Mississippi

Mississippi in 1934 ranked first among Southern States in lumber production, which stood at 875,000,00o bd. ft., an increase of over 340,000,00o bd. ft. since 1932. In 1934 Mississippi produced 21,174,000 laths and 2,779 squares of shingles. The production of turpentine in 1935-36 amounted to 502,250 gallons.

Fishing is a minor industry, confined for the most part to the Mississippi sound and neighbouring waters. The production of the fisheries in 1934 amounted to 22,153,00o lb. valued at $652,300. The value of the products of the oyster and shrimp canneries in 1933 was $787,000.

The mineral wealth of the State is very limited. Lack of mineral resources, especially of coal and iron, and of a good harbour, until the improvement of Gulfport, discouraged manufacturing.

The 746 industrial establishments operating within the State in 1933 gave employment to 27,823 wage-earners and had a product valued at $72,547,411. Compared with 1929 these figures show a decrease in the number of industries and wage-earners; the de cline in output amounted to $146,527,878. The chief products and their values were as follows : lumber and other timber products, $16,944,530; cotton seed oil, cake and meal, $11,750,439; cotton goods, $4,674,872 ; men's work clothing, ; construction and repair done in steam railway shops, $2,030,000; planing mill products, $1,772,000; wood preserving, $1,672,000. Laurel, Jack son, Meridian, and Vicksburg are the industrial centres.

Except for the artificial harbour of Gulfport, the water along the Gulf coast is too shallow for any but small boats. The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company, with the co-operation of the U.S. Government, in 1901 began to dredge a channel 30o ft. wide and 19 ft. deep at mean low tide, and to construct an anchorage basin at Gulfport, z m. long by 4 m. wide and 19 ft. deep. By June 1908, the maximum low water draft of the channel and the basin was 19 ft., but since that time it has been increased to 23 feet. Gulfport is the chief shipping point for Mississippi lumber and also exports much cotton. Along the western border of the State, the Mississippi river is navigable for river steamboats. The first railway in Mississippi was completed from Woodville, Miss., to St. Francisville, La., in 1837, but the State had suffered severely from the panic of 1837, and in 1850 it had only 75 m. of railway. In 1934 the total was 4,075 miles. There were 6,12o m. of high way under the control of the State highway department at the end of 1934. Of this total 3,8o8 m. were classified as surfaced.

History.

At the beginning of the 16th century the territory included in the present State of Mississippi was inhabited by three powerful native tribes : the Natchez in the S.W., the Choctaws in the S.E. and centre, and the Chickasaws in the north. In addition, there were the Yazoos in the Yazoo valley, the Pascagoulas, the Biloxis and a few weaker tribes on the bor ders of the Mississippi sound. The history of Mississippi may be divided into the period of exploration (1540-1699), the period of French rule (1699-1763), the period of English rule (1763-81), the period of Spanish rule (1781-98), the territorial period (1798– 1817), and the period of statehood (181.7 et seq.).

Hernando de Soto (q.v.) and a group of Spanish adventurers crossed the Tombigbee river, in Dec. i54o, near the present city of Columbus, marched through the north part of the State, and reached the Mississippi river in what is now Tunica county, Mis sissippi, in 1541. In 1673 a French expedition, organized in Canada under Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, sailed down the Mis sissippi to the mouth of the Arkansas. Nine years later (1682) Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de la Salle, reached the mouth of the river, took formal possession of the country which it drains, and named it Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV. The first European settlement in Mississippi was founded in 1699 by Pierre Lemoyne, better known as Iberville, at Ft. Maurepas (Old Biloxi) on the east side of Biloxi bay, in what is now Ocean Springs, Jackson county. The site proving unfavourable, the colony moved to Twenty-seven Mile Bluff, on the Mobile river, in 1702, and later to Mobile (1710). The oldest permanent settlements in the State are (New) Biloxi (c. 172o), situated across the bay from Old Biloxi and nearer to the Gulf, and Natchez or Ft. Rosalie (1716). During the next few years Ft. St. Peter and a small adjoining colony were established on the Yazoo river in Warren county, and some attempts at settlement were made on Bay St. Louis and Pascagoula bay. The efforts (1712-21) to foster colonization and commerce through trading corporations established by Antoine Crozat and John Law failed, and the colony soon came again under the direct control of the king. In 1729-30 the Natchez tribe destroyed Ft. St. Peter and some of the small outposts.