MISSISSIPPI ■€/J PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1891. MISSISSIPPI I X --^sw^ ^ 4 life Or CO,--;- . '^. "^V^^'J PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY \891. Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. JOURNEY THROUGH TEXAS SADDLE-TRIP ON THE SOUTHWESTERN FRONTIER: STATISTICAL APPENDIX. BY FEEDERICK LAW OLMSTETv v\ AUTHOR OF " A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES," "walks and TALKS OF AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND," ETC., ETC NEW YOKK: MASON BROTHERS, 108 & 110 DUANE STREET. 18 5 9. ( Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1857, by F. L. OLMSTED, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. MISSISSIPPI. Mississippi, one of the Gulf States of the American Union, lies west of Alabama and south of western Tennessee, and is bounded on the W. by the Missis- sippi River. Length, north to south, 335 miles; width, 150 miles. Area, 46,810 sq. m. The surface, except in the Yazoo delta, is generally hilly, though nowhere mountainous, the highest hills being only 800 feet above the sea-level. There are three distinct water- sheds ; the eastern counties are drained by the Tom- bigbee and its tributaries ; the Pearl, Pascagoula, and Escatawpa with their affluents drain the central and south-eastern portion; and the Homochitto, Big Black, and Yazoo carry the water of the western and northern counties into the Mississippi. The Orange- sand formation (Post-Tertiary, 40 to 60 and even 200 feet thick) characterises the greater portion of the surface of the state, and forms the main body of the hills and ridges. It is usually coloured with hydrated peroxide of iron, or yellow ochre, and presents an endless variety of tints. Ferruginous sandstones, capping the tops of hills and thereby preventing denu- dation, are found in all sections covered by the Orange- A MISSISSIPPI. sand formation. Gravel beds also abound, as well as beds of pipeclay, and of ochreous clays used for paints ; and there are also vast beds of lignite of excellent quality, and marls which are used as ingredients of commercial fertilisers. There are mineral springs in different portions of the state. Mississippi is essentially an agricultural state. The north-eastern prairie region, 70 miles long and from 15 to 20 wide, with its fertile, black, calcareous soil, contains much of the best farming and grazing land in the state. There are no springs here, but cisterns dug in the rotten limestone, bored wells, and artesian wells furnish ample water. In the north the bottom lands along the numerous creeks and rivers especially are well adapted to agriculture; while in the central portion stock-raising is carried on, and in the yellow- pine region large herds of sheep are raised. The yellow pine ranks first among the forest trees of Mis- sissippi ; it extends northward from the coast for 150 miles. The Yazoo Delta, embracing the elliptical area of alluvial bottoms between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, extending from Vicksburg to the state line on the north, has until within recent years been subject to inundations; but levees now protect the lands, and the rise in the Mississippi in 1890 — the highest and most prolonged ever known — left the levees unbroken except in four places which together were less than a mile in extent. Less than 15 per cent, of the delta was overflowed. The delta's drainage flows into lakes, small but numerous, which form the head-waters of other bayous, and through them after miles of mean- dering find outlets into the Yazoo and other streams. MISSISSIPPI. 5 The delta contains 41^ millions of acres of alluvial land, only 500,000 acres of which are under cultiva- tion. Virgin forests of hardwoods cover the rest. For the state, the annual production of cotton is about 900,000 bales, of corn 28,000,000 bushels, and of oats 4,000,000 bushels. The fruits and vegetables shipped in 1890 were valued at ;^ 1, 000,000. This industry flourishes in the central and southern por- tions. The winters in Mississippi are short and mild, the mean temperature 45° F. ; the summers are devoid of intense heat, the mean 81°, seldom reaching 100°. Ice from one to two inches thick forms in the northern part of the state. The elevation of the surface and the Gulf breezes render the climate delightful during most of the year. The annual rainfall ranges from 48 to 58 inches. The death-rate is very low — 12*9 in 1000. Mississippi sends seven representatives to congress. The state legislature is composed of 145 representa- tives and 45 senators, elected quadrennially. There are three supreme judges, appointed for nine years by the governor, and circuit and chancery judges, ap- pointed for four years. The public schools are main- tained four months annually by the state, but forty towns and cities maintain graded schools for ten months a year. Separate schools are maintained for the coloured race. There are enrolled 148,435 white and 173,552 coloured children: average daily attend- ance — white, 90,716; coloured, 101,710. The state supports the university at Oxford (1844), agricultural and mechanical college at Starkville (1878), industrial 5 MISSISSIPPI. institute and college at Columbus (1844; ^o^ white girls), a college for coloured youth at Rodney, and a normal school at Holly Springs, for training coloured teachers. There are also private universities and col- leges, for both white and coloured youth, besides 155 high schools and academies. Institutions for the deaf and dumb (icx)) and the bhnd (50) are at Jackson, the capital ; there also are the state penitentiary (500) and the lunatic asylum (550). History, — Mississippi was first settled by the French, and constituted a part of Louisiana. Iberville planted the first colony at Biloxi in 1699. It was ceded to Great Britain in 1763 ; was admitted into the Union as a state, December 10, 18 17; seceded January 9, 1 86 1 (principal battles during the civil war, Corinth, Baker's Creek, Holly Spring, luka, siege of Vicks- burg); was readmitted into the Union, 1869. In 1890 there were 2475 miles of railway in the state. Vicks- burg, Greenville, and Natchez are principal ports on the Mississippi River, and Pascagoula and Biloxi on the Gulf Cotton-factories are located at Wesson (value 3 millions), Columbus, Natchez, Enterprise, Meridian, Water Valley, Carrollton, and Corinth; wood-factories at Jackson and Meridian. Pop. (1820) 75,448; (1850) 605,948; (1880) 1,131,597; (1890) 1,289,600. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ■ 014 542 450 1 I