 per cent. The value of the product in 1900 was $40,431,000, and 26,4l8 wage-earners, or 1.7 per cent. of the population, were engaged. Having no large transportation centre, and the water power and mineral resources being of little consequence, the State is at a comparative industrial disadvantage. But the products of her cotton fields and forests supply an abundance of raw materials. The recent development is largely in response to the encouragement extended by the State, through a law passed in 1882 exempting machinery of factories from taxation for ten years.

From the table appended the importance of the industries dependent upon cotton may be seen. The largest of these—the manufacture of cottonseed oil and cake—experienced an increase during the decade of 177.6 per cent. The State contained the first mill of this kind erected in the United States. A less absolute but much larger per cent. of increase was made in cotton-ginning. The largest increase in the cotton goods product was in the period 1870-90; the value in 1870 was only $234,400.

. The State's timbered area in 1900 was estimated at 32,300 square miles, or seven-tenths of its area. The southern third and a narrow strip extending northward consists of pine, the Yazoo bottom of cypress, and most of the remaining portion of hard woods. Very little progress had been made in the exploitation of these forests until the last decade of the nineteenth century, in which period the value of lumber and timber products increased 171.3 per cent. (See table below.) In 1900 over three-fourths of the cut consisted of yellow pine, oak being the most important of the hard woods. The Pascagoula River and Hancock County districts, in the southern part of the